Poetry and politics : Byron’s poetic presentation of the east

Abstract AR

This paper deals with Byron’s poetic presentation of political life in the East.

The examination of such works like Childe Harold, The Siege of Corinth, Don Juan, and The Age of Bronze, shows that the image of the Muslim as tyrant was poetically exploited by Byron specifically in the period between 1809 and 1815 when revolutionary movements were spreading throughout Europe, and when the political issues and implications of the new forces of nationalism and freedom were difficult to be fully fathomed or comprehended.

The theme of the tyrannical Orient provided Byron then with the possibility to address, or resolved, the contradictions that resulted from dealing with the new liberal ideas of nationalism and freedom that rocked Europe at the time, threatening its old political system.

After 1816, as Byron developed into political maturity, becoming more international in his thinking, the East/West demarcation in his poetry became less clear allowing him to be more objective in his political representation of the East