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1 - Milton and Byron

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 September 2009

Jerome McGann
Affiliation:
University of Virginia
James Soderholm
Affiliation:
Charles University, Prague
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Summary

I am too happy in being coupled in any way with Milton, and shall be glad if they find any points of comparison between him and me.

Byron to Thomas Medwin

When we think of Milton's influence upon English Romanticism the poets who first come to mind are Blake, Wordsworth, Keats, and perhaps Shelley. As for Byron, Milton rightly seems an altogether less dominating forebear since we remember only too well his distaste for blank verse, even Milton's blank verse:

Blank verse, … [except] in the drama, no one except Milton ever wrote who could rhyme … I am aware that Johnson has said, after some hesitation, that he could not “prevail upon himself to wish that Milton had been a rhymer” …; but, with all humility, I am not persuaded that the Paradise Lost would not have been more nobly conveyed to posterity … in the Stanza of Spenser or of Tasso, or in the terza rima of Dante, which the powers of Milton could easily have grafted on our language.

Byron had a number of other criticisms of Milton's poetic craftsmanship, so one is not surprised that Milton did not haunt his work. Nevertheless, Milton's importance for Byron, both in his art and his life, was by no means insignificant.

To speak of Milton's influence upon Byron is, I believe, immediately to close the discussion under two principal headings.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2002

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  • Milton and Byron
  • Jerome McGann, University of Virginia
  • Edited by James Soderholm, Charles University, Prague
  • Book: Byron and Romanticism
  • Online publication: 22 September 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511484384.002
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  • Milton and Byron
  • Jerome McGann, University of Virginia
  • Edited by James Soderholm, Charles University, Prague
  • Book: Byron and Romanticism
  • Online publication: 22 September 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511484384.002
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Milton and Byron
  • Jerome McGann, University of Virginia
  • Edited by James Soderholm, Charles University, Prague
  • Book: Byron and Romanticism
  • Online publication: 22 September 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511484384.002
Available formats
×