Abstract

This essay asks and tries to answer the following question: why were the first two cantos of Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage such a sensational and immediate success in 1812? There were many not dissimilar poems on the battles of the Peninsular War and the past glories of Greece but Byron’s poem must have both brought into view strong, but partly hidden, resonances within his public and shown them something new. The concluding part of the essay tries to show the link between this ‘newness’ and the whole subsequent development of Byron as a poet.

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