Childe Harold\'s Pilgrimage the Byronic

Childe Harold's Pilgrimage

The Byronic Hero

Childe Harold's Pilgrimage is a long poem that speaks of the life of the narrator. Reading the poem, the characteristic of Byron in the beginning seems that of an independent but brave individual who travels the journey of his lonely life. This was shown in the first two stanzas of the poem, as follows.

And then we parted, -- not as now we part,

But with a hope

Once more upon the waters! yet once more!

And the waves bound beneath me as a steed

That knows his rider. Welcome, to their roar!

Byron, the narrator of the poem, experienced a life that is full of pain and sorrow during his young years. Such experiences turned him into a cautious man that is careful of things that can cause him pain. This was indicated when the poem states the following.

He, who grown aged in this world of woe,

In deeds, not years, piercing the depths of life,

So that no wonder waits him; nor below Can love, or sorrow, fame, ambition, strife,

Cut to his heart again with the keen knife

Still, though, our hero in the poem bears the sorrows of his past but keeps on fighting such memories and telling to his self to accept the past and face his present life. Byron tries to change and leave the kind of life, which haunts him from time to time, that he had during his youth. The following line indicates this.

Yet with a nobler aim than in his youth's fond prime.

The narrator's courage was made obvious when information about the battles were told. Even at the first part of the poem, his determination to face the sea, perhaps to go in the battle, demonstrated how courageous Byron is. He was also aware of the politics that occur in his time, and was concern of how those with powers fight against each other to conquer their desire of owning nations.

Fit retribution! Gaul may champ the bit

And foam in fetters; -- but is Earth more free?

Did nations combat to make One submit;

Or league to teach all kings true sovereignty?

In the middle part of the poem, Byron's nobility was shown as he gives respect and credit to people who did honorable deeds, saying that But these are deeds which should not ass away,

And names that must not wither, though the earth

Forgets her empires with a just decay,

The enslavers and the enslaved, their death and birth;

Moreoever, despite of all the loneliness and pain that the narrator had experienced, from his youth up to his old age, as well as those that he witnessed in others' lives, he demonstrated in the near end of the poem his acceptance of everything as he started to realize that there is still happiness in the other end of his tunnel. The following indicates this.