Swimmers, Trimmers, and Jacks of All Trades: Byron's Paradoxical Struggle for Poetic Dominance

摘要

Lord Byron's works display a persistent need to dismiss his literary precursors. Yet this need is also dialectical: Byron first compares himself with these precursors, then demonstrates the ways in which he is superior. This article traces this tendency from its first appearance, in “Written after Swimming from Sestos to Abydos,” through Byron's career-long entanglement with Robert Southey, finally considering the one literary precursor Byron does not dismiss, his grandfather Admiral John Byron. It offers some possible reasons for his determination to repudiate other precursors and, equally, his open embrace of this one.View full textDownload full textRelated var addthis_config = { ui_cobrand: "Taylor & Francis Online", services_compact: "citeulike,netvibes,twitter,technorati,delicious,linkedin,facebook,stumbleupon,digg,google,more", pubid: "ra-4dff56cd6bb1830b" }; Add to shortlist Link Permalink http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10509585.2011.615998