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Article: Byron and the Scottish Spenserians.(George Gordon, Lord Byron)(Critical essay)
- Article from:
- Studies in Romanticism
- Article date:
- March 22, 2008
- Author:
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Poems in Series
"I SING THE SOFA," BEGINS THE TASK. COWPER WAS ASSIGNED THIS TOPIC by a lady fond of blank verse: "He obeyed; and having much leisure, connected another subject with it; and pursuing the train of thought, to which his situation and turn of mind led him, brought forth at length, instead of the trifle which he at first intended, a serious affair--a volume" (2:113). (1) Childe Harold, which likewise "makes no pretension to regularity," also begins its meandering course in burlesque (2: 4). (2) These opening frames, Miltonic and Spenserian, set the pitch for the digressive songs to follow. Their peculiar resonance may fail faint on ears more familiar ...