Lord Byron vs. Caroline Lamb

Throughout his poem, Don Juan Lord Byron is poking fun at other poets, critics, and society. He places himself in a position of elevation, which Caroline Lamb then mocks in her rebuttal poem, A New Canto. Lamb was distraught when Byron broke off their love affair. She was obsessed and stalked him.

The dedication segment of Don Juan is directed towards Robert Southey, and Byron takes the opportunity to make fun of the “Lakers,” or the lake poets in regards to their political stance. (see poem) He also does not leave out mention of the “bluestockings” which Lamb was a part of. (see poem) Once Byron embarks on his first canto, his initial statement makes fun of the traditional epic style. Instead of following suit and beginning in medias res, he proclaims to begin with the birth of his hero and tell about his education and parents for the first canto. The romantic interlude with Julia is also covered in this canto; it is what inevitably causes Don Juan to flee and take board on a ship. In accordance with his mocking of the traditional epic, instead of the hero telling his story, Byron is the narrator. It is as if he is the one sitting around a table telling the story.

A common technique of Byron in this piece is to insert himself within the story and speak directly to the reader (see poem). He includes many tangents, on which he either makes a sneering, yet humorous comment (see poem), or adds in his own experiences or feelings about the topic at hand (see poem). Many times these tangents seem unrelated to the text, (line 1700ish) and only serve as a chance for Byron to say his piece on something he finds interesting or relevant in placing himself as distinct from the rest (line 697). These lines of humor are made more apparent through the rhythmic nature of his rhymes, and the placement of the individual lines (line 320-2). He tends to follow up a serious event or thought by a more trivial and light comment, making the first serious thing seem less heavy (line 752).

Byron introduces many different forms of femininity through the different female characters in the poem. His mother is very good at math and a very learned person in general. (link) This was not the typical form of femininity that was always seen, because an education was hard to come by for some women. Julia, Don Juan’s first lover, is another example of a very different type of woman. Julia is more of a beauty, who has “glossy hair” over her brow, cheeks “all purple with the beam of youth,” but who is also married to a man of fifty (line 490). In her affair with Don Juan, she is portrayed as a more stereotypical woman, her “voice was lost except in sighs, until too late for useful conversation; the tears were gushing gently from her gentle eyes” (line 929-1). The way that Byron deals with Julia, in particular, is telling of the way he dealt with women in his life, such as Lamb. In Line 681, he lightly says as a narrator, “so much for Julia,” trivializing her existence in the poem and moving quickly back to Don Juan. Byron was known for his changing appetite with the women he was involved with. The next woman that Don Juan is intimate with is Haidee, the pirate’s daughter who saves Don Juan when he is washed up on shore. Their love is one of passion, youth, and beauty. However, it begins just as Don Juan believes he will never love another woman as he does Julia. He clung to her letter as if it gave him some hope, and then once he beheld Haidee’s eyes Julia was lost from his memory (line 929).

Other images of femininity arise, throughout the poem as well. In certain descriptions, Don Juan is actually portrayed as quite feminine. He is compared to a flower, and swoons as a young girl would over the “light touch left” on his heart (line 568). Don Juan is so dramatic in his actions dealing with love; so easily tormented “with a wound he could not know, his, like all deep grief, plunged in solitude” (691). These are reactions one would expect from the typical descriptions of young women, but not a strapping young man (line 713). The other man that is feminized through his actions is the carpenter who can no longer fix the boat (line 342-2). Because he cries, his “eyelids as a woman’s be,” but since he has a wife and child it was almost excusable, although necessary to mention according to Byron.

A person’s eyes have been a common image throughout the different pieces I have been comparing, and Byron does not begin to breakdown this trend. Eyes in this poem are full of life, they can tell a story (line 578-1), break language barriers, spark love, and express fear (line 576-2). Eyes are also another point of departure for Byron, in which he takes a tangent to express his opinion of eyes, in line 473 in canto 1 through yet another parenthetical insert (link). The eyes of the sailors become glazed over at one point, and seem reminiscent of the crew in Rime of the Ancient Mariner. It seems that Byron is taking parts of other poets work, and putting them in his, and in a sense saying that he can do it better.

The boat is gendered female, as is common practice, however, the use and treatment of the boat seems telling of the gender differences as well. When the crew finally sees land, they have nowhere to dock the boat so “they ran the boat for shore, and overset her” (line 832-2). Of course, one could look at this reading and claim that I am being too particular. However, I think there is something to be said about the fact that this group of men, who refer to their boat as a “she” felt it ok to aggressively capsize her. She was the one thing that saved them thus far and helped them reach the shore. That being said, I do think that there are times when danger and death are so imminent that one will stoop to anything in order to survive. This just seemed to be an example of a male fraternity banding together, and symbolically ruling over a female figure. In the first canto, something similar to this happened, only the female figure was Julia, and it was her husband Alfonso leading the band of enraged men against her (1100-ish-1).

The majority of the nature images are female; the ocean engulfing and swallowing the seamen is a woman, as is the “wild wind,” and the moon for some examples. The one major male image is the sun, which Byron says is responsible for sexual activity and desire. I wondered if the sun is made male, because men are supposed to have more of a sex drive than women do, and would therefore be beneath a sexual encounter more so than a female sun.

Caroline Lamb’s poem is a response to him dumping her and ending their love affair. It is written in the “persona of Byron,” and tries to mock his tendencies. One that she really picks up on is his way of talking down to the reader, and making swooping statements about those less fortunate and those he sees as prosecuting them (stanza XVI). Lamb also tries to target areas that may be a weakness for Byron, and things that everyone might not know, like the fact that he had to fund his own work in the beginning for it to be published (line 13). She also assumes Byron’s style of subtext within parentheses, to add in a tangential comment about “his” sentiments on the topic (line 14).

Lamb also piggy-backs some of Byron’s descriptions, particularly the ocean as “yawning,” which is how he described it multiple times in Don Juan. (line 98). Byron was known as an atheist, and Lamb uses this knowledge to throw his cynical way of writing about religion back at him in stanzas XIV and XV in particular. She also picks up on the way he criticizes other poets, critics, lawyers, etc…in his work as well when she says, “some poor men’s takes I’ve heard upon my journeys would make a bishop long to roast attorneys!”

There are many allusions to Don Juan and Byron’s life in this poem as well. She refers to the love affair between Don Juan and Haidee, as well as to his desire for fame. However, Lamb throws in her own subtext and hints to the fact that fame is important to her as well (line 201). Without her affair with Byron to place her in the spotlight, it has been questioned whether or not she would have ever won as much acclaim as she has, but clearly she enjoys and desires it (line 216).