Lord Byron’s ‘Solitude‘ is a declaration of faith in the beauty of nature which is presented as a peaceful and restorative place. In contrast, Byron depicts busy life to be strangely isolating as, in spite of the close physical proximity of other people, it is easy to feel lonely in these environments.
Solitude Lord ByronTo sit on rocks, to muse o'er flood and fell,To slowly trace the forest's shady scene,Where things that own not man's dominion dwell,And mortal foot hath ne'er or rarely been;To climb the trackless mountain all unseen,With the wild flock that never needs a fold;Alone o'er steeps and foaming falls to lean;This is not solitude, 'tis but to holdConverse with Nature's charms, and view her stores unrolled.But midst the crowd, the hurry, the shock of men,To hear, to see, to feel and to possess,And roam alone, the world's tired denizen,With none who bless us, none whom we can bless;Minions of splendour shrinking from distress!None that, with kindred consciousness endued,If we were not, would seem to smile the lessOf all the flattered, followed, sought and sued;This is to be alone; this, this is solitude!
Summary
‘Solitude‘ challenges the readers’ expectations of where a person is most likely to feel lonely and isolated.
The first stanza describes the feeling of being immersed in nature, far away from human influence and civilization. Despite the lack of human contact, Byron stresses that this is not solitude because nature is a fitting companion. Conversely, the second stanza describes a busy crowd of people, presumably in an urban setting.
Rather than the wide expanse of nature, Byron claims that it is the city that evokes feelings of loneliness and isolation, particularly if a person is surrounded by people that are not dear to them. Thus the poem suggests that it is the quality of a person’s relationship with a person or place that determines whether they will feel lonely in their company rather than the number.
Context
Few writers have left a legacy as well known as Lord Byron, who, in his thirty-six years, helped define the concept of a poet in everyday culture. Born in 1788 to a wealthy and titled family, Byron was one of the most significant figures in the Romantic movement, alongside Percy Shelley, John Keats, and William Wordsworth. Like these poets, Byron’s poetry often extolled the virtue and beauty of the natural world, as demonstrated in ‘Solitude.’
His life was marked by controversy on account of his many romantic and sexual scandals, which eventually led him to leave England entirely. He died fighting in the Greek War of Independence in 1824, having left England for the last time in 1816. Today, he is regarded as one of England’s finest-ever poets, as well as featured heavily in the canon of European literature more broadly.
Detailed Analysis
Stanza One
To sit on rocks, to muse o’er flood and fell,
To slowly trace the forest’s shady scene,
Where things that own not man’s dominion dwell,
And mortal foot hath ne’er or rarely been;
To climb the trackless mountain all unseen,
With the wild flock that never needs a fold;
Alone o’er steeps and foaming falls to lean;
This is not solitude, ’tis but to hold
Converse with nature’s charms, and view her stores unrolled.
The listlike nature of the opening stanza serves to illustrate the abundance of nature and the myriad ways it can help a person feel at ease. The hyperbolic description of a place where “mortal foot hath ne’er or rarely been” might ordinarily be intended to frighten the reader. However, Byron’s narrator is rejuvenated by these places precisely because they are remote and, therefore, unspoiled by human contact.
The poet’s use of sibilance in line two and alliteration in line seven create a sense of flow and continuity, which implies Byron viewed nature as coherent, perhaps in contrast to the fragmented experience of urban life.
These implications are made explicit through Byron’s declarative statement in the eighth line, which serves to subvert the readers’ expectations as they would likely have considered the aforementioned descriptions to pertain to solitude. Instead, Byron personifies nature in the final line by suggesting humans can converse with it as they would another person, thus ensuring that one is never lonely when surrounded by nature.
Stanza Two
But midst the crowd, the hurry, the shock of men,
To hear, to see, to feel and to possess,
And roam alone, the world’s tired denizen,
With none who bless us, none whom we can bless;
Minions of splendour shrinking from distress!
None that, with kindred consciousness endued,
If we were not, would seem to smile the less
Of all the flattered, followed, sought and sued;
This is to be alone; this, this is solitude!
The second stanza begins with a similar asyndetic list to the previous one, perhaps encouraging the reader to assume it will offer the same conclusion. However, it quickly becomes clear that, unlike being immersed in nature, busy urban life is simultaneously overwhelming and lonely for the narrator. This is reinforced in the second line, where Byron evokes sensory overload and thus imbues the stanza with a claustrophobic sense of panic.
Byron’s decision to juxtapose the isolated narrator with the seemingly countless “minions of splendour” further emphasizes his view that physical proximity to others is irrelevant when it comes to determining how isolated a person will feel. In spite of the press of bodies around them, the narrator feels more alone than they did in nature. The caesura in the final line reinforces the poet’s argument by offering additional weight and gravitas to the statement.
FAQs
Written over two stanzas, the poem’s structure mirrors the absolute divide in the narrator’s mind throughout, as their feelings towards nature and human society are binary opposites. Byron’s use of rhyme creates an echoic effect which, in the first stanza, could mirror the cyclical nature of the rural world. However, in the second stanza, the echoic effect could imply the narrator is surrounded by voices and cannot escape them.
A denizen can refer to a person, animal, or plant that comes from a particular place. Historically, it has also meant a foreigner who has attained certain rights or privileges in their adopted country.
Similar Poetry
Readers who enjoyed ‘Solitude‘ might want to explore other Lord Byron poems. For example:
- ‘Darkness‘ – A poetic warning against human greed and the abuse of the working class.
- ‘She Walks in Beauty‘ – One of Byron’s most iconic poems, it extols the beauty of a woman as she passed by.
Some other poems that may be of interest include:
- ‘The Lonely Soul‘ by Raphael Armattoe – Another poetic mediation on loneliness, specifically on the ironic fact it affects us all.
- ‘I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud‘ by William Wordsworth – A fellow Romantic poet, Wordsworth’s poem is among the most famous ever written.
