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Darkness And The Prisoner Of Chillon – Comparing And Contrasting Essay, Research Paper

IntroductionIn this essay I will be discussing the similarities and differences between two poems written by Lord Byron in 1816, ?Darkness? and ?The Prisoner Of Chillon?.

I expect the poems will be very similar, as Lord Byron was inspired to write both of them on real events. ?Darkness? was inspired by three volcanic explosions in different parts of the world in 1814 and 1815, which threw up masses of dust into the upper atmosphere, which made the summer of 1816 one of the darkest and wettest on record. This fact led Byron to imagine what might happen if the sun was blotted out permanently, and he wrote ?Darkness?.

Another time he went for a trip around Lake Geneva, Switzerland where he was staying with a close friend to escape London society?s hatred. Whilst on his trip he discovered the Castle of Chillon, in which, between 1526 and 1532, a famous Genevan writer called Fran?ois Bonnivard had been imprisoned. Byron hated the idea of anyone being imprisoned for his or her beliefs, as Bonnivard was, so he then wrote ?The Prisoner Of Chillon?.

SimilaritiesByron seems to be obsessed with words ending in ?-ess?, in ?Darkness? he seems to fixate on words ending in ?-less?, but in ?The Prisoner Of Chillon? it is generally words ending in ?-ess?. In ?Darkness? the first example is:

?Rayless, and pathless, and the icy earth

Swung blind and blackening in the moonless air;? lines 4+5

Later in ?Darkness? there is an even better example of his fixation:

?Seasonless, herbless, treeless, manless, lifeless,? line 71

In ?The Prisoner Of Chillon? we don?t see this connection until much later in the poem:

?A sea of stagnant Idleness

Blind – boundless – mute – and motionless.? section 9, lines 249+250

In ?The Prisoner Of Chillon? not only do we see his obsession with ?-ess? words, but he also seems to be fanatical about the word ?no?:

?There were no stars – no earth – no time -

No check – no change – no good – no crime -? section 9, lines 245+246

The effect this has on the poem is a very upsetting and negative mood, as it is constantly telling us that everything has stopped and there is nothing left, not even the pure elements.

In both poems the subject of selfishness is mentioned. In ?Darkness? the selfishness is the world?s wish for light:

?Of this desolation; and all the hearts

Were chill?d into a selfish prayer for light:? lines 8+9

In ?The Prisoner Of Chillon? the selfishness is referring to his wish for death:

?I had no earthly hope – but faith;

And that forbade a selfish death.? section 8, lines 229+230

This gives the reader a feeling of sympathy for the hero, as although these people think they are selfish, really they are just desperate.

In the poems kings are also mentioned. In ?Darkness? the word ?kings? is used as an ironic remark as the people, who were ?kings? who lived in ?palaces? had to watch their houses burn to the ground as they were ?burnt for beacons?:

?And they did live by watchfires – and the thrones,

The palaces of crowned kings – the huts,? lines 10+11

In ?The Prisoner Of Chillon? the prisoner is described as a king in the very last section to show how he was the most powerful of all the races inside his little prison cell and how mice and insects were his subjects:

?And I, the Monarch of each race,

Had power to kill – yet, strange to tell!? section 14, lines 386+387

The effect of having kings in such depressing poems is very confusing, because kings are usually associated with happiness and good fortune, for example, ?a feast fit for a king?. You don?t expect a king to be neither locked up in a prison cell or to be desperately burning their homes for light.

In the two poems the subject of sight is also mentioned. In ?Darkness? sight is obviously important because it is too dark to see people:

?To look once more into each other?s face;? line 15

In ?The Prisoner Of Chillon? sight is also important because of the darkness of the dungeon, so the idea of sight does not only link the two because it mentions sight, but also because they are both directly linked with darkness:

?We could not see each other?s face,

But with that pale and livid light

That made us strangers in our sight;? section 3, lines 51-53

The effect of sight being mentioned in the poems gives a very eerie feeling, because you can begin to imagine being blind, alone, and utterly scared, as not only are you experiencing something horrible, you can?t even see what it is, just total darkness.

Hope is also brought up in both the poems. In ?Darkness? hope is the entire world?s wish for light:

?A fearful hope was all the world contain?d;? line 18

In ?The Prisoner Of Chillon? the prisoner thinks that he doesn?t have hope, he has a much more powerful gift of faith. Reminding us that he has been imprisoned for his beliefs:

?I had no earthly hope – but faith;? section 8, line 229

The idea of hope in these poems is very upsetting, to think that all there is left to do is hope and to leave your life in the hands of your faith and not to be able to do anything about the situation you are in is exceedingly tragic.

Different types of personalities are also mentioned in both poems. In ?Darkness? the personalities refer to how different groups of people cope with the darkness:

?The flashes fell upon them; and some did rest

Their chins upon their clenched hands, and smiled;

And others hurried to and fro, and fed

Their funeral piles with fuel, and look?d up

With mad disquietude on the dull sky,? lines 24-29

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