Season 7 · Episode 9

On Satire: Byron's 'Don Juan'

Few poets have had the courage (or inclination) to rhyme ‘Plato’ with ‘potato’, ‘intellectual’ with ‘hen-peck’d you all’ or ‘Acropolis’ with ‘Constantinople is’. Byron does all of these in&nbsp;Don Juan, his 16,000-line unfinished mock epic that presents itself as a grand satire on human vanity in the tradition of Cervantes, Swift and the Stoics, and refuses to take anything seriously for longer than a stanza. But is there more to&nbsp;Don Juan&nbsp;than an attention-seeking poet sustaining a deliberately difficult verse form for longer than&nbsp;Paradise Lost&nbsp;in order ‘to laugh at all things’? In this episode Clare and Colin argue that there is: they see in&nbsp;Don Juan&nbsp;a satire whose radical openness challenges the plague of ‘cant’ in Regency society but drags itself into its own line of fire in the process, leaving the poet caught in a struggle against the sinfulness of his own poetic power, haunted by its own wrongness.Non-subscribers will only hear an extract from this episode. To listen to the full episode, and all our other Close Readings series, subscribe:Directly in Apple Podcasts: <a href="https://apple.co/4dbjbjG" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://apple.co/4dbjbjG</a>In other podcast apps: <a href="https://lrb.me/satiresignuppod" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">lrb.me/closereadings</a>Read more in the LRB:Clare Bucknell: Rescuing Lord Byron<a href="https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v45/n23/clare-bucknell/his-own-dark-mind" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v45/n23/clare-bucknell/his-own-dark-mind</a>Marilyn Butler: Success<a href="https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v04/n21/marilyn-butler/success" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v04/n21/marilyn-butler/success</a>John Mullan: Hidden Consequences<a href="https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v25/n21/john-mullan/hidden-consequences" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v25/n21/john-mullan/hidden-consequences</a>Thomas Jones: On Top of Everything<a href="https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v21/n18/thomas-jones/on-top-of-everything" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v21/n18/thomas-jones/on-top-of-everything</a> Get in touch: [email protected]<hr> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.

Close Readings

September 4, 202418m 39s

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Show Notes

Few poets have had the courage (or inclination) to rhyme ‘Plato’ with ‘potato’, ‘intellectual’ with ‘hen-peck’d you all’ or ‘Acropolis’ with ‘Constantinople is’. Byron does all of these in Don Juan, his 16,000-line unfinished mock epic that presents itself as a grand satire on human vanity in the tradition of Cervantes, Swift and the Stoics, and refuses to take anything seriously for longer than a stanza. But is there more to Don Juan than an attention-seeking poet sustaining a deliberately difficult verse form for longer than Paradise Lost in order ‘to laugh at all things’? In this episode Clare and Colin argue that there is: they see in Don Juan a satire whose radical openness challenges the plague of ‘cant’ in Regency society but drags itself into its own line of fire in the process, leaving the poet caught in a struggle against the sinfulness of his own poetic power, haunted by its own wrongness.

Non-subscribers will only hear an extract from this episode. To listen to the full episode, and all our other Close Readings series, subscribe:

Directly in Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/4dbjbjG

In other podcast apps: lrb.me/closereadings