As Byron frequently wrote in the white heat of passionate revolt, his verse shows the effects of lack of restraint.  Unfortunately he did not afterwards take the trouble to improve his subject matter, or the mold in which it was cast.  Swinburne says, “His verse stumbles and jingles, stammers and halts, where is most need for a swift and even pace of musical sound.”

[Illustration:  BYRON’S HOME AT PISA.]

The great power of Byron’s poetry consists in its wealth of expression, its vigor, its rush and volume of sound, its variety, and its passion.  Lines like the following show the vigorous flow of the verse, the love for lonely scenery, and a wealth of figurative expression:—­

“Mont Blanc is the monarch of mountains,
They crowned him long ago
On a throne of rocks, in a robe of clouds
With a diadem of snow."[19]

Scattered through his works we find rare gems, such as the following—­

                                 “...when
  Music arose with its voluptuous swell,
    Soft eyes looked love to eyes which spake again,
  And all went merry as a marriage bell."[20]

We may also frequently note the working of an acute intellect, as, for instance, in the lines in which he calls his own gloomy type of mind—­

                  “...the telescope of truth,

Which strips the distance of its phantasies,
And brings life near in utter nakedness,
Making the cold reality too real!"[21]

The answers to two questions which are frequently asked, will throw more light on Byron’s characteristics:—­

I. Why has his poetic fame in England decreased so much from the estimate of his contemporaries, by whom he seemed worthy of a place beside Goethe?  The answer is to be sought in the fact that Byron reflected so powerfully the mood of that special time.  That reactionary period in history has passed and with it much of Byron’s influence and fame.  He was, unlike Shakespeare, specially fitted to minister to a certain age.  Again, much of Byron’s verse is rhetorical, and that kind of poetry does not wear well.  On the other hand, we might reread Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Milton’s Lycidas, and Wordsworth’s Intimations of Immortality every month for a lifetime, and discover some new beauty and truth at every reading.

II.  Why does the continent of Europe class Byron among the very greatest English poets, next even to Shakespeare?  It is because Europe was yearning for more liberty, and Byron’s words and blows for freedom aroused her at an opportune moment.  Historians of continental literature find his powerful impress on the thought of that time.  Georg Brandes, a noted European critic, says:—­