ABSTRACT
It is a commonplace of criticism to distinguish between the poetry which Byron composed before his final departure from England in 1816 and the poetry of his later years. The break in continuity was not complete. He vacillated between rationalism and romantic illusionism, between respect for convention and defiant revolt, between loyalty to the old classicism and adherence to the new fashions in poetry. There are satiric elements in his romantic poems; and, conversely, there are romantic passages in his satires. 1
