ABSTRACT

The poetry of politics is displaced by the politics of poetry. Since, however, Southey is poet laureate, a government appointment, the politics of poetry is also politics. Byron's poetry of politics is affected by two very basic means. The first is narrative device and the second is sheer poetic accomplishment. Politics and poetics are suddenly connected as by an electric charge between two poles. Politics has always had as much to do with envisioned futures as with political presents and cherished or detested memories. The Prophecy of Dantes version of history is golden and brazen, separated and mixed, but it certainly intimates an energy and vision that cannot leave a political world unaffected whatever the evidence to the contrary. The political history of Italy from 1300 to 1600 is a disaster. The country has been continually invaded, and Italians have not put up much resistance.