Prometheus

“Prometheus” (1816) is a poem by the English Romantic poet Lord Byron (George Gordon) (1788-1824). Written mostly in rhymed iambic tetrameter, the poem presents the Greek titan Prometheus as the archetypal Byronic hero—a genius figure who rebels against authority and represents ideals of the Romantic generation: individualism, sacrifice, rebellion, and suffering. The poem contrasts the heroism of Prometheus in his silent suffering with the tyranny of Zeus, the god who bound Prometheus as punishment for giving humans fire. The poem is written like an ode as it is a poem of address and full of adulation and honor for the titan. The poem is one of Byron’s most famous, though it should be noted that Byron was the most famous poet of his day, and many of his poems continue to be read and studied.

Poet Biography

George Gordon Byron was born in London, England, on January 22, 1788. Byron’s father, Captain John Byron, was an officer in the British Army. He was mostly an absentee father, missing Byron’s birth and abandoning the family when Byron was not yet three years old. He died a few years later in France. Byron’s mother was a major influence on him, shifting from overbearing to loving to mocking throughout Byron’s childhood. Byron was born with a clubbed foot, something that he would remain sensitive about for the rest of his life. However, Byron was also a landed nobleman and inherited Newstead Abbey when he was 10 years old—something he took great pride in.

Byron had a number of early loves, and he often described his passion as violent. He fell in love with various young girls and boys throughout his schooling, and these passions and affairs often distracted him from his studies. His turbulent and passionate love life would continue into adulthood and became the source of much gossip and scandal. Byron attended Trinity College from 1805 to 1808. Though he was considered intellectually promising, he spent most of his time and energy gambling and enjoying the London social scene.

In 1809, Byron took his seat in the House of Lords, and after a minor publication of poems, he published his first poetic success, English Bards and Scotch Reviewers: A Satire (1809). Also in 1809, Byron began traveling outside England, spending time in the Mediterranean and especially Greece. It was here that Byron would begin the poem that would bring him fame, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage (1812-1818) as well as accumulating material that he would use in many of his subsequent poems.

Childe Harold made Byron a star, but his personal life was full of controversy and anguish. Around this time, his mother died, leaving Byron extremely depressed. He also reunited with his half-sister, Augusta Leigh. There were rumors that Byron was having an affair with her, and historians have long presumed that Augusta’s daughter Elizabeth was the child of Augusta and Byron's incestuous union.

Despite the rumors of his relationship with Augusta, Byron married Anne Isabella Milbanke, and the two had one child, Ada Lovelace. The marriage did not last long, as Byron’s eccentricities, temperament, and affairs were too much for Milbanke, who filed for divorce in 1816. At this time, in debt and the subject of rumors and scandal, Byron left England for good.

Byron spent the next few years traveling through Europe. His most famous travels involved the writers Percy Bysshe Shelley, his wife Mary Shelley, and her half-sister Claire Clairmont, with whom Byron had an affair and an illegitimate daughter. Byron’s travels lasted until 1823 when he went to Greece to support the country’s war of independence against the Ottoman Empire. In Greece, Byron spent his last year supporting the independence effort through his massive fortune, and he eventually died there in 1824. He was 36.

Byron composed many well-known poems during his life. In addition to Childe Harold, his works include The Giaour (1813), The Bride of Abydos (1813), The Corsair (1814), Parisina (1816), and Don Juan (1819). Some of his shorter poems are also celebrated, including “She Walks in Beauty” (1814) and “Maid of Athens, ere we part” (1810). Byron’s poems were loved because of their romance and eroticism, and his celebration of the Byronic hero became a major part of his legacy. The Byronic hero is an antihero who is passionate, swashbuckling, gloomy, defiant, and proud. This archetype has persisted in culture since Byron’s death, as has Byron’s legacy as “mad, bad and dangerous to know,” as his scorned lover Lady Caroline Lamb once described him.

Poem Text

Byron, George Gordon. “Prometheus.” 1816. Poetry Foundation.

Summary

The poem opens with an invocation of “Titan!” (Line 1), which also repeats at the beginning of the second stanza. The speaker then summarizes the basic tenants of the myth of Prometheus, saying that the god was punished for pitying humanity. The punishment was “silent suffering, and intense” (Line 6) as a vulture came to eat his liver every day while he was chained to a rock. The speaker claims that this kind of suffering makes the victim cry out in loneliness but is careful “lest the sky / Should have a listener” (Lines 12-13). The speaker says that this sorrow only cries out when it is sure its cries of pain cannot be heard.

In the second stanza, the speaker introduces the conflict between Prometheus and Zeus, the king of the gods who originally punished Prometheus. The speaker describes Zeus in negative terms with phrases like “inexorable Heaven” (Line 18), “deaf tyranny” (Line 19), and “The ruling principle of Hate” (Line 20). The speaker says that Zeus takes pleasure in creating things he can destroy, but he refuses to let Prometheus die. Despite this, the speaker says Prometheus has dealt with this with defiance, as he has not allowed Zeus’s torture to defeat him. Additionally, Prometheus’s gift of foresight allows him to see the future and Zeus’s downfall, but Prometheus will not tell Zeus what he saw. The speaker says that Prometheus’s silence causes so much anxiety in Zeus that “in his hand the lightnings trembled” (Line 34).

The final stanza connects Prometheus’s suffering to humankind. The speaker claims that Prometheus was punished for his kindness and his attempts to help mankind improve. The speaker says that Prometheus’s “patient energy,” “endurance, and repulse / of [. . .] impenetrable Spirit” (Lines 40-42) teaches humanity an important lesson: “Man is in part divine, / A troubled stream from a pure source” (Lines 47-48). Man can see his own miserable future where he will die. Despite this, the speaker declares that man has the power to resist fate, and though defiance causes suffering and struggle, ultimately the human spirit may triumph and make “Death a Victory” (Line 59).