Page 20 - GALIET EMPATHY and Byron´s Hero IV
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and who belong to the brotherhood of Cain.28 Once the vial and the daemonic spell are poured, bound he shall be to that ‘clankless chain:’ O withering and restless destiny where neither slumbers nor death avails.29
Invisible chain of despair 3⁄4 hopelessness 3⁄4 whose tears and tears, unseen, cling around Childe Harold’s30 twilight dwelling, amidst caricatures: sombre shadows and dehumanized beings that are stern, weary, and restless.31 Childe Harold, like Manfred, protests lack of freedom,32 slavery and servility to the ‘tyrant spirit of thought’ and ‘of thrones.’33 Human nature, thus cursed, conceals love, hate and every feeling, purpose, grief and zeal.34 In his universal despair for the unattainable dream, Byron’s wistful Hero dwells in a shattered guise, a broken mirror, and aches with perennial sorrow:
“Even as a broken Mirror, which the glass In every fragment multiplies 3⁄4 and makes
28Manfred,I.1.242-250.Heath,William. MajorBritishPoetsoftheRomanticPeriod. NewYork:McMillan Publishing Co., 1973.
29Manfred,I.2.251-260.Heath,William. MajorBritishPoetsoftheRomanticPeriod. NewYork:McMillan Publishing Co., 1973.
30 Childe Harold. III.77-78. Heath, William. Major British Poets of the Romantic Period. New York: McMillan Publishing Co., 1973.
31 Childe Harold. III. Stanza 16. Heath, William. Major British Poets of the Romantic Period. New York: McMillan Publishing Co., 1973.
32 Childe Harold. III.61. Heath, William. Major British Poets of the Romantic Period. New York: McMillan Publishing Co., 1973.
33 Childe Harold. III.171. Heath, William. Major British Poets of the Romantic Period. New York: McMillan Publishing Co., 1973.
34 Childe Harold. III.109, 114, 111. Heath, William. Major British Poets of the Romantic Period. New York: McMillan Publishing Co., 1973.
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