CARLOS MANUEL
MARTINHO LAJARIN POESÍA DE LOS SIGLOS XIX Y XX
GRUPO
– A
LORD BYRON - THE DESTRUCTION OF SENNACHERIB-
As we can see in the title, this poem of Lord
Byron is about the destruction of Sennacherib. And this title gives us a clue
about what we are going to read.
My first impression reading the poem
was that the poem was easy to read, so understandable.But the use of metaphors
will give another sense to the poem.
In this
poem, Lord Byron is using an everyday language that can be understood by
anyone, but the poem has some difficult words. The poem is divided in six paragraphs
with four lines each one, and the rhyme is aa
bb.
The first
line of the poem is a metaphor.It is telling us that the attack was brave, with
no mercy and that it was very quickly like the attack of a wolf on the fold.
The next
lines of the first paragraph are obviously talking about the dress of the
soldiers. They shine because it is an
important army and were dressed and ready for the battle.
The second
paragraph is a metaphor itself. It refers that the army came very rapidly. Like
there was no time to react. Probably this pargraph is also trying to say that
the battle was brave and very tired, because the comparison between the leaves
in the seasons. First the leaves ( the soldiers) were “like the leaves of the
forest when summer is green, but at the end they were “like the leaves of the
forest when Autumn hath blown”, that comparison is telling us that was a hard
battle.
In the two
first lines of the third paragraph, the author is comparing the attack with the
Angel of Death. When Byron says: “ And breathed in the face of the foe as he
passed” is telling us that they had no mercy, and they killed everyone. The
next two lines are talking about the fear of the people.
In the
fourth paragraph the poet describes an image of the battle. Introduces us in
the landscape of the situation. Talks about a horse that was brave but it was
useless, because now it is laying on the ground. And Byron is describing that
image of defeat represented by a horse that lays on the ground.
In the fifth
paragraph the author describes the image of a defeated man. It is the image of
a dead rider of the horse that was mentioned in the fourth paragraph. I think
that with the description: “ there lay the rider distorted and pale”, the
author represents very well the cruelty and the consequences of the attack. And
also in this paragraph Byron describes the landscape that surround the rider.
With the
adjectives “ silent” and “ alone” we can imagine the place of the battle.
In the
first line of the last paragraph when the author says: “ the widows of Ashur
are loud in their wail”, that means that they are crying for their husbands
that died in the battle. And finally in the last three lines of the poem, the
author tries to say that there is no hope. There are no idols. Everyone is
death.
CONCLUSION: In this poem Lord Byron is trying to describe
the landscape after a battle. It is all the time describing an image, it is
like a painting. And also the poet descibes the defeated souls of the people.