Poem
The destruction of Sennacherib
The Assyrian came
down like the wolf on the fold,
And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and
gold;
And the sheen of
their spears was like stars on the sea,
When the blue wave
rolls nightly on deep
Like the leaves of
the forest when Summer is green,
That host with
their banners at sunset were seen:
Like the leaves of
the forest when Autumn hath blown,
That host on the
morrow lay withered and strown.
For the Angel of
Death spread his wings on the blast,
And breathed in
the face of the foe as he passed;
And the eyes of
the sleepers waxed deadly and chill,
And their hearts
but once heaved, and for ever grew still!
And there lay the
steed with this nostril all wide,
But through it
there rolled no the breath of his pride;
And the foam of
his gasping lay white on the sturf,
And cold as the
spray of the rock-beating surf.
And there lay the
rider distorted and pale,
With the dew on
his brow, and the rust on his mail:
And the tents were
all silent, the banners alone,
The lances
unlifted, the trumpet unblown.
And the widows of
Ashur are loud in their wail,
And the idols are
broke in the
And the might of
the Gentile, unsmote by the sword,
Hath melted like
snow in the glance of the Lord!
THE DESTRUCTION OF SENNACHERIB, first published in 1815
Source: http://englishhistory.net/byron/poems/destruct.html
Analysis
George Gordon Lord Byron (1778 – 1824), was one of the most notorious
Romantic poet. One of the main characteristics of this brilliant poet is that
‘in his works short and stout Byron glorified proud heroes, who overcome
hardships‘ (Lord Byron, 2000, http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/byron.htm.
Day of access: May 6th)
This poem talks about a battle that took place in Sennacherib, as the
title let us know. It is divided in six stanzas having four verses each one.
In the first stanza Byron is talking about a special Assyrian, not about
a usual one. We can know this because he refers to him as ‘The Assyrian’ (line
1). The article ‘the’ is giving a special meaning to this man.
Byron is using special words to refer to him, adjectives that highlight
the richness and the nobility of that Assyrian man. These adjectives are
‘gleaming’ and ‘gold’ (line 2), and ‘sheen’ and ‘stars’ (line 3).
This first stanza is making the reader be aware that these soldiers were
ready to go to the battlefield, and the author is preparing us to feel
psychologically prepared for the battle too.
In line 1 Byron writes ‘The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the
fold’. This may refer to how the Assyrian felt in that moment. Wolfs are furious
animals, and that is how he felt, furious and willing to fight.
In the second stanza Byron is referring to how the land looked before
the battle and how it looks after it. Lines 5 and 6 describe a beautiful forest
in summer, with trees full of leaves and lines 7 and 8 talks about that forest
in autumn, where trees have lost their leaves. This is a metaphor used by Byron
to make reference to the soldiers. The land was full of soldiers before the
battle, but they are all gone after the fight.
Byron is comparing things with nature, so that it may be easier for the
reader to feel what he wants to explain, for that we can understand the meaning
better. Some of these words referring to Nature are: ‘stars’ (line 3), ‘sea’
(line 3), ‘wave’ (line 4), ‘leaves’ (line 5), ‘forest’ (line 5), ‘Summer’ (line
5), ‘Autumn’ (line 7).
In the third stanza he explains the way the Assyrian fights. He was a
great soldier so he was capable of killing every person that passed by him, as
if he was an ‘Angel of death’ (line 9). He says this Angel ‘spread his wings on
the blast’. This makes the reader think of him as if he were a beast. The
soldiers were afraid of him. They were aware of how good the Assyrian was
fighting, almost invincible. They felt fear towards the Assyrian and this is
reflected in lines 12 ‘and their hearts but once heaved, and for ever grew
still!’
In the fourth stanza we find Byron describing a horse of an enemy lying,
as a sign of defeat in front of the winners. Byron is also describing how the
landscape looked after the battle. He is making use of Nature again to make a
comparison, ‘cold as the spray of the rock-beating surf’ (line 16).
In the next stanza, I lines 17 and 18, he is talking about the rider of
the dead horse mentioned in line 13. This rider is dead, he was ‘distorted and
pale’ (line 17). In lines 19 and 20 the author is naming things that make us
think of a defeat, such as the empty tents and the banners, ‘the tents were all
silent, the banners alone’ (line 19).
The last stanza evokes the defeated people again. Now we find the widows
crying because they have lost their husbands in the battles, they are
dead. He uses Nature again in the last
line of the poem, ‘hath melted like snow’ (line 24).
The general impression I get after reading this poem is that Byron gives
a very good description about the passing of the battle. This description is
helped by the use of adjectives that make the description more complete.