Corsair Analysis

“The Corsair”: is one of the poems that we can relate with the idea of “Byronic hero” and now, I am going to analyse it. First, I have to say that “The Corsair” is a tale told in verse, as it’s very long I have chosen three verses: verses X, XI and XII from the First Canto which is as an introduction of the characters, theirs roles and the story and, of course, the presentation of the protagonist called Conrad.

In that poem Byron used for the first time “heroic couplets for extended romantic narrative rather than for Popean satire. On the day of publication in February 1814 ten thousand copies were sold, "a thing," Murray excitedly assured him, "perfectly unprecedented." Driven by love, the harem queen Gulnare saves Conrad the Corsair from impalement by killing her master the Pasha. Fleeing to the pirate's stronghold, they discover Conrad's beloved Medora dead of heartbreak. United by guilt, Conrad and Gulnare disappear” (http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poet.html?id=81299).

In the first verse I have chosen, the verse X, there is an outward description of our character, his appearance and physical features. Through lines we can imagine an enigmatic character, whose glance could freeze us; a powerful man without doubts, a man can make you to feel awkward only being near to you. I can imagine him in the boat standing up, leant on the thick wood of his boat, looking the sea while he is remembering some past event, but keeping an eye on something strange that could occur. Looking like a true captain. But at the same time a sad man, a man that hides something not happy.

I can create this image thanks to the adjectives and descriptions Byron makes as on:

Line 3 (sadness) – “Love shows all changes-Hate, Ambition, Guile,”

Lines 5 & 6 (hard appearance) – “The lip's least curl, the lightest paleness thrown” 

                                                    “Along the govern'd aspect, speak alone”

Line 10 (firm appearance and sadness) – “The clenched hand, the pause of agony”

Line 11 & 12 (attentive) – “That listens, starting, lest the step too near”

                                           “Approach intrusive on that mood of fear;”

Lines 17 & 18 (powerful) – “Then, Stranger! if thou canst, and tremblest not”

                                            “Behold his soul-the rest that soothes his lot!”

Line 20 (self-critic) – “The scathing thought of execrated years!”

In the verse XI, we have a description more deep in which appears some thoughts of Conrad, an interior description of him and details about his past life to understand better his actual behaviour.

At then beginning we discovered his actual nature was not his real nature, he was changing because of he had problems when he was a little boy. 

Yet was not Conrad thus by Nature sent
To lead the guilty-guilt's worse instrument-
His soul was changed, before his deeds had driven
Him forth to war with man and forfeit heaven
5     Warp'd by the world in Disappointment's school,

Some concrete characteristics make him possible to change (lines 6 & 7):

In words too wise, in conduct there a fool;
Too firm to yield, and far too proud to stoop,

He hates men, but he has his reasons and he has none remorse for what he does, people treated him bad, deceived him, betrayed him… and now, it is the time of his vengeance, it’s his turn. He knows people hate him, but he plays with an ace up one's sleeve: people are afraid of him.

20     Those deeds the bolder spirit plainly did.
He knew himself detested, but he knew
The hearts that loath'd him, crouch'd and dreaded too.

Adjectives related directly with “Byronic hero” appear describing him from line 23 to line 26, a no social person:

Lone, wild, and strange, he stood alike exempt
From all affection and from all contempt;
25     His name could sadden, and his acts surprise;
But they that fear'd him dared not to despise;

After that, we can read he is cruel and anything worries him from line 27, where explains what he can do, the way in which he acts, his manners:

Man spurns the worm, but pauses ere he wake
The slumbering venom of the folded snake:
The first may turn, but not avenge the blow;
30     The last expires, but leaves no living foe;
Fast to the doom'd offender's form it clings,
And he may crush-not conquer-still it stings!

A firm man, a proud man, a vindictive man, a man who has learned with the pass of time, a man doesn’t forget, a man is able to do what he wants to do, a pirate man.

In the third and last verse I have chosen, we have possibly one of his tender faces, of maybe his only tender face. A face falls in love, a face that only has eyes for a woman. A face that makes him to feel weak, a feeling that doesn’t disappear, a feeling that connect him yet with the past. A love, possibly the only good memory he keeps in his heart as we can read on lines 2 & 3:

One softer feeling would not yet depart
Oft could he sneer at others as beguiled

Our man has a small space where there is something makes him feel like a child, in spite of how we have read he is and his past. The most beautiful lines are in my opinion the next ones:

25            He was a villain-ay, reproaches shower
On him-but not the passion, nor its power,
Which only proved, all other virtues gone,
Not guilt itself could quench this loveliest one!

There I can smile, because in his life there is something good, something beautiful makes him feel like a human, like a person; but even better, like a child the most beautiful and pure feeling.

References:

 

-         http://www.photoaspects.com/chesil/byron/corsair1.html - A site where you can read “The Corsair” complete and other works by Byron. You can find more authors and more poems.

-         http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poet.html?id=81299 - The Poetry Foundation web, a good page with a lot of information about poets and different poems you can read.