Nature's Elements in the Eyes of Byron

The physical bodies of Earth, sky, and sea serve as conduits through which Byron describes his qualms with humanity. Beginning the third canto with Earth, he calls to the reader, “Stop!—for thy tread is on an Empire’s dust!” and again, towards the end of the fourth, he writes of the ground of the Coliseum, “Heroes have trod this spot—‘tis on their dust ye tread.” Here he identifies men--not as men—but as dust. He even reduces a manmade institution as monumental as an empire to dust. By framing the miseries of men within the context of nature, Byron asserts human's inferiority as we are defined by and adhere to the rules of the natural order of the universe. Additionally, as he juxtaposes the might of the elements—as in the passage about the thunderstorm and the passage about the ocean—with the miseries of men, he illustrates his reverence of nature and the futility of civilization in comparison with such entities. Especially in his passages about lightning and the ocean can we perceive a deep celebration of the wonders of the four elements.

Loyal to the Romantic tradition, he expounds that he loves man, but holds nature in the highest regard. Befitting this claim, Harold’s pilgrimage becomes an homage to the power of nature and a lament for human kind. Yes, a lament for human kind, but what exactly about? A lament for loss of innocent lives in the name of power. In this case, the innocents lost repeatedly return to the earth, as in lines 238-243 of the first part of the third canto: "...the unreturning brave,—alas!/Ere evening to be trodden like the grass/Which now beneath, but above shall grow/In its next verdure, when fiery mass/Of living valour, rolling on the foe/And burning with high hope, shall moulder cold and low." Again, this reaffirms his penchant for contextualizing the human life by asserting its small place within the greater living system of the Earth and his worship of its processes.  

            Yet, amidst all his praises of nature, Byron also manages to find a deeply personal and singular way of expressing his ideas—the ideas of one man. When he addresses his daughter, “…thy fire/Shall be more temper’d, and thy hope far higher./Sweet by they cradled slumbers! O’er the sea,/And from the mountains where I now respire,/Fain would  I waft such blessing upon thee,/As, with a sigh, I deem thou might’st have been to me!” (4:118:1097-102). The intimacy of this moment is—again—framed within nature, where his true devotion lies.