The Political Dimension of Byron’s “An Ode to the Framers of the Frame Bill”

Abstract

Byron‘s major poems, such as Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, Don Juan, and others, are unmistakably flavored with political satire. It is therefore puzzling that a number of literary critics, with the exception of Malcolm Kelsall, Michael Foot, and Tom Mole, have avoided commenting in any significant manner on the political dimension of Byron‘s ―An Ode to the Framers of the Frame Bill,‖ a poem which is emphatically responsible for identifying him as a vibrant, political poet. In his ode, Byron demonstrates his capacity to fuse his political notions with a poetic sensitivity extending beyond rhyming verses. In this respect, the purpose of this paper is to position Byron‘s ode in its appropriate historical and literary frame, to examine its political affiliations, and to highlight the role Byron plays in displaying a synthesis between politics and poetics, a role cautiously avoided by other Romantic poets. Malcolm Kelsall claims in Byron’s Politics that Byron‘s poetry had essentially made no substantial political impact (50). Similarly, Michael Foot in The Politics of Paradise contends that Byron‘s political fervor ―existed independently of his poetry‖ (Qtd. in Coe para. 9). I differ with both and tend to agree with Tom Mole‘s assessment that Byron‘s ―An Ode to the Framers of the Frame Bill‖ is principally responsible for exhibiting him as a poet of an unmistakable political disposition.