Byron's efforts to reform the epic poem: epic fail

What strikes me most about the first 110 verses of Don Juan is how little Byron mentioned Juan as a point of prominence. It is, of course, fitting to provide a backdrop for a story such as Byron’s, but it seems excessive to enumerate even the details of mistresses and domestic troubles, that his mother particularly likes mathematics and that the narrator doesn’t think educated women should be marrying dotes like Jose.

At any rate Don Juan doesn’t have the feel of an epic tale. I am going to attribute this to the casual tone Byron uses as well as the rhyme structure that motivates the narrative along. The way the stanzas are divided into almost what could be called “half sonnets,” with a quatrain and a couplet, moves the reader along at a certain undulating pace. To add to this, the verse is familiar in tone and comes off as portraying more a fairy tale essence than the serious work of a poet. What came to mind first when I picked up on these elements was that it seemed as if each stanza were almost limerick-esque and that the whole of the work would turn out to be a frolic through the life of Don Juan. I suppose that could be lending to the fact that Don Juan is seen as a sort of romantic conquistador and that his life is this sort of light-hearted romp through time and space.

Even so, Byron seems to infuse a great deal of personal opinion into the story, describing his tastes and his preferences. He even goes so far as to offer suggestions for the roles of men and women: “a real husband always is suspicious” and earlier he applauds Donna for being concerned when new women entered her husband’s purview.

All of this is kind of jarring when approaching what is supposed to be an epic poem about an epic character. Compared to the giants of epic poetry, Virgil, Homer, Ovid (all of whom Byron mentions in less than complimentary terms) Byron seems to be a rebellious teenager, giddily laughing at the smut novel in the corner of class.

But perhaps that’s too harsh.