Critical Appreciation of "On the Castle of Chillon" by Lord Byron

"On the Castle of Chillon" is a living manifestation of Lord Byron’s love for liberty which constitutes the passion and zeal for freedom of the destitute and downtrodden. Simply, Lord Byron's "On the Castle of Chillon" is a sonnet that explores themes of imprisonment, freedom, and the power of the human spirit. Further he condemns autocracy and tyranny in equivocal terms. In this respect, he stands close to Shelley who also invests his poetry with revolutionary zeal and enthusiasm. But the curious aspect of Byron is his occasional leaving to satire. Interestingly, one who is a often time romantic is seldom a satirist. In fact, the romantic poet derives their sustenance from pure passion while the satirist relies chiefly on the exercise of intellect. In Byron’s "Don Juan" these two traits run parallel. While sympathy towards some adressed is pretty explicit. Byron lashes at the so called social superiors, while he dissolves at the same time the simplicity of the populace. "On the Castle of Chillon" stands out as a manifestation of Byron’s passion for liberty. The sonnet is Miltonic in style and inevitably reminds us of Milton’s "On the Vaudios Massacre."

The sonnet commemorates François Bonnivard who was an ecclesiastical personage, a Bishop. Bonnivard devotes his entire life to Campaign the cause of liberty and the rights of the people of Switzerland. It is his relentless struggle that encouraged the voice of liberty entirely in the whole Europe. Byron was saturated with the revolutionary spirit in its real passion for liberty. He became a source of strength and inspiration to the natives of Europe because of his passionate devotion to liberty, his interest in the past glories of Italy and Greece.

With the passion of revolutionary zeal,  Byron hails the liberty here as an eternal spirit of boundless mind. The champions of liberty are those who sacrifice their life for the sake of it. They are patriots of martyrs who are often railed in the dark in its geographic situation but of constructive energy and revolutionary as privations:

“ETERNAL Spirit of the chainless Mind!

Brightest in dungeons, Liberty! thou art,

For there thy habitation is the heart—

The heart which love of Thee alone can bind.”

Image Courtesy : Castle of Chillon

 Chillon the notorious prison house is the 'damp vault’s dayless gloom' where the souls of liberty are cosigned to fetters. But  the detrimental oppression can not halt the voice of freedom. The country achieves the hard earned liberty at the end a result of martyrdom. And freedom’s “fame finds wing on every mind”.

Chillon which is holy place by its martyrdom invokes many memories of the prisoners who gave their todays for the better tomorrows for our world with hope, liberty and respect. It is now a shrine to be respected with as the prison floor is marked with the footprints of that prison which can not be affected by any terms of autocracy or oppression. The memoirs of death, struggle and relentless battle, the Chillon has witnessed many deaths- the comparison to the holy grassy bed over the graveyard is made to the pavement. At the couplet of the sonnet, Byron marks an ethical right to liberty or struggle of independence by saying that liberty is the voice of which marks the revolutionary idea that man is born free but tyrannical opportunistic oppressors chain over shoes in every sphere:

“And when thy sons to fetters are consign'd,

To fetters, and the damp vault's dayless gloom,

Their country conquers with their martyrdom,

And Freedom's fame finds wings on every wind.

Chillon! thy prison is a holy place

And thy sad floor an altar, for 'twas trod,

Until his very steps have left a trace

Worn as if thy cold pavement were a sod,

By Bonnivard! May none those marks efface!

For they appeal from tyranny to God.”

In style,  Byron is here quite distinct from any other romantic poet. Byron's use of vivid imagery and metaphor highlights the contrast between the prisoner's physical confinement and the freedom of the natural world. Overall, "On the Castle of Chillon" is a poignant commentary on the human condition and the struggle for freedom and self-determination. Though lacking finish and carefulness, there is much vehemence and passion in his sonnet. Although this sonnet is guilty of repetition and over- emphasis, it is his best satire which is conversational in its naturalness and it displays an epigrammatic wit and great vivacity. 

(Note: François Bonivard (1493-1570) was a Genevan patriot and political figure in Switzerland during the 16th century. He is best known for his imprisonment in the Castle of Chillon, which inspired Lord Byron's famous poem "On the Castle of Chillon." Bonivard was a member of the influential Bonivard family of Geneva and was involved in various political and religious conflicts during his lifetime. In 1519, he was appointed prior of the St. Victor chapel in Geneva and became involved in the Reformation movement. He was eventually imprisoned by the Duke of Savoy in the Castle of Chillon for his political activities and spent several years in captivity before being released in0 1536. 

 Ardhendu De