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Death and war
- Death and war are key themes of 'The Destruction of Sennacherib' A number of unifying ideas or themes run through the poem. Different readers may attach more or less significance to each of these themes, depending upon how they view the poem.
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The Destruction of Sennacherib is a short narrative poem retelling a Biblical story from the Old Testament (2 Kings, chapter 19) in which God destroys King Sennacherib’s Assyrian army as...
The Napoleonic allusion is not the predominant theme of the poem, however; “The Destruction of Sennacherib” is mainly about the Assyrian emperor, about the original biblical story of his demise....
The main themes in 'The Destruction of Sennacherib' are war and conflict and power and control, so the following comparisons are the most appropriate: 'The Destruction of Sennacherib' and 'The Charge of the Light Brigade' 'The Destruction of Sennacherib' and 'Exposure' For each pair of poems, you will find: The comparison in a nutshell
The Destruction of Sennacherib by Lord Byron concerns a miraculous wartime incident. Content, ideas, language and structure are explored. Comparisons and alternative interpretations are...
- Author Biography
- Poem Summary
- Themes
- Style
- Historical Context
- Critical Overview
- Criticism
- Sources
- For Further Study
Byron was born in 1788 in London to John Byron and Catherine Gordon, a descendant of a Scottish noble family. He was born with a clubbed foot, with which he suffered throughout his life. Byron’s father had married his mother for her money, which he soon squandered and fled to France, where he died in 1791. When Byron was a year old, he and his moth...
Line 1
The first line is arresting and immediately identifies the motif of good versus evil. Sennacherib is “The Assyrian,” the King of Assyria, and he and his cohorts are descending on the Israelites. The people of Israel are mentioned nowhere else in the poem, so when they are compared to a “fold” or a flock of sheep—suggesting innocence—and Sennacherib is compared to a wolf, the line is drawn in the poetic sand between the evil, rapacious beast, Sennacherib, and the peaceful Israelites, the chose...
Lines 2-4
The rest of the opening quatrain is somewhat less negative in describing the remaining Assyrians. They are not as animalistic as their commander; in fact, the troops are seen in all their beauty. Their outfits “gleam” in the royal colors of purple and gold, and their spears shine so brightly they are like stars reflected on the sea of Galilee. Of course, this brilliance is a setup. Byron wants to establish a beautiful scene so that its eventual destruction will stand out more effectively.
Lines 5-8
This is a perfect example of a quatrain being divided into two parts. The first two lines continue the pretty picture established in the first quatrain. The troops are again compared to nature, this time to summer leaves, as their banners are spread out against the evening sky. But the nature simile takes a quick turn in the closing couplet. Just as quickly as summer can change to autumn, so too these troops change from beautifully arrayed men to withered and strewn corpses. The simile of the...
Death
“The Destruction of Sennacherib” is most overtly a poem about death. The Assyrian king is killed by the first line of the third stanza, leaving more than half the poem devoted to the effects of his death. Foremost among the images of death is the description of the king’s horse, who gasped so strenuously as he died that foam spewed from his mouth. Though death comes quickly for Sennacherib and his men—“their hearts but once heaved”—Byron takes a whole stanza to describe the horse’s death. The...
Heroism
It was a typical theme among the Romantic poets to depict the deaths of heroes and villains alike, just as long as scene involved a dramatic confrontation. Byron, in particular, was known for his strongly drawn heroes, dubbed “Byronic heroes” by critics. The most famous are the rogue adventurers Don Juan and Childe Harold, who were modeled on Byron himself. Other types of Byronic heroes are the “Gothic Hero-Villain” or the “Noble Outlaw” according to Peter K. Thorslev, Jr. in his book The Byr...
God and Religion
Hebrew Melodieswas envisioned as an exaltation of the Old Testament, and “The Destruction of Sennacherib” describes the triumph of God over the pagan Assyrians who are struck down by an angel, a servant of God. Byron had high regard for the Bible and held Calvinist beliefs throughout his life. By writing tales of Jewish lore that could be set to music, Byron publicly affirmed his faith in religion. Sennacherib is struck down by an angel, a servant of God. Even though the Assyrians are present...
“The Destruction of Sennacherib” is written in quatrains—or four-line stanzas—that are very tightly constructed. They not only rhyme aabb,but the rhyming couplets also form grammatical units, so that each quatrain is made of two equal phrases. This doubleness is important to the poem’s content because Byron demonstrates several motifs of duality—li...
Byron wrote “The Destruction of Sennacherib” at a time when Romanticism was flourishing in the arts. In painting, literature, and music, one of the great Romantic obsessions was the ancient past. By
There have been a number of major criticisms of Byron’s work by a number of famous writers. W. H. Auden, the Anglo-American poet, asserts that Byron needed to be “read very rapidly” because if one slows down the “poetry vanishes—the feeling seems superficial, the rhyme forced, the grammar all over the place,” as he writes in 1962’s Dyer’s Hand and ...
Brent Goodman
Brent Goodman is a freelance writer and has taught at Purdue University and mentored students in poetry. In the following essay, Goodman argues that although “The Destruction of Sennacherib” retells an ancient story, it is firmly rooted in nineteenth-century Romanticism. The Romantic poets, including such writers as Coleridge, Blake, Wordsworth, Shelly and Byron, believed strongly in a revolution of ideas—not only about how poets should write, but also about how poets should see and experienc...
What Do I Read Next?
1. “Ozymandias,” by Byron’s colleague Percy Bysshe Shelley, is a poem about the ruins of a colossal statue in the desert which depicts an ancient, once-feared king. 2. Sennacherib’s Palace Without Rival at Ninevah, by John Malcolm Russell, University of ChicagoPress, 1991, is a nonfiction title providing more detail on the ancient king. 3. Childe Harold’s Pilgrimageis Byron’s autobiographical epic poem describing his wanderings throughout Spain, Greece, and Albania. 4. Frankenstein; or, The M...
David Kelly
David Kelly is a freelance writer and instructor at Oakton Community College, Des Plaines, IL, as well as the faculty advisor and cofounder of the creative writing periodical of Oakton Community College. He is currently writing a novel. In the following essay, Kelly explains that the perceived weaknesses in “The Destruction of Sennecherib” seem less so when considering Byron’s goals for the poem and acknowledging his unique approach of providing readers with a visual—rather than purely emotio...
Arnold, Matthew, preface to Poetry of Byron, by Lord Byron, Macmillan, 1881, reprinted as “Byron,” in his Essays in Criticism,Dutton, 1964, pp. 312-30. Auden, W. H., “Don Juan,” in Dyer’s Hand and Other Essays,Random House, 1962, pp. 386-406. Eliot, T. S., “Byron,” in On Poetry and Poets,Farrar, Straus and Cudahy, 1957, pp. 223-39. Gatton, John Spa...
Approaches to Teaching Byron’s Poetry,Approaches to Teaching World Literature series, 36, edited by Frederick W. Shilstone, Modern Language Association, 1991. Cooke, Michael G. The Blind Man Traces the Circle: On the Patterns and Philosophy of Byron’s Poetry, Princeton UniversityPress, 1969. George Gordon, Lord Byron, Modem Critical Views series, e...
Lord George Gordon Byron. A leading figure in 19th-century English Romanticism, Lord Byron published “The Destruction of Sennacherib” in 1815. The poem is based on the biblical account of Assyrian emperor Sennacherib’s attack on Jerusalem in 701 BCE.
‘The Destruction of Sennacherib’ tells the biblical story of the failed Assyrian siege of Jerusalem. Byron explores the idea of religion and its relevance to conflict. He focuses more on the victory of the Jewish people than the suffering and despair that conflict can cause.
