Windsor Poetics
Lines Composed On The Occasion Of His Royal Highness The Prince Regent Being Seen Standing Between The Coffins Of Henry VIII And Charles I, In The Royal Vault At Windsor
Windsor Poetics - context Summary
Prince Regent at Windsor
Written on the occasion of the Prince Regent’s visit to the royal vault at Windsor, Byron’s lines register a pointed political reaction to that public sight. The speaker places the Regent between the coffins of Henry VIII and Charles I and suggests the living ruler resembles their tyrannies. The poem uses burial imagery and ironic register to question monarchical legitimacy and to satirize the figure presented as sovereign.
Read Complete AnalysesFamed for contemptuous breach of sacred ties, By headless Charles see heartless Henry lies; Between them stands another sceptred thing– It moves, it reigns–in all but name, a king: Charles to his people, Henry to his wife, – In him the double tyrant starts to life: Justice and death have mix’d their dust in vain, Each royal vampire wakes to life again. Ah, what can tombs avail!–since these disgorge The blood and dust of both–to mould a George.
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