Looking through the Dungeon's Barred Windows: 'A small green isle' in Byron's The Prisoner of Chillon

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This paper examines the landscape viewed by the prisoner through the barred windows of a dungeon in The Prisoner of Chillon, written by Lord Byron in 1816. The poem was originally based on the historical account of a Swiss Protestant named François Bonivard (1493-1570), who was imprisoned for political reasons for six years in the dungeon of Chillon, and also on Lord Byron’s experience during a visit to the Castle of Chillon with Percy Bysshe Shelley, a contemporary of Byron and a poet himself, who had influenced Byron to read William Wordsworth. This paper particularly focuses on the latter half of the poem, which describes how the prisoner sees nature through the barred windows. The paper discusses Byron’s own experience of reading Wordsworth, as well as the prisoner’s view through the dungeon’s windows and its interpretation.

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