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HomeArtsEducational magazinesThe Destruction of Sennacherib
The Destruction Of Sennacherib
Poetry for Students
COPYRIGHT 2009 Cengage Learning
The Destruction of Sennacherib
Lord Byron 1815
Byron’s “The Destruction of Sennacherib” was originally published in his 1815 bookHebrew Melodies,which included poems written to be set to adaptations of traditional Jewish tunes. The poem is based on a brief story in 2 Chronicles 32:21 that records in one sentence the defeat of the Assyrians by God’s Angel of Death. What details are missing in the biblical version, however, Byron provides: through metrical invention, description, powerful imagery, and parallelism the poet makes the dismal scene come to life. The destruction of the Assyrian invaders by the Angel of Death is not given any religious significance by Byron; instead, he concentrates on seeing the scene clearly, imagining it so specifically that the reader can see the foam coming from the dying horse’s mouth, and the “withered,” “distorted” bodies of the Assyrian army. Byron also uses similes based on natural processes—summer turning to fall, snow melting, armor rusting—to suggest the transitory nature of all life.
Author Biography
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 mother moved to Aberdeen, Scotland, and Byron spent his childhood there. Upon the death of his great uncle in 1798, Byron became the sixth Baron Byron of Rochdale and inherited the ancestral home, Newstead Abbey in Nottingham. He attended Harrow School from 1801 to 1805 and then Trinity College at Cambridge University until 1808, when he received a master’s degree. Byron’s first publication was a collection of poems,Fugitive Pieces(1807), which he himself paid to have printed, and which he revised and expanded twice within a year. When he turned twenty-one in 1809, Byron was entitled to a seat in the House of Lords, and he attended several sessions of Parliament that year. In July, however, he left England on a journey through Greece and Turkey. He recorded his experiences in poetic form in several works, most importantly inChilde Harold’s Pilgrimage(1812-18). He returned to England in 1811 and once again took his seat in Parliament. The publication of the first two cantos ofChilde Haroldin 1812 met with great acclaim, and Byron was hailed in literarary circles. Around this time he engaged in a tempestuous affair with Lady Caroline Lamb, who characterized Byron as “mad—bad—and dangerous to know.” Thoughout his life Byron conducted numerous affairs and fathered several illegitimate children. One of his most notorious liaisons was with his half-sister Augusta. Byron married AnnabellaMillbank in 1815, with whom he had a daughter, Augusta Ada. He was periodically abusive toward Annabella, and she left him in 1816. He never saw his wife and daughter again. Following his separation, which had caused something of a scandal, Byron left England for Europe. In Geneva, Switzerland, he met Percy Bysshe Shelley and his wife Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, with whom he became close friends. The three stayed in a villa rented by Byron. During this time Mary Shelley wrote her famous novelFrankenstein,and Byron worked on Canto III ofChilde Harold(1816). In 1817 Byron moved on to Italy, where he worked on Canto IV, which was published the next year. For several years Byron lived in a variety of Italian cities, engaging in a series of affairs and composing large portions of his masterpieceDon Juan(1819-24) as well as other poems. In 1823 he left Italy for Greece to join a group of insurgents fighting for independence from the Turks. On April 9, 1824, after being soaked in the rain, Byron contracted a fever from which he died ten days later.
Poem Text
TheAssyriancamedownlikethewolfonthefold,
Andhiscohortsweregleaminginpurpleandgold;
Andthesheenoftheirspearswaslikestarsonthe
sea,
WhenthebluewaverollsnightlyondeepGalilee.
LiketheleavesoftheforestwhenSummeris
green,
Thathostwiththeirbannersatsunsetwereseen:
LiketheleavesoftheforestwhenAutumnhath
blown,
Thathostonthemorrowlaywitheredandstrown.
FortheAngelofDeathspreadhiswingsonthe
blast,
Andbreathedinthefaceofthefoeashepassed;
Andtheeyesofthesleeperswaxeddeadlyand
chill,
Andtheirheartsbutonceheaved,andforevergrew
still!
Andtherelaythesteedwithhisnostrilallwide,
Butthroughitthererollednotthebreathofhis
pride;
Andthefoamofhisgaspinglaywhiteontheturf,
Andcoldasthesprayoftherock-beatingsurf.
Andtherelaytheriderdistortedandpale,
Withthedewonhisbrow,andtherustonhis
mail:
Andthetentswereallsilent,thebannersalone,
Thelancesunlifted,thetrumpetunblown.
AndthewidowsofAshurareloudintheirwail,
AndtheidolsarebrokeinthetempleofBaal;
AndthemightoftheGentile,unsmotebythe
sword,
HathmeltedlikesnowintheglanceoftheLord!
Poem Summary
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 chosen of God, their shepherd.
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 green leaves is replaced by the simile of the withered and fallen autumn leaves.
Lines 9-12
The reader need not wonder for long how these troops were transformed. The first half of this quatrain shows the Angel of Death at work. He spreads his wings, not to protect or embrace, but to kill; spreading his wings on the blast probably refers to the autumn winds of the last stanza, as in a blast or violent gust of wind. No spears or arrows are necessary, no clashing armies; the Angel of Death simply breathes on the hapless troops and they are gone. The concluding lines of the quatrain shift the camera-eye from the angel to the troops: the reader can see their eyes wax over and their chests stop heaving.
Lines 13-16
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In this quatrain a horse is the focus. The scene is gruesomely described by Byron. The horse lies on the ground with its nostrils wide open, but no breaths are taken. Byron provides another image of desperation and pain: the horse had been gasping for breath so hard before it died that it has produced foam around its mouth. He uses another natural simile, saying the foam is as cold as the “spray of the rock-beating surf.” The reader needs to remember the opening quatrain here. Initially the army was associated with the rolling waves of the Sea of Galilee, a tranquil simile, but now the Assyrians, or at least their horses, are aligned with the chill of an ocean, and the violence of “rock-beating surf.” By transforming rolling waves into rock-beating surf, Byron demonstrates the shift that has taken place because of the Angel of Death’s visit.
Lines 17-20
Again the quatrain is broken in two: the first section focuses on the rider, the second on the accoutrements of war—the tents, banners, lances and trumpet. The soldiers who at the start of the poem were gleaming are now pale, and the sheen of their spears has been replaced with rust on the armor or mail. The final lines of this quatrain are interesting because of their emptiness. Usually literature is filled with action, drama, music, and scenes; this moment is special because of what is absent. There are no sounds coming from the tents or the trumpets, there is no movement in the banners of the lances. The static scene effectively conveys the absence of life.
Lines 21-24
The concluding stanza moves away from the battle scene. We see the Assyrian women, presumably back in Assyria, wailing. They are described
Topics for Further Study
- Write a poem about a modern situation in which angels might intervene.
- This is not a very active poem: the destruction of the Assyrians occurs somewhere in the middle of the second stanza. To what extent is this an effective technique? Do you think more action would improve this poem? Why or why not?
As “widows of Ashur” because Ashur was the god of war and the chief god of the Assyrians. Their gods were not a match for the god of Israel, so the idols or statues of Baal, a nature god, are destroyed. Byron concludes the poem with the last in a series of similes based on nature. The mighty Gentiles, the non-Jewish Assyrians, have not been defeated by the swords of Israelites, but simply by the glance of the Lord. Their power and might have disappeared, in the same way that snow melts in the sun. Everything in nature changes, everything is transitory, so by using these natural images and similes, Byron is emphasizing the temporary nature of human conflict and humanity itself.
Themes
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 horse is larger and more powerful than a man, and by describing the demise of a powerful animal that belongs to the king, Byron equates the horse’s death with Sennacherib’s and intends for the horse to be a symbol of the king’s crushed power.
Death in Byron’s poem is more than the simple cessation of life. Sennacherib’s demise is called a “destruction,” a word chosen by Byron to underscore the complete dissolution of the king’s power. Normally, cities or large buildings are destroyed; men die or are killed. But Sennacherib is a feared king who appears “like a wolf on the fold,” and the Angel of Death does not simply kill him butdestroyshim. His quick death is physical proof of the Hebrew belief that God is many times more powerful than the most powerful mortal. Furthermore, the king’s death is more than just the loss of one life. It is a symbol of the destruction of the entire Assyrian culture, a society that worshipped Baal, the beleaguered pagan god of the Old Testament. The Old Testament verse that inspired Byron is 2 Chronicles 32:8, in which Hezekiah speaks to the people of Judah after Sennacherib has announced intentions to conquer their land: “With him an arm of flesh; but with us the Lord our God to help us, and to fight our battles.” Using this verse, Byron created a scenario in which Sennacherib fights and loses the battle with God. However, Byron’s poem is pure fiction; the Assyrian king almost was certainly killed by his own sons.
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 bookThe Byronic Hero. Sennacherib has characteristics of these two, though he could more accurately be called an anti-hero. BecauseHebrew Melodies,the collection in which “The Destruction of Sennacherib” was first published, was intended to exalt Jewish history—Byron had a strong religious leanings himself—Sennacherib appears as the foe and his death is not a tragedy but a moment of celebration. However, in his typical melancholy fashion Byron states that “widows of Ashur are loud in their wail,” underlining the tragedy of the death, even though he is the anti-hero.
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 presented as noble characters who wear the royal colors of purple and gold, Sennacherib appears “like a wolf on the fold,” or rather, a predator to the peaceful Hebrews. That it takes nothing more than the breath of the Angel of Death to fell the mighty army shows how hollow their power is in the face of God. The poem’s six stanzas dramatize a few verses in the Old Testament book of 2 Chronicles which depict the confrontation between the King of Assyria and Hezekiah, the King of Judah. By having the Angel of Death do the dirty work, the Jews have won the battle without so much as lifting a finger. In a Romantic explanation of religious power, “the might of the Gentile” is destroyed by the merest “glance of the lord.” Once again, however, Byron has created fiction. According to history, Hezekiah was defeated by Sennacherib in 701 B.C.
Art and Experience
In evaluating the collectionHebrew Melodiesas a whole, art itself becomes a major theme. The poems were originally set to traditional Jewish melodies by Isaac Nathan, a composer who was a contemporary of Byron’s. Though Byron often strayed from the intended religious perspective of the collection—his famous poem “She Walks in Beauty” was also in the collection—a holistic theme becomes apparent. “TheHebrew Melodiesare ... Byron’s discourse on art, an examination of how poetry takes the materials of a transient world of process and lends them the grace of immortality,” says Frederick W. Shilstone in an essay forConcerning Poetry. “As such,” he continues, “these poems comprise an important experiment in genre, a true lyriccollection.... This experiment is one of Byron’s gifts to the history of literary form.... Byron realized he was engaged in the most unstinting celebration of art in his career.”
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Corroborating this view, John Spalding Gatton wrote inDictionary of Literary Biographyabout Byron’s motivation for writing the collection: “As a champion of freedom, he may also have responded instinctively to the oppression long suffered by the Jewish people.” Besides being a “lyrical examination of the Old Testament, Gatton continues, the “love songs and reflective pieces, some written before the book’s conception, though in their expressions of sadness, longing, and desolation, they voice sentiments found in the biblical poems bewailing the lost Jewish homeland.”
Style
“The Destruction of Sennacherib” is written in quatrains—or four-line stanzas—that are very tightly constructed. They not only rhymeaabb,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—life/death, summer/fall, sheen/rust—to his readers, even in his poetic structure.
The metrical structure is also essential in this poem. Byron employs a meter of anapestic tetrameter, which means that each line is made up of four feet, or sets, of anapests (“tetra” is Greek for four). An anapest is made of three syllables, with the accent placed on the last syllable, forcing the reader to almost race along. While Byron sometimes substitutes an iambic foot, or pair of unstressed/stressed syllables, in his metrical pattern for variety and emphasis, most often he employs a perfectly regular anapestic line, such as the following:
Andthesheen/oftheirspears/waslikestars/
onthesea.
Notice how the words that are accented—sheen, spears, stars and sea—are linked grammatically (they are all nouns, not action words), but more importantly in their sound. Not only do they all carry the accent, they all begin with the “s” sound—what is known as alliteration. As a result, there is a soothing quality to the line which is certainly appropriate, since none of the violence of the poem brought on by the Angel of Death has taken place yet; everything seems serene, peaceful, and safe for the Assyrians.