The Prisoner of Chillon

The Prisoner of Chillon is a 392-line narrative poem by Lord Byron. Written in 1816, it chronicles the imprisonment of a Genevois monk, François Bonivard, from 1532 to 1536.

1816 first edition.

Writing and publication

On 22 June 1816, Lord Byron and his contemporary and friend Percy Bysshe Shelley were sailing on Lake Geneva (referred to as "Lac Leman", the French name, throughout the poem) and stopped to visit the Château de Chillon.[1] After touring the castle (and walking through the dungeon in which Bonivard was imprisoned), Byron was inspired by Bonivard's story and composed The Sonnet of Chillon.

Because of torrential rainfall, Byron and his companion rested at a hotel in Ouchy following their tour. In late June or early July (several early drafts and copies present conflicting dates), Byron composed the longer fable.[1] The work was probably completed by 2 July 1816. The Prisoner of Chillon was first published as The Prisoner of Chillon and Other Poems by John Murray on 5 December 1816.

Structure
Château de Chillon, the castle to which the title refers, is located near Montreux, Switzerland.

The work's themes and images follow those of a typical poem by Lord Byron: the protagonist is an isolated figure, and brings a strong will to bear against great sufferings. He seeks solace in the beauty of nature (especially in sections ten and thirteen), and is a martyr of sorts to the cause of liberty. Like much of Byron's work, it came about as a reaction to his own experiences as a traveller, making use of historical and geographical knowledge Byron gained in continental Europe.

Byron titled his work The Prisoner of Chillon: a fable; stylistically, it is a romantic verse-tale.[2]

Concept
Eugène Delacroix, The Prisoner of Chillon

The poem describes the trials of a lone survivor of a family who have been martyred. The character's father was burnt at the stake, and out of six brothers, two fell at the battlefield while one was burnt to death. The remaining three were sent to the castle of Chillon as prisoners, out of which two more died due to pining away. In time only the narrator lived.

gollark: Or any time, really.
gollark: There would be no photon torpedoes at this time.
gollark: ```Cold Ones (also ice giants, the Finality, Lords of the Last Waste)Mythological beings who dwell at the end of time, during the final blackness of the universe, the last surviving remnants of the war of all-against-all over the universe’s final stocks of extropy, long after the passing of baryonic matter and the death throes of the most ancient black holes. Savage, autocannibalistic beings, stretching their remaining existence across aeons-long slowthoughts powered by the rare quantum fluctuations of the nothingness, these wretched dead gods know nothing but despair, hunger, and envy for those past entities which dwelled in eras rich in energy differentials, information, and ordered states, and would – if they could – feast on any unwary enough to fall into their clutches.Stories of the Cold Ones are, of course, not to be interpreted literally: they are a philosophical and theological metaphor for the pessimal end-state of the universe, to wit, the final triumph of entropy in both a physical and a spiritual sense. Nonetheless, this metaphor has been adopted by both the Flamic church and the archai themselves to describe the potential future which it is their intention to avert.The Cold Ones have also found a place in popular culture, depicted as supreme villains: perhaps best seen in the Ghosts of the Dark Spiral expansion for Mythic Stars, a virtuality game from Nebula 12 ArGaming, ICC, and the Void Cascading InVid series, produced by Dexlyn Vithinios (Sundogs of Delphys, ICC).```
gollark: And it's all just horribly dense spaghetti code.
gollark: There are no docs or comments anywhere. It's ridiculous.

References
  1. "History". Château de Chillon. Archived from the original on 24 March 2008. Retrieved 23 March 2010.
  2. Ward & Trent, et al., eds. (1907–1921). "§10. The Verse-tales. II. Byron.". The Cambridge History of English and American Literature. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons. Retrieved 26 November 2006.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
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