‘When a man talks of system, his case is hopeless’: Byron at the Margins of Romantic Counterculture

Abstract

A strong belief in the countercultural agency of literary texts is one of the defining features of Romanticism, as evidenced in concepts ranging from the Wordsworthian ‘High Argument’ to Percy B. Shelley’s claim that “[p]oets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world”. Byron inhabits a unique position among his contemporaries: hearkening back to Whig ideals of restoration and looking forward to a more sceptical, less ideological world view. An analysis of his working relationship with Leigh Hunt and critique of Hunt’s use of ‘System’ amply demonstrates that Byron’s involvement in Romantic counterculture is characterised by techniques that are less involved in the vehement promotion of social change, but move in an equilibrium between agency and epistemology.