Byron Publishes the Satirical Poem English Bards and Scotch Reviewers
Poet involved
What happened
In March 1809, Byron published English Bards and Scotch Reviewers anonymously through James Cawthorn in London, a scathing satire in heroic couplets attacking the Edinburgh Review's criticism of Hours of Idleness and the reigning poets of Romanticism; a second expanded edition followed later that year with Byron identified as the author.
Literary impact
This ferocious satire established Byron's reputation as a formidable literary controversialist and showcased his mastery of the Augustan couplet in the manner of Pope, while the poem's attacks on Wordsworth and Coleridge signaled Byron's enduring aesthetic distance from the Lake Poets and his allegiance to neoclassical values that would persist throughout his career.
Source: Wikipedia
