Five-minute digest
The Prisoner of Chillon
Summary
The Prisoner of Chillon is a narrative poem in fourteen sections that Byron wrote in two days in June 1816 at Ouchy on Lake Geneva, after visiting the castle of Chillon with Percy Shelley. It is loosely based on François Bonivard, a Genevan patriot imprisoned in the castle's dungeon by the Duke of Savoy from 1530 to 1536, though Byron invents most of the story. The old prisoner tells his own tale. His hair is grey, but not with years: it turned grey in the dungeon. His father died at the stake for his faith, and of seven brothers, two died in battle, one by fire, and three were cast into the dungeon with the narrator. Chained to separate pillars, the three brothers can hear but not touch one another. The youngest, gentle and bright, and the middle brother, a hunter and lover of the mountains, slowly fade. The middle brother dies first and is buried in the dungeon floor; then the youngest wastes away while the narrator listens in anguish. After this the prisoner falls into a stupor in which he feels nothing at all, neither light nor air, a blank of stony stillness. A bird singing at the window breaks in on his brain and returns him to feeling. In time his jailers loosen his chain, and he climbs to the window to look at the mountains, the lake and a small green island, but the sight of freedom makes his dungeon harder to bear. When at last he is released, years have passed and he has grown used to his cell: his very chains and he grew friends, and he regained his freedom with a sigh. Byron prefaced the poem with a sonnet in praise of liberty, but the poem itself is less a political manifesto than a study of suffering, endurance and the way long captivity can deaden the soul.
Top Lessons
Suffering for faith
The family suffers for the father's faith; Byron honours their constancy.
The danger of despair
After his brothers' deaths the prisoner feels nothing. Despair is shown as a living death.
Freedom and habit
At the end he has made friends with his chains. Long bondage can change how we see freedom.
Verified Quotes
Frequently cited
“My hair is grey, but not with years,”
“But this was for my father's faith I suffered chains and courted death;”
“A light broke in upon my brain,-- It was the carol of a bird;”
Frequently cited
“My very chains and I grew friends,”