Byron’s Social Doctrine 33
he had not done more than six hundred lines of “Dante’s
Prophecy.”22 Something must have incited him to work, how-
ever, for on March 14, 1820, he enclosed four cantos of
“Dantes Prophecy, vision, or what not” in a letter to the pub-
lisher. If these cantos were approved, he intended to go on
“like Isaiah.”23
The Prophecy of Dante was not published until April 12,
1821; but since Byron first mentions it early in 1820, we may
assume that it was on his mind the year before. If this
assumption is correct, then, the composition of the poem was
not far removed in time from that of the last canto of Childe
Harold, and would naturally contain many of the ideas ex-
pressed in tire earlier work.
The theme of the Prophecy is the unification and freedom
of Italy. Byron views tire country through the eyes of the
great Itahan poet, who has been exiled from his native Flor-
ence. Dante laments that Florence and Italy would not strug-
gle for freedom and would not listen to his voice, which was
raised on behalf of freedom. The history of Italy is then
presented as if it were being prophesied by Dante. Italy, he
says, will succumb to each tyrant who invades her. She has
already fallen to the Goth and German; Frank and Hun are
yet to come. But Italy still has “hearts, and hands, and arms”
with which to fight oppression.
Dante again asserts his love for his country and prophesies
her literary future. Poets shall rise and follow in the path he
has made. Some, he says, shall sing of liberty, and Italy will
hear their voices.
Finally, Dante predicts that Italy will become great
through her art and that warring nations will pause in their
conflict to cast envious eyes upon her. In this poem, as in the
conclusion of Childe Harold, Byron takes occasion to eulogize