Byron and Shelley made a visit to Chillon in June, 1816, and while delayed for two days at Ouchy, a village on Lake Geneva, Byron wrote this poem. Byron and Shelley belonged to a group of poets who were influenced by the French Revolution. Byron's love of freedom was so great that he aided Italy, and finally died from a fever contracted at Missolonghi, where he had gone to aid the Greek revolutionists. The following sonnet, which was prefixed to _The Prisoner of Chillon_, gives an idea of Byron's love of liberty. SONNET OF CHILLON "Eternal Spirit of the chainless Mind! Brightest in dungeons, Liberty! thou art, For there thy habitation is the heart-- The heart which love of thee alone can bind; And when thy sons to fetters are consigned-- To fetters, and the damp vault's dayless gloom, Their country conquers with their martyrdom, And Freedom's fame finds wings on every wind. "Chillon! thy prison is a holy place, And thy sad floor an altar--for 'twas trod, Until his very steps have left a trace Worn, as if thy cold pavement were a sod, By Bonnivard!--May none those marks efface! For they appeal from tyranny to God." [107] 4. =Sudden fears.= Marie Antoinette's hair has been said to have turned gray on the return from Varennes to Paris. It certainly turned gray very quickly during the anxiety of the Revolution. [108] 22. =Sealed.= How? [109] 27.----------- [110] 35. =Marsh's meteor lamp=; will o' the wisp. [111] 38. =Cankering thing.= What does canker do? [112] 57. The =elements= are fire, air, earth, and water. [113] 82. =Polar day.= What is the length of the day near the poles? [114] 100. =Sooth=; truth. [115] 107. =Lake Leman=; another name for Lake Geneva. [116] 133. The =moat= was the ditch which surrounded a castle. The moat of Chillon Castle, however, was the part of the lake which separated the rock from the shore. [117] 179. =Rushing forth in blood.= Byron is said to have been fond of the symptoms of violent death. He, a year after writing this poem, saw three robbers guillotined, taking careful notice of his own and their actions. Goethe, the German poet, even thought that Byron must have committed murder, he seemed so interested in sudden death. [118] 230. =Selfish death=; suicide. [119] 237. =Wist=; the imperfect tense of _wit_, _to be aware of_, _to know_. [120] 288. =Brother's.= It was a Mohammedan belief that the souls of the blessed inhabited green birds in paradise. [121] 294. =Solitary cloud.= This line is one of several very close similarities in this poem to Wordsworth; cf.:-- "I wandered lonely as a cloud That floats on high o'er vales and hills." [122] 341. The =little isle= referred to is Ile de Peilz, an islet on which a century ago were planted three elms.