Surprisingly, shipping the Parthenon Marbles to London was controversial at the time. This was due, in no small part, to the instant popularity of Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, in which the Romantic poet Byron reflected on his travels in around the Mediterranean, especially Greece. In the second canto of that 1815 poem, Byron described the ruins of the Parthenon and condemned Elgin as a barbarian pillager. Other Romantic poets disagreed. In 1817 Felicia Hemans responded to Byron’s work with a poem in a similar style and meter, but arguing that the marbles were better off in British hands. And in the same year John Keats wrote an appreciation of the “Elgin Marbles” after making a visit to see them at the British Museum.
Optional Reading: