life, and sounded every string of the divine harp, from its slightest to its most powerful and heart-astounding tones." In Germany, Goethe translated parts of Don Juan, because he considered Byron's writing "a work of bondless genius." In 1885, being neither disciple nor encomiast of Lord Byron, Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837–1909) said that the narrative strength and thematic range of Don Juan are how Byron's poetical writing excites the reader: "Across the stanzas ... we swim forward as over the ‘broad backs of the sea’; they break and glitter, hiss and laugh, murmur and move like waves that sound or that subside. There is in them a delicious resistance, an elastic motion, which salt water has and fresh water has not. There is about them a wide wholesome air, full of vivid light and constant wind, which is only felt at sea. Life undulates and Death palpitates in the splendid verse.... This gift of life and variety is the supreme quality of Byron's chief poem." References External links Project Gutenberg versions: Don Juan in 16 cantos with notes, complete text of an 1837 publication Don Juan in The Works of Lord Byron, Volume 6, edited by Ernest Hartley Coleridge Librivox recording of Canto I Librivox recording of Canto V Librivox recording of Cantos XIII-XVI Autograph manuscript of Don Juan from The Morgan Library & Museum 1819 poems British satirical poems Epic poems in English Mock-heroic English poems Poems adapted into films Poetry by Lord Byron Unfinished poems Verse novels Works based on the Don Juan legend