Of Byron one can say, as of no other English poet of his
eminence, that he added nothing to the language, that he discovered nothing in
the sounds, and developed nothing in the meaning, of individual words. I
cannot think of any other poet of his distinction who might so easily have been
an accomplished foreigner writing in English. The ordinary person talks
English, but only a few people in every generation can write it; and upon this
undeliberate collaboration between a great many people talking a living language
and a very few people writing it, the continuance and maintenance of a language
depends. Just as an artisan who can talk English beautifully while about
his work or in a public bar, may compose a letter painfully written in a dead
language bearing some resemblance to a newspaper leader, and decorated with
words like "maelstrom" and "pandemonium": so does Byron write a dead or dying
language.