Which Romantic poet wrote 'The Destruction of Sennacherib'?

The Romantic poet who wrote “The Destruction of Sennacherib” was Lord Byron, the pen name of George Gordon Byron.

Byron’s poem was first published in 1815 in *Hebrew Melodies*, where its title appeared as “The Destruction of Semnacherib.” It retells the biblical account of the Assyrian king’s campaign against Jerusalem. In the biblical narrative, the Assyrian army is struck down during the night, and Sennacherib withdraws to Nineveh.

The poem is brief—24 lines—and uses anapestic tetrameter, a rapid rhythm often associated with the movement of galloping horses. Its strongly patterned couplets and compressed imagery give the military advance and sudden destruction a memorable musical force. The source story appears in 2 Kings 18–19 and Isaiah 36–37, with the Assyrian siege traditionally dated to 701 BC.

Readers may confuse Byron with Wordsworth, Keats, or Shelley because all were major English Romantic poets. Byron is also the author of *Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage*, *Don Juan*, and the dramatic poem *Manfred*. The biblical subject does not make the poem anonymous or scriptural: its literary author is Byron.