I am not the biggest fan of this poem. I appreciate it a little more after the discussion in class on Tuesday--the way Byron used the breaks in the poem is absolutely clever and fascinating. What I have a hard time relating to is the heavy emphasis on historical context. I don't know why, but this poem was one of the first ones that I felt was never intended for me to read or really understand, like some esoteric anachronism that is somewhat beheld because of the emphasis on Byron's name. I don't know if I'm making any sense (I took the GRE today and I completely useless now), but this poem felt dense, but not in the, "OH MY GOSH, there is some hidden meaning in the poem and I just got it and now everything makes sense" sense. More heavy than dense, like the implications of the three roles and their corresponding countries of origin (which I'm interested to hear more about tomorrow), and the obvious, but complicated context that weighs the poem down. Since we're in the section on collecting the poet, I'm really interested to see how "The Giaour" corresponds to Byron's life. 
This poem reminded me a lot about a component in Aristotle's aesthetic argument where he claims that poetry is more philosophical and serious than history because poetry deals with universals while history deals with particulars. In his "Poetics," he also nullifies any poetry to be even labeled as poetry when it deals with history. I felt that sense while reading "The Giaour." It didn't feel like a poem to me. It had the same mood/tone as that one Charlotte Smith poem that we read, the one that was laced with historical references (which I did not enjoy). I think that may be in part to my lack of knowledge in the world of poetry, but that was my initial reaction. Like I said earlier, I'm interested to hear more about it. I can always count on the lectures to completely change my initial dislike for certain poems.