Lord Byron

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George Gordon Noel Byron, 6th Baron Byron, best known as Lord Byron (January 22, 1788-April 19, 1824).

Image:LordByron.jpg
- Lord Byron (1803) -

Lord Byron was, next to Shakespeare, the most widely read poet of his day. When the first two cantos of his epic poem, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, were published in March 1812 they immediately placed Byron on a par with the most illustrious figures of his age. 

  I stood in Venice on the Bridge of Sighs,
  A palace and a prison on each hand.
  I saw from out the wave her structures rise
  As from the stroke of the enchanter's wand:
  A thousand years their cloudy wings expand
  Around me, and a dying Glory smiles
  O'er the far times, when many a subject land
  Look'd to the winged Lion's marble piles,
  Where Venice sat in state, thron'd on her hundred isles!

    Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto iv. Stanza 1

The impression that this work created was more uniform, decisive and triumphant than any that had been witnessed in Britain for some two generations. 10,000 copies of the poem were sold almost overnight. “I woke one morning,” he said, “and found myself famous”.

Contents

Works

Byron’s output was prolific[1]. In 1833 his publisher, John Murray, released the complete works in 17 octavo volumes including a life by Thomas Moore. His magnum opus, Don Juan, a poem spanning 17 cantos, is the most important poem published in England between 1667, when Milton’s Paradise Lost came out and 1850, when Wordsworth's magnum opus The Prelude was issued. Don Juan, Byron's masterpiece, often called the epic of its time, is deeply immersed in literary tradition and, although regarded by early Victorians as somewhat shocking, is equally involved with its own contemporary world at all levels – social, political, literary and ideological.

Notable Poems:

  • Childe Harold's Pilgrimage
  • The Giaour
  • Prometheus
  • The Corsair
  • Beppo
  • Don Juan - a poem that began as a farce and developed into a comedy

A theme that pervades much of Byron's work is that of the Byronic hero, an idealised but flawed character whose attributes include:

  • being a a rebel
  • having a distaste for society and social institutions
  • being an exile
  • expressing a lack of respect for rank and privilege
  • having great talent
  • hiding an unsavoury past
  • being highly passionate
  • ultimately, being self-destructive

The literary history of the Byronic hero can be traced from Milton, and Byron's influence was manifested by many authors and artists of the Romantic movement during the 19th Century and beyond.

Life

Image:Byronmother.jpg

Byron's mother, Catherine Gordon (1764 to 1 August 1811), daughter of George Gordon, of Gight, co. Aberdeen, Scotland, was a Scottish aristorcat. She was the second wife of Captain John �Mad Jack� Byron, an English aristcrat. They married on 17 May 1786, but separated before George Byron was born. As a result, Byron's mother moved back to northeast Scotland shortly after his birth in London and he was raised in Aberdeen in straitened circumstances. From 1801 to 1808, Byron had a Newfoundland dog named Boatswain. Boatswain is buried at Newstead Abbey, where his monument is larger than Byron's. Byron also had a bear, a fox, monkeys, a parrot, cats, an eagle, a crow, a falcon, peacocks, guinea hens, an Egyptian crane, a badger, geese, and a heron.

His early life was spent in Aberdeen until the age of ten, when he inherited the title and property of his great-uncle, William Byron. He was educated at Harrow and Cambridge, and obtained a reputation as an unconventional and controversial character. There were rumours that he had an incestuous relationship with his half-sister, Augusta Leigh. He is also rumoured to have been in love with a choir boy, though scholars still dispute the veracity and relevance of such rumours.

Byron married Anne Isabella Milbanke ("Annabella") at Seaham Hall, County Durham on 2 January 1815, but the marriage was unhappy and they separated after less than two years. Their union produced a daughter, Ada, who later married the The Earl of Lovelace. A gifted mathematician, Ada Lovelace later worked closely with Charles Babbage, the pioneer of the Analytical Engine, as it was called - the forerunner of the modern computer. Ada became notable for her contributions to the early study of what is now known as computer science. She is credited with being the first programmer. She never knew her father.

Byron's poety and scandalous reputation made him a well-known personality in London society. It was in London that he met Lady Caroline Lamb, the wife of William Lamb, an up-and-coming politician of the time, who would later be the Prime-Minister of England. Byron was also very active speaker in the House of Lords.

Rumours spread about his debt and his incestuous affairs, and in 1816 he left for England for Geneva and then Greece. There he became friends with Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus, which many believe to be the first science-fiction novel. He also had an affair with the author's step-sister, Claire Clairmont, with whom he had an illegitamate child. Byron refused to have anything to do with Clairmont, and would only agree to be in her presence with the Shelleys, who eventually persuaded Byron to accept and provide for the child.

He went on to Italy, and in his two years there produced what some consider to be his best work, including Lament Of Tasso, and Don Juan.

He was sympathetic to Greece in their struggle against the Ottoman Empire. In 1823, Byron, who was living in Genoa with his paramour, the Countess Guiccioli, answered the call to mount an expedition to Greece, and set sail in The Hercules to join them in battle. However, he did not live to see the emergence of Greek Independence and before seeing any serious action, Byron contracted swamp fever and died in Mesolongi, Greece on April 19, 1824. His remains were returned to England but refused by the deans of both Westminster and St Paul's. His body was finally placed to rest in the family vault in the Parish Church Cemetery at Hucknall Torkard, near Newstead Abbey in Nottinghamshire.

Character

Byron by all accounts was a particularly attractive person – one may say an astonishingly handsome person. In spite of his deformed right leg he was quite athletic and turned out for Harrow in the annual cricket match at Lord’s against Eton. Byron was a strong swimmer and, in an effort to emulate Leander, once swam the Hellespont. He later said the swim from Abydos exhausted him so much that he feared Leander would not have had much energy left for his love, Hero - the beautiful priestess of Venus - waiting for him on the other side at Sestos! Byron was famously described by Lady Caroline Lamb, a former lover who continued to stalk him for many years, as "Mad, bad and dangerous to know". Some surmise that bipolar disorder caused Byron's tempestuous moods.

Byron Community

Nearly 200 years have gone by since the 4th and final canto of Childe Harold was published, yet Byron’s fame as a Romantic poet has not declined. The re-founding of the Byron Society in 1971 reflects the fascination that many people have for Byron and his work. This society has become very active, publishing a learned annual journal. Today there are some 36 International Byron Societies throughout the world, and an annual International Conference. Hardly a year passes without a new book about the poet being published. In the last 20 years two feature films about him have been made, and a television play has been screened. Note: The image shown here of Lord Byron is a photo of a portrait by Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun.

Preceded by:
William Byron 		Baron Byron Followed by:
George Anson Byron

See also

External links


References

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