George Gordon Byron (1788 – 1824)
Introduction:
“And thus the heart will
break, yet brokenly live on.”
Mostly George Gordon Byron was known as Lord Byron. His poetry was full of imaginations and supernatural elements. His life was full of grief, as he wrote,
“My
days are in the yellow leaf,
The
flowers and fruits of love are gone:
The
worm, the canker, and the grief
Are mine alone”
Lord Byron was born George Gordon Noel Byron on January 22, 1788 in London. His mother, Catherine Gordon of Gight was a Scots heiress and his father, John Byron was captain referred to as "Mad Jack", who wasted the family's money and left the family to venture overseas, he never came back and died when he was 36. Byron was born with a club foot leaving him with a limp. He was always insecure and embarrassed by this. Byron had a rather difficult childhood. His nurse began sexually abusing Byron when he was only 10 years old. This early introduction to sexual maturity would complicate any relationship he would have.
Life:
In 1799, he went to school in Dulwich, then attended Trinity College in Cambridge. The next year he fell madly in love with his cousin Magaret Margaret Parker, who inspired his poetry. When she died two years later, he wrote "On the Death of a Young Lady". He published his first poem "Fugitive Pieces" in 1806, but it was met with rebuttal and harsh criticism on writing of the poet.
“Always laugh when you can, it is cheap
medicine.”
While on a grand road trip throughout Europe, Byron wrote "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage", which would serve as an autobiography ("adnax"). While writing his autobiography, he would take excerpts and over-dramatize them to create a new poem. His most famous poem "Don Juan", which he would never finish. Although Byron had many admires and gained great public fame through his writing, his main target was the critics. He often referred to them as "harpies that must be fed"
In January 1815, he married Annabella Millbank. In December, his daughter Augusta Ada Byron was born. The couple separated in January of the following year due to persistent rumours of Byron's relations with his half-sister, but the actual reason behind the separation was the revelation that Byron had practiced sodomy on the nursery governess. Byron signed divorce papers and left England, never to return. He then had a relationship with Claire Clarmont who would give birth to his second daughter Allegra. In Autumn of 1816, he left for Venice where he had multiple occasions with the local women.
In the summer of 1818, he completed the first canto of "Don Juan", but they refused to publish it on account of the "indelicacies". In April 1819, he met Countess Teresa Guicciolo, who was only 19 but married to a man three times her age. Byron won the affection of her father and brother who convinced him to join the revolutionary society of the Carbonari. He also helped the Greeks with with their War of independence from the Turks. There he bought an entire fleet and was the commander.
“The great object of life is sensation- to feel that we exist, even though in pain.”
In February he became ill and was bled with leeches; he was well for a while before relapsing in April. On April 19, 1824 he died and his body was embalmed. His heart was removed and buried in Missolonghi. The rest of his body was sent and buried near Newstead Abby. He was known as a “flamboyant” and well known for his romanticism, and was appointed as poet laureate in 1813. His role model throughout his life was Alexander Pope. Byron was remembered for his lavish ways, numerous love affairs with both sexes, his scandalous ways and most importantly for his passionate poems.
Literary Career:
In Lord Byron’s life, he was very well known for being flamboyant and
full of passion. During his journey of affairs, he fell in love with his cousin
Catherine. This path that he went down in his life inspired him to write his
poem “She Walks in Beauty” to describe Catherine’s beauty, comparing it to the
night and the starry skies. His tendency to observe women carefully is shown in
his poem as well.
This poem can be interpreted through a gender perspective, considering that Lord Byron was a male with a passionate emotion towards women. Through this poem, he expresses his deep feelings for women of beauty in nature. This is visible when he speaks of a woman that is like the night and how her innocence shines bright. Byron illustrates women as a pure and innocent creature. This shows how he views women as beautiful and harmless.
“If I do not write to empty my mind, I go mad.”
Byron was a British Romantic poet and
satirist whose poetry and personality captured the imagination of
Europe. Renowned as the “gloomy egoist” of his autobiographical
poem Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage (1812–18) in the 19th century, he is
now more generally esteemed for the satiric realism of Don
Juan (1819–24).
In 1806 Byron had his early poems privately printed in
a volume entitled Fugitive Pieces, and that same year he formed at Trinity
what was to be a close, lifelong friendship with John Cam Hobhouse, who
stirred his interest in liberal Whiggism. Byron’s first published volume of
poetry, Hours of Idleness, appeared in 1807. A
sarcastic critique of the book in The Edinburgh
Review provoked his retaliation in 1809 with a
couplet satire, English Bards and Scotch Reviewers, in which he
attacked the contemporary literary scene. This work gained him his first
recognition.
On reaching his majority in 1809, Byron took his seat in the House of Lords, and then embarked with Hobhouse on a grand tour. They sailed to Lisbon, crossed Spain, and proceeded by Gibraltar and Malta to Greece, where they ventured inland to Ioánnina and to Tepelene in Albania. In Greece Byron began Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, which he continued in Athens.
In March 1810 he sailed with Hobhouse for Constantinople (now Istanbul, Turkey), visited the site of Troy, and swam the Hellespont (present-day Dardanelles) in imitation of Leander. Byron’s sojourn in Greece made a lasting impression on him. The Greeks’ free and open frankness contrasted strongly with English reserve and hypocrisy and served to broaden his views of men and manners. He delighted in the sunshine and the moral tolerance of the people.
“You gave me the key to your heart, my love, then why did you make me knock?”
At the beginning of March 1811, the first two cantos
of Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage were published by John Murray,
and Byron “woke to find himself famous.” The poem describes the travels and
reflections of a young man who, disillusioned with a life of pleasure and
revelry, looks for distraction in foreign lands.
During the summer of 1813, Byron apparently entered
into intimate relations with his half-sister Augusta, now married to
Colonel George Leigh. He then carried on a flirtation with Lady Frances Webster
as a diversion from this dangerous liaison. The agitations of these two love
affairs and the sense of mingled guilt and exultation they aroused in Byron are
reflected in the series of gloomy and remorseful Oriental verse tales he wrote
at this time: The Giaour (1813); The Bride of Abydos (1813); The
Corsair (1814), which sold 10,000 copies on the day of publication;
and Lara (1814).
The first two cantos
of Don Juan were begun in 1818 and published in July 1819.
Byron transformed the legendary libertine Don Juan into an
unsophisticated, innocent young man who, though he
delightedly succumbs to the beautiful women who pursue him, remains a
rational norm against which to view the absurdities and irrationalities of the
world.
A serious illness in February 1824 weakened him, and in April he contracted the fever from which he died at Missolonghi on April 19. Deeply mourned, he became a symbol of disinterested patriotism and a Greek national hero. His body was brought back to England and, refused burial in Westminster Abbey, was placed in the family vault near Newstead. Ironically, 145 years after his death, a memorial to Byron was finally placed on the floor of the Abbey.
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