Lord Byron George Gordon Byron

George Gordon Byron

• 1788-1824• George Gordon Byron

simply known as Lord Byron

• Leading figure in Romanticism

• Born with a club-foot which caused him much humiliation

• Inherited his great-uncle’s title at the age of 10

Early Life

• Attended Cambridge University• Had romances with several women,

many of them married• Many bisexual love affairs and debts• Rumors of incest with his half-sister

Augusta Leigh, from whom he had a baby

Interesting Facts• It was alleged he had sex with over 250 women

over the course of a year while in Venice.• He fell in love with a man named John

Edleston while at school.• He fell ill a few days before he planned to

attack a Turkish Fortress. He died before he could attack the Fortress.

• He was born with a club foot and became extremely sensitive about his lameness.

More Interesting Facts• He owned a bear, fox, monkeys, parrot,

eagle, crocodile, falcon, peacock, badger, and his favorite his Newfoundland dog named Boatswain.

• He was accused of having sex with animals but it was never proven.

• He changed his name on more than one occasion.

• He had many affairs throughout his entire life.

• Left England in 1816, never to return – Affair with Shelley’s half sister Claire

• He died in Greece of a fever on 19 April 1824. – He had gone to fight for Political

freedom against Ottoman Empire. He died as a hero in their minds

Childe Harold's Pilgrimage• lengthy narrative poem It was published between 1812 and 1818.

– the travels and reflections of a world-weary young man disillusioned with a life of pleasure and revelry, looks for distraction in foreign lands;

– an expression of the melancholy and disillusionment felt by a generation weary of the wars of the post-Revolutionary and Napoleonic eras.

– The title comes from the term childe, a medieval title for a candidate for knighthood.

• The poem contains elements thought to be autobiographical. Byron traveled through the Mediterranean and Aegean Sea between 1809 and 1811[1]. – Byron's personal distaste for the poem: he felt it revealed too much of

himself, – brought him a large amount of public attention. Byron stated that he woke

up one day and "found myself famous."• The work provided the first example of the Byronic hero• The poem has four cantos written in Spenserian stanzas, which

consists of eight iambic pentameter lines followed by one alexandrine (a twelve syllable iambic line), and has rhyme pattern ABABBCBCC.

Don Juan

• Satiric poem based on the legend of Don Juan

• Portraying Juan not as a womanizer but as someone easily seduced by women

• Byron’s masterpiece• Social, political, literary, ideological levels• Two first cantos were published

anonymously• He completed 16 cantos, leaving the 17th

unfinished

Byronic hero.

• A distaste for social institutions and norms• An exile, an outcast, or an outlaw, a troubled past• Arrogant, Cynical, Disrespectful of rank and privilege• Cunning and ability to adapt, Struggles with integrity• “Dark” attributes not normally associated with a hero• Emotionally conflicted, bipolar tendencies, or moodiness• High level of intelligence and perception• Mysterious, magnetic, and charismatic• Powers of seduction and attraction lead to social and

sexual dominance• Self-destructive behavior, Self-critical and introspective• Sophisticated and well-educated

“SHE WALKS IN BEAUTY”

SHE walks in beauty, like the night     

Of cloudless climes and starry skies;  

And all that 's best of dark and bright     

Meet in her aspect and her eyes:  

Thus mellow'd to that tender light          5   

Which heaven to gaudy day denies.  

One shade the more, one ray the less,     

Had half impair'd the nameless grace  

Which waves in every raven tress,     

Or softly lightens o'er her face;   10

Where thoughts serenely sweet express     

How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.    

And on that cheek, and o'er that brow,    

 So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,  

The smiles that win, the tints that glow,   15   

But tell of days in goodness spent,  

A mind at peace with all below,     

A heart whose love is innocent!    

She Walks in Beauty 1814 by Lord Byron.

• not necessarily a love poem, but a celebration of the subject's beauty.

• Wrote this poem about his wife Harriet’s cousin– He met her at a funeral. (hence the allusions

to darkness, with the light referring to her beauty)

– he was taken aback. Nowhere in the poem does Byron mention or allude to love.

When We Two Parted by George Gordon Byron

When we two parted In silence and tears,Half broken-hearted To sever for years,Pale grew thy cheek and cold, Colder thy kiss;Truly that hour foretold Sorrow to this.

The dew of the morning Sunk chill on my brow-- It felt like the warning Of what I feel now.Thy vows are all broken, And light is thy fame;I hear thy name spoken, And share in its shame.

They name thee before me, A knell to mine ear;A shudder comes o'er me-- Why wert thou so dear?They know not I knew thee, Who knew thee too well--Long, long shall I rue thee, Too deeply to tell.

In secret we met-- In silence I grieve,That thy heart could forget, Thy spirit deceive.If I should meet thee After long years,How should I greet thee?-- With silence and tears.

“Always laugh when you can. It is cheap medicine.”

- Lord Byron