Literature / Writer's Datebook: January 22
Brief biography of Lord Byron, English poet, leading figure in Romanticism, famous for his epic Don Juan and short poem "She Walks in Beauty."
Lord Byron was a leading poet of the 19th-century English Romantic movement. Among his best-known works are the narrative poems "Don Juan" and "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage". "Don Juan" remained incomplete on his death.
His daughter Ada Lovelace, notable in her own right, collaborated with Charles Babbage on the analytical engine, predecessor to modern computers.
Early Life of Lord Byron
Byron was born George Gordon Noel Byron in London on January 22, 1788. He was the son of Captain John "Mad Jack" Byron and his second wife, the former Catherine Gordon, heiress of Gight in Aberdeenshire, Scotland.
When he was three, his father died, after spending his mother's fortune so Byron and his mother experienced difficulties. But at the age 10, he inherited the family title, a great uncle's title and estates. He attended the prestigious Harrow School and Cambridge University.
The Poet and Early Poems
His first published poems, "Hours of Idleness", appeared when he was 19, but it was not well accepted. Two years later, he followed it with English Bards and Scotch Reviewers, a satirical piece that attacked the major literary figures of the time. It was also this time that he began a two-year grand tour of southern Europe to Turkey, that lead to his inspired long poem "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage".
British Romantic poet and satirist whose poetry and personality captured the imagination of Europe. Although made famous by the autobiographical poem Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812–18)—and his many love affairs—he is perhaps better known today for the satiric realism of Don Juan (1819–24).
There are two classic poems written by Lord Byron. The
first is "She Walks in Beauty Like the Night" where the poet tells about a
beautiful woman. The second poem, "There is Pleasure in the Pathless
Woods" tells of the beauty of exploring different places, as well as the desire for solitude. (Explore the idea!)
About his poem, "There is Pleasure in the Pathless Woods", as humans, we are are social creatures, yet we desire for solitude and for silence. Perhaps this is why paintings, music, and photographs of the natural world are so common and so popular. Likewise, the Romantic poet Lord Byron in his fourth canto of Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, included what has become known as ‘There is Pleasure in the Pathless Woods’, the one hundred-and-seventy-eighth verse of the much larger poem that reflects a strong desire for peace, quiet, and solitude.
Controversial Life
Lord Byron's fame rests not only in his writings but also in his life, which featured extravagant living, numerous love affairs, and allegations of incest and sodomy. At 26, he married Annabella Milbanke, but soon left him, shocked by the finding out of his affair with his half-sister Augusta. This scandal made Byron leave England for Italy.
He had new love conquests in Italy as well, but this time he wrote his witty poem, Don Juan, about a man's adventures with women. Don Juan is considered his masterpiece.
Support on Italian and Greek Freedom
Lord Byron travelled extensively across Europe, especially in Italy, where he lived for seven years in the cities of Venice, Ravenna and Pisa. During his stay in Italy he frequently visited his friend and fellow poet Percy Bysshe Shelley.
Later in life, Byron began his strong support on Italian and Greek freedom from foreign control. He joined the Greek War of Independence fighting the Ottoman Empire and died of disease leading a campaign during that war, for which Greeks revere him as a national hero.
He also served as a regional leader of Italy's revolutionary organization the Carbonari in its struggle against Austria. He later traveled to fight against the Turks in the Greek War of Independence, for which the Greeks consider him a national hero.
He died from fever in Missolonghi on April 19, 1824
Legacy
Byron wrote prolifically. In 1833 his publisher, John Murray, released the complete works in 17 octavo volumes. His magnum opus, Don Juan, a poem spanning 17 cantos, ranks as one of the most important long poems published in England since Milton's Paradise Lost.
The Byronic hero pervades much of Byron's work. Scholars have traced the literary history of the Byronic hero from Milton, and many authors, composers and artists of the Romantic Movement show Byron's influence during the 19th century and beyond. Today, many international Byron Societies exist reflecting fascination for his work.
Resources:
Cambridge Guide to Literature in English by Ian Ousby, Cambridge Univ. Press, 1993
Chambers Biographical Dictionary, edited by Una McGovern, Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap, 2002
Larousse Dictionary of Writers, edited by Rosemary Goring. New York: Larousse, 1994
(c) January 2009. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.
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