Biography Category
Name :
George Gordon Byron
Date :
Views :
557
Category :
Birth Date :
22/01/1788
Birth Place :
London
Death Date :
April 19, 1824
[b]Augustous Augusta[/b][br /]
[br /]
Here again when Byron's ardor cooled down, he returned to Augusta convincing Lady Melbourne that the attraction for Augusta was the strongest. But Augusta disagreed saying marriage was the only salvation and Byron again turned to Annabella Milbanke. He sent a tentative proposal to Annabella. Annabella was under an impression that she was destined to rescue and reform Byron, and so at once accepted the proposal. But the marriage, which took place in 1815, lasted only a year. A daughter Ada was born and soon after that Anna left for her mother’s home. Though Anna left her husband she could not suppress her mutual affection and wrote a loving letter to Byron. Two weeks later Annabella’s father made a proposal on separation. Augusta remained with Byron and so rumors of incest persisted. The real cause of separation was never known and Byron finally signed the papers on April 25, 1816. He sailed from Dover leaving the shore of England forever, he never saw England again. He, alongwith a few friends, traveled to Switzerland. On reaching Geneva on May 25, they took residence at Villa Diodati at Cologny on Lake Geneva, the same place where the 17th century literary genius John Milton had stayed in 1639. There, he also met another great poet P B Shelley and his wife Mary Shelley. They spent quite some time together and on the frosty evenings told and retold some ghost stories to one another. The ghost stories told then just to entertain others actually turned out to be the origins for two literary masterpieces: Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Polidori's The Vampyre. [br /]
[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
Here again when Byron's ardor cooled down, he returned to Augusta convincing Lady Melbourne that the attraction for Augusta was the strongest. But Augusta disagreed saying marriage was the only salvation and Byron again turned to Annabella Milbanke. He sent a tentative proposal to Annabella. Annabella was under an impression that she was destined to rescue and reform Byron, and so at once accepted the proposal. But the marriage, which took place in 1815, lasted only a year. A daughter Ada was born and soon after that Anna left for her mother’s home. Though Anna left her husband she could not suppress her mutual affection and wrote a loving letter to Byron. Two weeks later Annabella’s father made a proposal on separation. Augusta remained with Byron and so rumors of incest persisted. The real cause of separation was never known and Byron finally signed the papers on April 25, 1816. He sailed from Dover leaving the shore of England forever, he never saw England again. He, alongwith a few friends, traveled to Switzerland. On reaching Geneva on May 25, they took residence at Villa Diodati at Cologny on Lake Geneva, the same place where the 17th century literary genius John Milton had stayed in 1639. There, he also met another great poet P B Shelley and his wife Mary Shelley. They spent quite some time together and on the frosty evenings told and retold some ghost stories to one another. The ghost stories told then just to entertain others actually turned out to be the origins for two literary masterpieces: Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Polidori's The Vampyre. [br /]
[br /]
[br /]
[b]Birth[/b][br /]
[br /]
George Gordon Byron was born in London on January 22 in 1788 of an aristocratic ancestor, but with a clubfoot. Byron’s mother was a Scottish heiress, descent from James I of Scotland and was second wife to profligate Captain John Byron. John’s first wife was the wife of Marquis. John had eloped with her and from their marriage, a female child Augusta was born, the poet’s half sister of whom he saw very little during their childhood. Captain Byron wasted all the fortune of Mrs Byron (she was the only daughter of George Gordon, Laird of Gight in Aberdeenshire) even before the son was born and so Mrs Byron had to take the boy George to Aberdeen to survive in poverty stricken circumstances. Meanwhile the Captain, in order to escape from his creditors retreated to Paris and died in 1791 living a wastrel and philanderer’s life.[br /]
[br /]
[b]Background[/b][br /]
[br /]
Byron’s grandfather, Admiral John Byron, renowned explorer, was a younger brother of the 5th Baron Byron, who had frittered his inherited estate of Newstead Abbey, granted by Henry III. As the Baron Byron died in 1798, predeceased by his son and grandson, the Lordship came to the Little Lame boy in Aberdeen. The mother took the boy to Newstead, and then sent him to a school in London. Her solicitor, John Hanson, helped boy George to get a government allowance for his education at Harrow and later at Trinity College, Cambridge.[br /]
[br /]
[b]The Unusual Youth[/b][br /]
[br /]
George often quarreled with his mother when she scolded him for his disobedience and extravagance. He left Cambridge but could not leave his inherent nature and so he moved to London and there he indulged himself in some mild dissipation and piled up debts with moneylenders. His boastings about his exploits with women in his letters is nothing but his habitual mode of expression. A meticulous reading of his letters would reveal that his facetiousness concealed the depth of his true feelings. His callousness in his treatment of women is just a flippant remark and not at all the truth. Byron had a naturally affectionate nature inspite of his being initiated into sex play by a pious Scottish maid and the circumstances might have caused a permanent trauma. J Cordy Jefferson, a 19th century biographer had this to say about his later extravagancies in Venice "However dissolute she might be, the woman he regarded with passion became for the moment the object of an affection that was no less tender than transient."[br /]
[br /]
Byron’s homosexual tendencies increased after his attachment to younger boys at Harrow and in the words of John Edleston, a Cambridge choirboy, it blossomed with his "Violent, though pure love and passion". However Byron’s tendency is better found in Leslie A Marchand’s biography : "How early Byron was aware of the sexual implications of these passionate friendships he formed at Harrow….. Byron’s attraction to women, however, did on the whole, fulfill his emotional needs much more extensively and through longer periods of his life, though it was not necessarily stronger in individual instances."[br /]
[br /]
[b]House Of Lords[/b][br /]
[br /]
Lord Byron entered the House of Lords on March 13, 1807 and strongly advocated social reforms during his tenure. In 1811 he defended the actions of the Luddites. Next year, when the Frame Breaking Bill was proposed in the House, he was among those who opposed it and the death-penalty to Luddites. Byron's political views found expression in his poems too. Important examples include Song for the Luddites and The Landlords' Interest. Byron also attacked his political opponents such as the Duke of Wellington in Wellington: The Best of the Cut-Throats and Lord Castlereagh in The Intellectual Eunuch Castlereagh. During these two years he lived his usual way and spent money thoughtlessly and carelessly.[br /]
[br /]
[b]On Voyage[/b][br /]
[br /]
Byron’s debts kept on mounting and before he embarked on a grand tour in 1809, it reached up to £ 13,000. And still, just in order to have the company of his friend John Cam Hobhouse, Byron borrowed further to lend money to him from usurers.[br /]
[br /]
Traveling through Portugal, Spain, Gibraltar finally reaching Malta, Byron fell in love with a married woman and even fought a duel over her. He met Mrs Spencer Smith onboard. She was born at Constantinople to an Austrian Ambassador. Her marriage to the British Minister at Stuttgart was not a happy one. Mrs Spencer Smith was suspected for some conspiracy and was imprisoned once. She was on her way to England to join her husband there. however the duel set for September 19, 1809 was avoided for some unknown reason.[br /]
[br /]
Byron admired her a lot, calling her 'a very extraordinary woman'. They immediately developed liking for her and the lonely woman too found a great companion in Byron. He also came into confrontation with some Captain Cary due to Mrs Spencer Smith,[br /]
[br /]
They sailed for Greece and Albania, and visited Ali Pasha the mild–mannered but cruel ruler of Albania. Arriving in Athens on Christmas Day, they took lodgings with Macri, a widow having three young daughters. Though the three of them were not more than 15, were able to enchant Byron to such an extent that he immortalized the youngest, Teresa, as "The Maid of Athens". While going to Constantinopole, Byron swam the Hellspont and the public and his friends were amazed by his swimming skill. Byron spent another year in Athens without his friend John Hobhouse, who had by then left for home. This was something unusual for Byron as Hobhouse had been his such an intimate friend since his college days and they had shared many a great moments together, including being the bestman at Byron's wedding.[br /]
[br /]
Before his Grand Tour, he published a volume of Juvenile poems, though it was mostly imitation, they had some originality also. When the Edinburgh Review ridiculed it, Byron came out with a satire English Bards and Scetch Reviewers, striking back. It was modeled on the Popean style of William Giffard. When Byron returned in 1811, he had with him the manuscript of a long autobiographical poem in Spenserian stanzas. It was the description of his Journey. The rambling stanzas were interspersed with melancholy reflections and disillusioned observation setting the moods of many people during the Napoleon war. John Murray published it making Byron a famous man. Byron was so much engrossed with the poem that even after delivering a maiden speech in the House of Lords, he made up his mind, not to proceed with a parliamentary career. Before Byron could reach Newstead, his long ailing mother died on July 14, 1811.[br /]
[br /]
[b]The Poet And The Man[/b][br /]
[br /]
The Poems lionized Byron as Lion of Society and welcomed him every where. He stepped into the highest echelons of the society, which made him acquainted with some of its leading figures. His handsome looks and melancholy poetry worked well to arouse interest of the feminine society. Lady Caroline Lamb, a whimsical character and the spoiled child of a grandee, became infatuated with Byron and he temporarily succumbed to her charms, until her total lack of maturity and the violent emotions cooled his passions and finally disgusted him. After the Caroline episode, Lady Oxford’s charms comforted Byron. Meanwhile, Byron rambled with the idea of marrying Annabella Milbanke, Caroline’s sensible cousin. For this he took the help of Caroline’s mother-in-law, Lady Melbourne to know Annabella’s feeling but Annabella politely turned him down saying she wanted to be a good friend only. When Lady Oxford went abroad with her husband, Byron fell in Love with Augusta Leigh, his half sister, married to her cousin Colonel George Leigh and mother of a growing family. To stop this liaison Lady Melbourne encouraged Byron’s attachment with Lady Fiances Webster.[br /]
[br /]
[b]Augustous Augusta[/b][br /]
[br /]
Here again when Byron's ardor cooled down, he returned to Augusta convincing Lady Melbourne that the attraction for Augusta was the strongest. But Augusta disagreed saying marriage was the only salvation and Byron again turned to Annabella Milbanke. He sent a tentative proposal to Annabella. Annabella was under an impression that she was destined to rescue and reform Byron, and so at once accepted the proposal. But the marriage, which took place in 1815, lasted only a year. A daughter Ada was born and soon after that Anna left for her mother’s home. Though Anna left her husband she could not suppress her mutual affection and wrote a loving letter to Byron. Two weeks later Annabella’s father made a proposal on separation. Augusta remained with Byron and so rumors of incest persisted. The real cause of separation was never known and Byron finally signed the papers on April 25, 1816. He sailed from Dover leaving the shore of England forever, he never saw England again. He, alongwith a few friends, traveled to Switzerland. On reaching Geneva on May 25, they took residence at Villa Diodati at Cologny on Lake Geneva, the same place where the 17th century literary genius John Milton had stayed in 1639. There, he also met another great poet P B Shelley and his wife Mary Shelley. They spent quite some time together and on the frosty evenings told and retold some ghost stories to one another. The ghost stories told then just to entertain others actually turned out to be the origins for two literary masterpieces: Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Polidori's The Vampyre. [br /]
[br /]
[b]The Poet At Work[/b][br /]
[br /]
The publication of Childe Harold made Byron a popular figure of world far exceeding any other English literary figure of his time. His Oriental Tale, The Corsair had a wide circulation and sold 10,000 copies on the day of publication. With this Byron stepped into an exclusive club of most famous of his contemporaries. Byron’s meeting with Walter Scott turned into a lifelong friendship. He got the company of Sheridan in drinking and while on a theatre committee, urged Coleridge to write a tragedy for it and also wrote prologue for a new theatre. His poetry became the safety value of his pent-up emotions, which were generally written after returning home from the late night parties or in the early hours of the morning. However the melancholy and disillusionment of his poems is not found in his letters.[br /]
[br /]
[b]The Great Minds At Work[/b][br /]
[br /]
The year 1816 saw the first meeting of Byron and Shelley. Later Byron mingled intimately not only with Shelley but also Mary Godwin (later Shelley) and her stepsister Claire Claremont. Third canto of Childe Harold, The Parishioner of Chillon, and Manfred appeared at the time of the birth of his third illegitimate child Allegra who was born in England and was soon sent to Italy where Byron was stationed. Allegra pleased Byron but he ignored her mother. The child was admitted to a convent school but she died at the tender age of five.[br /]
[br /]
[b]Among The Alps[/b][br /]
[br /]
Byron left Geneva and passing through Bernese Alps reached Italy. He settled in Venice, ‘the greenest island’ of his imagination and lodged with a merchant and soon fell in love with his wife, Marianna Segati. This illegal relation continued for more than a year during which Byron studied Armenian at the monastery of San Lazzaro, visited the theatre to listen Rossini operas, rode his horses on the Lido and completed the fourth canto of Childe Harold. Then he followed his journey to Rome in 1817.[br /]
[br /]
Byron, while engaged in frivolities and buffoonery of the carnival, encountered a dozen of Venetian women (he once estimated 200) from almost all stratas of society. Margarita Coglis, the "Fornarina" or baker’s wife, was a favorite.[br /]
[br /]
[b]The Turning Point[/b][br /]
[br /]
Byron broke with Marianna Segati, who sold his gifts for profit, and rented the Palazzo Mocehigo on the Grand Canal. Two events changed the course of Byron’s life. One was the discovery of the Ottava rima verse to facilitate the story of Venetian life called Beppo which Byron used later in Don Juan the perfect example of his unconventional expression of every thought and mood.[br /]
[br /]
The second event was the meeting with Countess Teresa Guiccioli, daughter of a Ravenna aristocrat, aged 20 and married to an old man of 57, an eccentric rich man having two wives. Byron, tired of philandering, unknowingly fell in deep love with her and the Countess, impressed by this handsome poet could not resist herself. Dante was often the topic of discussion for them.[br /]
[br /]
Shortly the Countess unwillingly returned to Ravenna with her husband but not before cementing their pact and accomplishing the union. Byron followed the Countess to Ravenna and started working as a servant at the Count’s house to continue the liaison, till he left for Greece in 1823, saying it, "the strictest adultery.[br /]
[br /]
" When Countess left her husband and departed for her father’s house at Pisa, Byron followed her there and just for the sake of alimony she remained under her father’s roof. Practically, she and Byron had already settled into a contented marriage by then.[br /]
[br /]
At Ravenna, Byron joined the Carbonars (the secret revolutionary society aimed at overthrowing the Austrians). Due to the lack of Italian unity the movement failed. But the insurrection was expected any time and under such tense situation Byron wrote a poetic drama and also planned another. In Cain, Byron questioned some orthodox religious views while in Don Juan he freely dealt with the sexual matters. This became a serious concern for his publisher as his popularity could wane, but Byron never compromised. Before living Ravenna, he composed a factitious but grave unorthodox Vision of Judgment in which George III and Southy, the poet were ridiculed.[br /]
[br /]
[b]Among The Best[/b][br /]
[br /]
In Pisa, Byron again encountered Shelley and entered his circle, which included Thomas Medwin and Edward John Trelawing, who later accompanied him to Greece. Leigh Hunt had come to Italy at Shelley’s invitation to edit with them a new periodical, The Liberal, when Shelley died of the drowning accident. The responsibility of Leigh Hunt and his big family fell on Byron’s shoulder. Byron’s Vision of Judgment finally appeared in The Liberal, which evoked violent reactions in England.
[br /]
[br /]
[b]Association With Greek Movement[/b][br /]
[br /]
After Shelley’s death Byron, including the Hunts and Mary Shelley moved to Genoa. Murray’s quarrel with Byron turned all work of Byron to John Hunt, Leigh’s brother, who published all of Don Juan after Canto 5, and the rest of Byron’s poems. Byron’s health started deteriorating, as he became weak and thin causing various ailments. At this moment of life two events elated his spirits. The Earl and the Countess of Blessington with Count Alfred D’ Orsay arrived in Genoa for few months. Byron accompanied them while dining and travelling. Byron’s Association with them matched his own social status for the first time since he came abroad, and a free conversation about his years at England acted as a safety valves of his emotion. Secondly, Byron got an invitation to join the London-Greek committee and act as their agent at the seat of war. He gladly accepted the offer to assist the Greeks in their struggle for independence from the Turks. Thus after a quiet domesticity of the life at Genoa, the elation for Byron was obvious, anticipating a more active life at Greece.[br /]
[br /]
In 1823, Byron landed at Argostoli on the Ionian Island of Cephalonia. Over there, he tried hard to unite the Greek for their fight against the Turks.[br /]
[br /]
He used his personal loan of £ 4000 to activate Greek fleet, which sailed to Missolenghi. Mavrocordotos, who then became the governor–general of western Greece, accompanied the fleet. In 1824 Byron joined Mavrocordotos there. He was still trying his level best to unite the self–seeking and irreconcilable factions, though he was sad upon knowing that the Suliote soldiers, whom Byron thought to be the bravest of Greeks, were interested only in their pay. Finally the soldiers refused to march against the Turkish Fort. However, Byron sought some satisfaction in convincing both the Turks and Greeks to adopt a humane treatment to captives by releasing some Turkish prisoners.[br /]
[br /]
[b]Mortal End[/b][br /]
[br /]
Byron’s last days became pathetic by an unrequited attachment to a Greek boy Lukas Chalandritsanos who had come from Cephalonia along with Byron. Byron’s last three poems were dedicated to the boy. Byron died of fever on April 19, 1824. His body was brought back to England and buried with his ancestors at Hucknall Torkad Church, near Newstead Abbey.[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
George Gordon Byron was born in London on January 22 in 1788 of an aristocratic ancestor, but with a clubfoot. Byron’s mother was a Scottish heiress, descent from James I of Scotland and was second wife to profligate Captain John Byron. John’s first wife was the wife of Marquis. John had eloped with her and from their marriage, a female child Augusta was born, the poet’s half sister of whom he saw very little during their childhood. Captain Byron wasted all the fortune of Mrs Byron (she was the only daughter of George Gordon, Laird of Gight in Aberdeenshire) even before the son was born and so Mrs Byron had to take the boy George to Aberdeen to survive in poverty stricken circumstances. Meanwhile the Captain, in order to escape from his creditors retreated to Paris and died in 1791 living a wastrel and philanderer’s life.[br /]
[br /]
[b]Background[/b][br /]
[br /]
Byron’s grandfather, Admiral John Byron, renowned explorer, was a younger brother of the 5th Baron Byron, who had frittered his inherited estate of Newstead Abbey, granted by Henry III. As the Baron Byron died in 1798, predeceased by his son and grandson, the Lordship came to the Little Lame boy in Aberdeen. The mother took the boy to Newstead, and then sent him to a school in London. Her solicitor, John Hanson, helped boy George to get a government allowance for his education at Harrow and later at Trinity College, Cambridge.[br /]
[br /]
[b]The Unusual Youth[/b][br /]
[br /]
George often quarreled with his mother when she scolded him for his disobedience and extravagance. He left Cambridge but could not leave his inherent nature and so he moved to London and there he indulged himself in some mild dissipation and piled up debts with moneylenders. His boastings about his exploits with women in his letters is nothing but his habitual mode of expression. A meticulous reading of his letters would reveal that his facetiousness concealed the depth of his true feelings. His callousness in his treatment of women is just a flippant remark and not at all the truth. Byron had a naturally affectionate nature inspite of his being initiated into sex play by a pious Scottish maid and the circumstances might have caused a permanent trauma. J Cordy Jefferson, a 19th century biographer had this to say about his later extravagancies in Venice "However dissolute she might be, the woman he regarded with passion became for the moment the object of an affection that was no less tender than transient."[br /]
[br /]
Byron’s homosexual tendencies increased after his attachment to younger boys at Harrow and in the words of John Edleston, a Cambridge choirboy, it blossomed with his "Violent, though pure love and passion". However Byron’s tendency is better found in Leslie A Marchand’s biography : "How early Byron was aware of the sexual implications of these passionate friendships he formed at Harrow….. Byron’s attraction to women, however, did on the whole, fulfill his emotional needs much more extensively and through longer periods of his life, though it was not necessarily stronger in individual instances."[br /]
[br /]
[b]House Of Lords[/b][br /]
[br /]
Lord Byron entered the House of Lords on March 13, 1807 and strongly advocated social reforms during his tenure. In 1811 he defended the actions of the Luddites. Next year, when the Frame Breaking Bill was proposed in the House, he was among those who opposed it and the death-penalty to Luddites. Byron's political views found expression in his poems too. Important examples include Song for the Luddites and The Landlords' Interest. Byron also attacked his political opponents such as the Duke of Wellington in Wellington: The Best of the Cut-Throats and Lord Castlereagh in The Intellectual Eunuch Castlereagh. During these two years he lived his usual way and spent money thoughtlessly and carelessly.[br /]
[br /]
[b]On Voyage[/b][br /]
[br /]
Byron’s debts kept on mounting and before he embarked on a grand tour in 1809, it reached up to £ 13,000. And still, just in order to have the company of his friend John Cam Hobhouse, Byron borrowed further to lend money to him from usurers.[br /]
[br /]
Traveling through Portugal, Spain, Gibraltar finally reaching Malta, Byron fell in love with a married woman and even fought a duel over her. He met Mrs Spencer Smith onboard. She was born at Constantinople to an Austrian Ambassador. Her marriage to the British Minister at Stuttgart was not a happy one. Mrs Spencer Smith was suspected for some conspiracy and was imprisoned once. She was on her way to England to join her husband there. however the duel set for September 19, 1809 was avoided for some unknown reason.[br /]
[br /]
Byron admired her a lot, calling her 'a very extraordinary woman'. They immediately developed liking for her and the lonely woman too found a great companion in Byron. He also came into confrontation with some Captain Cary due to Mrs Spencer Smith,[br /]
[br /]
They sailed for Greece and Albania, and visited Ali Pasha the mild–mannered but cruel ruler of Albania. Arriving in Athens on Christmas Day, they took lodgings with Macri, a widow having three young daughters. Though the three of them were not more than 15, were able to enchant Byron to such an extent that he immortalized the youngest, Teresa, as "The Maid of Athens". While going to Constantinopole, Byron swam the Hellspont and the public and his friends were amazed by his swimming skill. Byron spent another year in Athens without his friend John Hobhouse, who had by then left for home. This was something unusual for Byron as Hobhouse had been his such an intimate friend since his college days and they had shared many a great moments together, including being the bestman at Byron's wedding.[br /]
[br /]
Before his Grand Tour, he published a volume of Juvenile poems, though it was mostly imitation, they had some originality also. When the Edinburgh Review ridiculed it, Byron came out with a satire English Bards and Scetch Reviewers, striking back. It was modeled on the Popean style of William Giffard. When Byron returned in 1811, he had with him the manuscript of a long autobiographical poem in Spenserian stanzas. It was the description of his Journey. The rambling stanzas were interspersed with melancholy reflections and disillusioned observation setting the moods of many people during the Napoleon war. John Murray published it making Byron a famous man. Byron was so much engrossed with the poem that even after delivering a maiden speech in the House of Lords, he made up his mind, not to proceed with a parliamentary career. Before Byron could reach Newstead, his long ailing mother died on July 14, 1811.[br /]
[br /]
[b]The Poet And The Man[/b][br /]
[br /]
The Poems lionized Byron as Lion of Society and welcomed him every where. He stepped into the highest echelons of the society, which made him acquainted with some of its leading figures. His handsome looks and melancholy poetry worked well to arouse interest of the feminine society. Lady Caroline Lamb, a whimsical character and the spoiled child of a grandee, became infatuated with Byron and he temporarily succumbed to her charms, until her total lack of maturity and the violent emotions cooled his passions and finally disgusted him. After the Caroline episode, Lady Oxford’s charms comforted Byron. Meanwhile, Byron rambled with the idea of marrying Annabella Milbanke, Caroline’s sensible cousin. For this he took the help of Caroline’s mother-in-law, Lady Melbourne to know Annabella’s feeling but Annabella politely turned him down saying she wanted to be a good friend only. When Lady Oxford went abroad with her husband, Byron fell in Love with Augusta Leigh, his half sister, married to her cousin Colonel George Leigh and mother of a growing family. To stop this liaison Lady Melbourne encouraged Byron’s attachment with Lady Fiances Webster.[br /]
[br /]
[b]Augustous Augusta[/b][br /]
[br /]
Here again when Byron's ardor cooled down, he returned to Augusta convincing Lady Melbourne that the attraction for Augusta was the strongest. But Augusta disagreed saying marriage was the only salvation and Byron again turned to Annabella Milbanke. He sent a tentative proposal to Annabella. Annabella was under an impression that she was destined to rescue and reform Byron, and so at once accepted the proposal. But the marriage, which took place in 1815, lasted only a year. A daughter Ada was born and soon after that Anna left for her mother’s home. Though Anna left her husband she could not suppress her mutual affection and wrote a loving letter to Byron. Two weeks later Annabella’s father made a proposal on separation. Augusta remained with Byron and so rumors of incest persisted. The real cause of separation was never known and Byron finally signed the papers on April 25, 1816. He sailed from Dover leaving the shore of England forever, he never saw England again. He, alongwith a few friends, traveled to Switzerland. On reaching Geneva on May 25, they took residence at Villa Diodati at Cologny on Lake Geneva, the same place where the 17th century literary genius John Milton had stayed in 1639. There, he also met another great poet P B Shelley and his wife Mary Shelley. They spent quite some time together and on the frosty evenings told and retold some ghost stories to one another. The ghost stories told then just to entertain others actually turned out to be the origins for two literary masterpieces: Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Polidori's The Vampyre. [br /]
[br /]
[b]The Poet At Work[/b][br /]
[br /]
The publication of Childe Harold made Byron a popular figure of world far exceeding any other English literary figure of his time. His Oriental Tale, The Corsair had a wide circulation and sold 10,000 copies on the day of publication. With this Byron stepped into an exclusive club of most famous of his contemporaries. Byron’s meeting with Walter Scott turned into a lifelong friendship. He got the company of Sheridan in drinking and while on a theatre committee, urged Coleridge to write a tragedy for it and also wrote prologue for a new theatre. His poetry became the safety value of his pent-up emotions, which were generally written after returning home from the late night parties or in the early hours of the morning. However the melancholy and disillusionment of his poems is not found in his letters.[br /]
[br /]
[b]The Great Minds At Work[/b][br /]
[br /]
The year 1816 saw the first meeting of Byron and Shelley. Later Byron mingled intimately not only with Shelley but also Mary Godwin (later Shelley) and her stepsister Claire Claremont. Third canto of Childe Harold, The Parishioner of Chillon, and Manfred appeared at the time of the birth of his third illegitimate child Allegra who was born in England and was soon sent to Italy where Byron was stationed. Allegra pleased Byron but he ignored her mother. The child was admitted to a convent school but she died at the tender age of five.[br /]
[br /]
[b]Among The Alps[/b][br /]
[br /]
Byron left Geneva and passing through Bernese Alps reached Italy. He settled in Venice, ‘the greenest island’ of his imagination and lodged with a merchant and soon fell in love with his wife, Marianna Segati. This illegal relation continued for more than a year during which Byron studied Armenian at the monastery of San Lazzaro, visited the theatre to listen Rossini operas, rode his horses on the Lido and completed the fourth canto of Childe Harold. Then he followed his journey to Rome in 1817.[br /]
[br /]
Byron, while engaged in frivolities and buffoonery of the carnival, encountered a dozen of Venetian women (he once estimated 200) from almost all stratas of society. Margarita Coglis, the "Fornarina" or baker’s wife, was a favorite.[br /]
[br /]
[b]The Turning Point[/b][br /]
[br /]
Byron broke with Marianna Segati, who sold his gifts for profit, and rented the Palazzo Mocehigo on the Grand Canal. Two events changed the course of Byron’s life. One was the discovery of the Ottava rima verse to facilitate the story of Venetian life called Beppo which Byron used later in Don Juan the perfect example of his unconventional expression of every thought and mood.[br /]
[br /]
The second event was the meeting with Countess Teresa Guiccioli, daughter of a Ravenna aristocrat, aged 20 and married to an old man of 57, an eccentric rich man having two wives. Byron, tired of philandering, unknowingly fell in deep love with her and the Countess, impressed by this handsome poet could not resist herself. Dante was often the topic of discussion for them.[br /]
[br /]
Shortly the Countess unwillingly returned to Ravenna with her husband but not before cementing their pact and accomplishing the union. Byron followed the Countess to Ravenna and started working as a servant at the Count’s house to continue the liaison, till he left for Greece in 1823, saying it, "the strictest adultery.[br /]
[br /]
" When Countess left her husband and departed for her father’s house at Pisa, Byron followed her there and just for the sake of alimony she remained under her father’s roof. Practically, she and Byron had already settled into a contented marriage by then.[br /]
[br /]
At Ravenna, Byron joined the Carbonars (the secret revolutionary society aimed at overthrowing the Austrians). Due to the lack of Italian unity the movement failed. But the insurrection was expected any time and under such tense situation Byron wrote a poetic drama and also planned another. In Cain, Byron questioned some orthodox religious views while in Don Juan he freely dealt with the sexual matters. This became a serious concern for his publisher as his popularity could wane, but Byron never compromised. Before living Ravenna, he composed a factitious but grave unorthodox Vision of Judgment in which George III and Southy, the poet were ridiculed.[br /]
[br /]
[b]Among The Best[/b][br /]
[br /]
In Pisa, Byron again encountered Shelley and entered his circle, which included Thomas Medwin and Edward John Trelawing, who later accompanied him to Greece. Leigh Hunt had come to Italy at Shelley’s invitation to edit with them a new periodical, The Liberal, when Shelley died of the drowning accident. The responsibility of Leigh Hunt and his big family fell on Byron’s shoulder. Byron’s Vision of Judgment finally appeared in The Liberal, which evoked violent reactions in England.
[br /]
[br /]
[b]Association With Greek Movement[/b][br /]
[br /]
After Shelley’s death Byron, including the Hunts and Mary Shelley moved to Genoa. Murray’s quarrel with Byron turned all work of Byron to John Hunt, Leigh’s brother, who published all of Don Juan after Canto 5, and the rest of Byron’s poems. Byron’s health started deteriorating, as he became weak and thin causing various ailments. At this moment of life two events elated his spirits. The Earl and the Countess of Blessington with Count Alfred D’ Orsay arrived in Genoa for few months. Byron accompanied them while dining and travelling. Byron’s Association with them matched his own social status for the first time since he came abroad, and a free conversation about his years at England acted as a safety valves of his emotion. Secondly, Byron got an invitation to join the London-Greek committee and act as their agent at the seat of war. He gladly accepted the offer to assist the Greeks in their struggle for independence from the Turks. Thus after a quiet domesticity of the life at Genoa, the elation for Byron was obvious, anticipating a more active life at Greece.[br /]
[br /]
In 1823, Byron landed at Argostoli on the Ionian Island of Cephalonia. Over there, he tried hard to unite the Greek for their fight against the Turks.[br /]
[br /]
He used his personal loan of £ 4000 to activate Greek fleet, which sailed to Missolenghi. Mavrocordotos, who then became the governor–general of western Greece, accompanied the fleet. In 1824 Byron joined Mavrocordotos there. He was still trying his level best to unite the self–seeking and irreconcilable factions, though he was sad upon knowing that the Suliote soldiers, whom Byron thought to be the bravest of Greeks, were interested only in their pay. Finally the soldiers refused to march against the Turkish Fort. However, Byron sought some satisfaction in convincing both the Turks and Greeks to adopt a humane treatment to captives by releasing some Turkish prisoners.[br /]
[br /]
[b]Mortal End[/b][br /]
[br /]
Byron’s last days became pathetic by an unrequited attachment to a Greek boy Lukas Chalandritsanos who had come from Cephalonia along with Byron. Byron’s last three poems were dedicated to the boy. Byron died of fever on April 19, 1824. His body was brought back to England and buried with his ancestors at Hucknall Torkad Church, near Newstead Abbey.[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
[b]George Gordon Byron (1788 – 1824) [/b][br /]
[br /]
Better known as Lord Byron, George Gordon Byron has been the most squabbling figure in the world of literary history. To write of Byron meant to be, in some unavoidable measure, to scold. Even in his infancy he fought with little boys and fell out with his masters and his nurse. Later on even to know his affair seems to be falling into some quarrel or another. Once Dr Kennedy wrote of him "I have been asked by some if his appearance and manner did not convey the idea of a fiend incarnate."[br /]
[br /]
Byron was of the world worldly – having nothing of the transcendental Romanticist’s sense of being a seer poet, the voice of some divine creative inspiration. More than Wordsworth or Keats, he was "a man speaking to men", not in terms of inspired poetry, but in terms of reason and honest feeling. Byron, though being a great poet had little regard for poetry, which resulted in verbal carelessness, which was also due to adamancy to revise or polish. Literature as an aesthetic entity never won his sympathies. Nevertheless his very contempt for poetry contributed to uniqueness in his literary product which ought to be considered a compensation for the resultant imperfections of style and structure.[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
Better known as Lord Byron, George Gordon Byron has been the most squabbling figure in the world of literary history. To write of Byron meant to be, in some unavoidable measure, to scold. Even in his infancy he fought with little boys and fell out with his masters and his nurse. Later on even to know his affair seems to be falling into some quarrel or another. Once Dr Kennedy wrote of him "I have been asked by some if his appearance and manner did not convey the idea of a fiend incarnate."[br /]
[br /]
Byron was of the world worldly – having nothing of the transcendental Romanticist’s sense of being a seer poet, the voice of some divine creative inspiration. More than Wordsworth or Keats, he was "a man speaking to men", not in terms of inspired poetry, but in terms of reason and honest feeling. Byron, though being a great poet had little regard for poetry, which resulted in verbal carelessness, which was also due to adamancy to revise or polish. Literature as an aesthetic entity never won his sympathies. Nevertheless his very contempt for poetry contributed to uniqueness in his literary product which ought to be considered a compensation for the resultant imperfections of style and structure.[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
[h2]Chronology of Works[/h2][br /]
[br /]
[b]1806[/b][br /]
Fugitive Pieces (volume of poems) printed, but Byron withdrew the volume as Reverend John Beecher objected.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1807[/b][br /]
Poems on Various Occasions, (expurgated Version of Fugitive Pieces) privately printed. Later it appeared in a public circulation as Hours of Idleness.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1809[/b][br /]
Publication of English Berds and Scotch Reviewers, began work on Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1813[/b][br /]
Publication of The Giaour and The Bride of Abydes.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1814[/b][br /]
Publication of The Corsair and Lara.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1815[/b][br /]
Publication of Hebrew Melodies.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1816[/b][br /]
The Siege of Corinth and Parisina published. Also Childe Harold Canto III and The Prisoner of Chillon published.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1817 [/b][br /]
Manfred published in June.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1818[/b][br /]
Beppo (satire in the ottava sima of Don Juan) published.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1819[/b][br /]
Mazeppa and Don Juan I and II published.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1821
[/b][br /]
Marino Faliero, Don Juan Cantos III – V, Cain, The Two Foscari and Sardanapalus published.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1822[/b][br /]
Vision of Judgment appears in The Liberal.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1823[/b][br /]
Don Juan Cantos VI – XIV published.[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
[h2]Chronology of Life[/h2][br /]
[br /]
[b]1788[/b][br /]
Byron born in London.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1790[/b][br /]
Moved to Aberdeen (Scotland) along with his mother.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1793[/b][br /]
Admitted to school in Aberdeen.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1794-95[/b][br /]
Attended Aberdeen grammar school, inherited the title ‘Baron Byron of Rochdale’ upon the death of his uncle.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1798[/b][br /]
Titled Lord Byron. Moved to Newstead Abbey, ancestral home of Byrons along with his mother.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1801-05[/b][br /]
Attended Harrow school.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1805[/b][br /]
Entered Trinity College, Cambridge.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1807[/b][br /]
Byron took his seat in the House of Lords.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1808[/b][br /]
Byron received his A M degree from Cambridge.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1809[/b][br /]
Left Talmouth for Lisbon travelling through Portugal, Spain, Malta and Albania, reaching Athens at the end of the year.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1810[/b][br /]
Visited Greece and Turkey.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1811[/b][br /]
Returned to England. Mother’s death.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1812[/b][br /]
Delivered speeches in the House of Lords. Met his future wife Annabella Milbanke.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1815[/b][br /]
Byron married Annabella.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1816[/b][br /]
Annabella left Byron. Separation formalized later on. Visited Venice.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1817[/b][br /]
Daughter Allegra born to Claire Clairmont, Byron’s friend.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1820[/b][br /]
Lived in the Guiccioli Palace with Allegra. [br /]
Joined the Carbonari movement, the Italian revolution against Austrian rule.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1822[/b][br /]
With the death of Allegra, Leigh Hunt moved to Byron’s house to collaborate on the journal The Liberal.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1823[/b][br /]
Byron sailed to Greece, arriving at Missolonghi.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1824[/b][br /]
Died at Missolonghi on April 19.[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
[h2]Chronology of Works[/h2][br /]
[br /]
[b]1806[/b][br /]
Fugitive Pieces (volume of poems) printed, but Byron withdrew the volume as Reverend John Beecher objected.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1807[/b][br /]
Poems on Various Occasions, (expurgated Version of Fugitive Pieces) privately printed. Later it appeared in a public circulation as Hours of Idleness.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1809[/b][br /]
Publication of English Berds and Scotch Reviewers, began work on Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1813[/b][br /]
Publication of The Giaour and The Bride of Abydes.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1814[/b][br /]
Publication of The Corsair and Lara.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1815[/b][br /]
Publication of Hebrew Melodies.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1816[/b][br /]
The Siege of Corinth and Parisina published. Also Childe Harold Canto III and The Prisoner of Chillon published.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1817 [/b][br /]
Manfred published in June.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1818[/b][br /]
Beppo (satire in the ottava sima of Don Juan) published.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1819[/b][br /]
Mazeppa and Don Juan I and II published.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1821
[/b][br /]
Marino Faliero, Don Juan Cantos III – V, Cain, The Two Foscari and Sardanapalus published.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1822[/b][br /]
Vision of Judgment appears in The Liberal.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1823[/b][br /]
Don Juan Cantos VI – XIV published.[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
[h2]Chronology of Life[/h2][br /]
[br /]
[b]1788[/b][br /]
Byron born in London.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1790[/b][br /]
Moved to Aberdeen (Scotland) along with his mother.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1793[/b][br /]
Admitted to school in Aberdeen.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1794-95[/b][br /]
Attended Aberdeen grammar school, inherited the title ‘Baron Byron of Rochdale’ upon the death of his uncle.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1798[/b][br /]
Titled Lord Byron. Moved to Newstead Abbey, ancestral home of Byrons along with his mother.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1801-05[/b][br /]
Attended Harrow school.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1805[/b][br /]
Entered Trinity College, Cambridge.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1807[/b][br /]
Byron took his seat in the House of Lords.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1808[/b][br /]
Byron received his A M degree from Cambridge.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1809[/b][br /]
Left Talmouth for Lisbon travelling through Portugal, Spain, Malta and Albania, reaching Athens at the end of the year.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1810[/b][br /]
Visited Greece and Turkey.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1811[/b][br /]
Returned to England. Mother’s death.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1812[/b][br /]
Delivered speeches in the House of Lords. Met his future wife Annabella Milbanke.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1815[/b][br /]
Byron married Annabella.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1816[/b][br /]
Annabella left Byron. Separation formalized later on. Visited Venice.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1817[/b][br /]
Daughter Allegra born to Claire Clairmont, Byron’s friend.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1820[/b][br /]
Lived in the Guiccioli Palace with Allegra. [br /]
Joined the Carbonari movement, the Italian revolution against Austrian rule.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1822[/b][br /]
With the death of Allegra, Leigh Hunt moved to Byron’s house to collaborate on the journal The Liberal.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1823[/b][br /]
Byron sailed to Greece, arriving at Missolonghi.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1824[/b][br /]
Died at Missolonghi on April 19.[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
Byron’s peculiar style had two merits, his intellectual genius could make a statement of the common place and insert memorably in the mind, leaving reverberating harmonies of sound and sense. These were found not only in some stanzas of Childe Harold but also in some of his tales and shorter lyrics, as well as his satires. The second and important merit is his humorous revelation of truths that are too threatening to the self-defensive ego to be presented without a facetious mask. When one noticed Byron waggish, he was in fact most serious.[br /]
[br /]
[b]Early Poems[/b][br /]
[br /]
Most of the Poems in Fugitive Pieces are close imitations of poems of Thomas Moore. Some of the poems in Fugitive Pieces are written in the most flippant way. The themes like fleetingness of love, inconstancy of lovers and panic of unrequited love appealed a lot. In Hours of Idleness, Byron’s inclination toward truth is indicated in a kind of sad farewell To Romance.[br /]
[br /]
Parent of golden dreams Romance ! [br /]
[br /]
[i]Auspicious Queen of childish joys…..[br /]
No more I tread thy mystic round, [br /]
But leave thy realms for those of truth….. [br /]
Romance ! Disgusted with deceit [br /]
Far from thy motley court I fly [br /]
Where affection hold her seat, [br /]
And sickly sensibility…..
[/i][br /]
[br /]
Byron’s poetic voluptuousness was unbeatable and his realism often balanced on the brink of irony. Once Byron attempted to show the romance of passion in the poem To Marry, but was on the verge of a mood later expressed in Don Juan.
[br /]
[br /]
[i]And the sad truth which lovers o’er my desk [br /]
Turns what was once romantic to burlesque.[/i][br /]
[br /]
The realistic tone is easily seen in Reply to some Verses of J M B Pigot, Esq. on the cruelty of this Mistress :[br /]
[br /]
[i]Why Pigot complain[br /]
of this damsel’s disdain.[br /]
Why thus in despair do you fret ?[br /]
For months you may try,[br /]
Yet, believe me, a sigh[br /]
Will never obtain a coquette.[br /]
Would you teach her to love ?[br /]
For a time seem to rove;[br /]
At first she may frown in a pet;[br /]
But leave her a while[br /]
She shortly will smile,[br /]
And then you may kiss your coquette.[/i][br /]
[br /]
[b]Childe Harold, Cantos I – II[/b][br /]
[br /]
It’s not only the greatest confessional poem of the Romantic period in English literature but also the most authentic record of the Post French revolution and Post Napoleonic wars. One may find the whole cycle of Byronic melancholy in Childe Harold. It gives the record of the compulsive search for an ideal and perfection that do not exist in the world of reality and of the states of mind that follow recognition of its inevitable failure : bitterness, remorse, sweet sadness, cynicism, forced stoicism or exhausted resignation. (Here the unmasking reveals the melancholic face of the real world.) The ironic mood was insuppressible as seen here[br /]
[br /]
[i][i]Oh never talk again to me[br /]
Of northern climes and British ladies[br /]
It has not been your let to see,[br /]
Like me, the lovely Girl of Cadiz ----[br /]
[br /]
Our English maids are long to woo,[br /]
And frigid even in possession;[br /]
[br /]
And if their charms be fair to view[br /]
Their lips are slow at love’s confession,[/i][/i][br /]
[br /]
[b]Beppo[/b][br /]
[br /]
Byron at last found a congenial medium where he could give freedom for the expression of all the facets of his mind and emotions. It was written with apparent ease and colloquial abandon and he still took exceeding care with the phrasing of every line.[br /]
[br /]
[b]Don Juan[/b][br /]
[br /]
Once Byron wrote to Murray : "Almost all Don Juan is real life, either my own, or from people I knew." Byron valued Don Juan as an opportunity to state his random thoughts and playful moods as in conversation but later defended the poem as a grave satire on abuses in society. He even justified his digressions.[br /]
[br /]
[i]And never straining hard to versify[br /]
I rattle on exactly as I’d talk[br /]
With anybody in a ride or walk.[/i][br /]
[br /]
Defending the objections of his friends in England, Byron said: " If they had told me the poetry was bad, I would have acquiesced; but they say the contrary and then talk to me about morality---- I maintain that it is the most moral of poems; but if people won’t discover the moral, that is their fault not mine." But certainly Byron had a tinge of guilty feeling of his abandoning literary ideal and therefor continued to defend Don Juan with a certain brash and even bawdy humor. Protesting it, he wrote to some Douglas Kinnaird "As to ‘Don Juan’, confess, confess – you dog and be candid – that it is the sublime of that there sort of writing – it may be bawdy but is it not good English ? It may be profligate but is it not life, is it not the thing ? Could any man have written it who has not lived in the world ? Tooled in a post – chaise – in a hackney coach ? In a gondola ? – On a table ? – And under it." Byron’s confidence to such an extent about the poem was that he wrote to Murray "I read over the Juan’s, which are excellent. It will be known by and bye, for what it is intended, - a ‘satire’ on ‘abuses’ of the present states of society and not an eulogy of vice : it may be now and then voluptuous : I can’t help that. Ariosto is worse; Smollet… ten times worse; and Fielding no better. No Girl will ever be seduced by reading D J :- no, no; she will go to Little’s poems and Rousseau’s romance for that, or ever to the immaculate De Stael : they will encourage her and not the Don, who laughs of that and most other things." And speaking to the objection of a lady he wrote "The truth is that it is TOO TRUE, and the women hate everything which strips off the tinsel of sentiment." His presentation of simple truth had enough satire when he described a learned lady[br /]
[br /]
[i]Her favorite science was the mathematical….. [br /]
Her thoughts were theorems, her words a problem, [br /]
As if she deemed that mystery would ennoble’ em …..[br /]
[br /]
Some women use their tongues – she looked a lecture,[br /]
Each eye a Sermon and her brow a homily…..[/i][br /]
[br /]
Byron ended the poem writing
[br /]
[br /]
[i]I leave the thing a problem,[br /]
Like all things…..[/i][br /]
[br /]
It is probably the best end, which must remain unclouded. One can say about Don Juan that it’s a novel satire in verse than as a poem in ordinary sense.[br /]
[br /]
[b]The Vision of Judgment[/b][br /]
[br /]
It seems different kind of satire due to its unifying structure and compact expression. Byron resisted the excessive digression. His satire is three-pronged in the poem : Political, Theological and Literary. First, there is an attack on the King George III symbolizing him as a tyrant :[br /]
[br /]
[i]King George slipped in to Heaven for one,[br /]
And when the tumult dwindled to a calm,[br /]
I left him practicing the hundredth psalm.[/i][br /]
[br /]
Letting King to ship in heaven was to emphasize that the satire was aimed not at the king because the poor mad king was less of a sinner than those who praised him for virtues he did not possess. Poem’s unforgettable lines compelled Swimburne to say that in it was Byron who gave satire wings to fly with.[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
[b]Early Poems[/b][br /]
[br /]
Most of the Poems in Fugitive Pieces are close imitations of poems of Thomas Moore. Some of the poems in Fugitive Pieces are written in the most flippant way. The themes like fleetingness of love, inconstancy of lovers and panic of unrequited love appealed a lot. In Hours of Idleness, Byron’s inclination toward truth is indicated in a kind of sad farewell To Romance.[br /]
[br /]
Parent of golden dreams Romance ! [br /]
[br /]
[i]Auspicious Queen of childish joys…..[br /]
No more I tread thy mystic round, [br /]
But leave thy realms for those of truth….. [br /]
Romance ! Disgusted with deceit [br /]
Far from thy motley court I fly [br /]
Where affection hold her seat, [br /]
And sickly sensibility…..
[/i][br /]
[br /]
Byron’s poetic voluptuousness was unbeatable and his realism often balanced on the brink of irony. Once Byron attempted to show the romance of passion in the poem To Marry, but was on the verge of a mood later expressed in Don Juan.
[br /]
[br /]
[i]And the sad truth which lovers o’er my desk [br /]
Turns what was once romantic to burlesque.[/i][br /]
[br /]
The realistic tone is easily seen in Reply to some Verses of J M B Pigot, Esq. on the cruelty of this Mistress :[br /]
[br /]
[i]Why Pigot complain[br /]
of this damsel’s disdain.[br /]
Why thus in despair do you fret ?[br /]
For months you may try,[br /]
Yet, believe me, a sigh[br /]
Will never obtain a coquette.[br /]
Would you teach her to love ?[br /]
For a time seem to rove;[br /]
At first she may frown in a pet;[br /]
But leave her a while[br /]
She shortly will smile,[br /]
And then you may kiss your coquette.[/i][br /]
[br /]
[b]Childe Harold, Cantos I – II[/b][br /]
[br /]
It’s not only the greatest confessional poem of the Romantic period in English literature but also the most authentic record of the Post French revolution and Post Napoleonic wars. One may find the whole cycle of Byronic melancholy in Childe Harold. It gives the record of the compulsive search for an ideal and perfection that do not exist in the world of reality and of the states of mind that follow recognition of its inevitable failure : bitterness, remorse, sweet sadness, cynicism, forced stoicism or exhausted resignation. (Here the unmasking reveals the melancholic face of the real world.) The ironic mood was insuppressible as seen here[br /]
[br /]
[i][i]Oh never talk again to me[br /]
Of northern climes and British ladies[br /]
It has not been your let to see,[br /]
Like me, the lovely Girl of Cadiz ----[br /]
[br /]
Our English maids are long to woo,[br /]
And frigid even in possession;[br /]
[br /]
And if their charms be fair to view[br /]
Their lips are slow at love’s confession,[/i][/i][br /]
[br /]
[b]Beppo[/b][br /]
[br /]
Byron at last found a congenial medium where he could give freedom for the expression of all the facets of his mind and emotions. It was written with apparent ease and colloquial abandon and he still took exceeding care with the phrasing of every line.[br /]
[br /]
[b]Don Juan[/b][br /]
[br /]
Once Byron wrote to Murray : "Almost all Don Juan is real life, either my own, or from people I knew." Byron valued Don Juan as an opportunity to state his random thoughts and playful moods as in conversation but later defended the poem as a grave satire on abuses in society. He even justified his digressions.[br /]
[br /]
[i]And never straining hard to versify[br /]
I rattle on exactly as I’d talk[br /]
With anybody in a ride or walk.[/i][br /]
[br /]
Defending the objections of his friends in England, Byron said: " If they had told me the poetry was bad, I would have acquiesced; but they say the contrary and then talk to me about morality---- I maintain that it is the most moral of poems; but if people won’t discover the moral, that is their fault not mine." But certainly Byron had a tinge of guilty feeling of his abandoning literary ideal and therefor continued to defend Don Juan with a certain brash and even bawdy humor. Protesting it, he wrote to some Douglas Kinnaird "As to ‘Don Juan’, confess, confess – you dog and be candid – that it is the sublime of that there sort of writing – it may be bawdy but is it not good English ? It may be profligate but is it not life, is it not the thing ? Could any man have written it who has not lived in the world ? Tooled in a post – chaise – in a hackney coach ? In a gondola ? – On a table ? – And under it." Byron’s confidence to such an extent about the poem was that he wrote to Murray "I read over the Juan’s, which are excellent. It will be known by and bye, for what it is intended, - a ‘satire’ on ‘abuses’ of the present states of society and not an eulogy of vice : it may be now and then voluptuous : I can’t help that. Ariosto is worse; Smollet… ten times worse; and Fielding no better. No Girl will ever be seduced by reading D J :- no, no; she will go to Little’s poems and Rousseau’s romance for that, or ever to the immaculate De Stael : they will encourage her and not the Don, who laughs of that and most other things." And speaking to the objection of a lady he wrote "The truth is that it is TOO TRUE, and the women hate everything which strips off the tinsel of sentiment." His presentation of simple truth had enough satire when he described a learned lady[br /]
[br /]
[i]Her favorite science was the mathematical….. [br /]
Her thoughts were theorems, her words a problem, [br /]
As if she deemed that mystery would ennoble’ em …..[br /]
[br /]
Some women use their tongues – she looked a lecture,[br /]
Each eye a Sermon and her brow a homily…..[/i][br /]
[br /]
Byron ended the poem writing
[br /]
[br /]
[i]I leave the thing a problem,[br /]
Like all things…..[/i][br /]
[br /]
It is probably the best end, which must remain unclouded. One can say about Don Juan that it’s a novel satire in verse than as a poem in ordinary sense.[br /]
[br /]
[b]The Vision of Judgment[/b][br /]
[br /]
It seems different kind of satire due to its unifying structure and compact expression. Byron resisted the excessive digression. His satire is three-pronged in the poem : Political, Theological and Literary. First, there is an attack on the King George III symbolizing him as a tyrant :[br /]
[br /]
[i]King George slipped in to Heaven for one,[br /]
And when the tumult dwindled to a calm,[br /]
I left him practicing the hundredth psalm.[/i][br /]
[br /]
Letting King to ship in heaven was to emphasize that the satire was aimed not at the king because the poor mad king was less of a sinner than those who praised him for virtues he did not possess. Poem’s unforgettable lines compelled Swimburne to say that in it was Byron who gave satire wings to fly with.[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
[b]Absence[/b][br /]
"No more we meet in yonder bowers. Absence has made me prone to roving; But older, firmer hearts than ours, have found monotony in loving."[br /]
[br /]
[b]Age and Aging[/b][br /]
"It was one of the deadliest and heaviest feelings of my life to feel that I was no longer a boy. From that moment I began to grow old in my own esteem – and in my esteem age is not estimable."[br /]
[br /]
[b]Change[/b][br /]
"The lapse of ages changes all things – time, language, the earth, the bounds of the sea, the stars of the sky and everything 'about, around and underneath' man, except man himself."[br /]
[br /]
[b]Cries and Crying [/b][br /]
"Oh ! Too convincing – dangerously dear – In woman’s eye the unanswerable tear !"[br /]
[br /]
[b]Debt[/b][br /]
"It is very iniquitous to make me pay my debts – you have no idea of the pain it gives one."[br /]
[br /]
[b]Excuses [/b][br /]
"Your letter of excuses has arrived. I receive the letter but do not admit the excuses except in courtesy, as when a man treads on your toes and begs your pardon – the pardon is granted, but the joint aches, especially if there is a corn upon it."[br /]
[br /]
[b]Giving[/b][br /]
"I do detest everything, which is not perfectly mutual."[br /]
[br /]
[b]Happiness[/b][br /]
"To have joy one must share it. Happiness was born a twin."[br /]
[br /]
[b]History and Historians[/b][br /]
"History is the devil’s scripture."[br /]
[br /]
[b]Inheritance[/b][br /]
"For pleasures past I do not grieve, nor perils gathering near; My greatest grief is that I leave nothing that claims a tear."[br /]
[br /]
[b]Jealousy[/b][br /]
"Who surpasses or subdues mankind, must look down on the hate of those below."[br /]
[br /]
[b]Letters [/b][br /]
"Letters writing is the only device for combining solitude with good company."[br /]
[br /]
[b]Life and Living [/b][br /]
"When one subtracts from life infancy (which is vegetation), sleep, eating and swilling, buttoning and unbuttoning – how much remains of downright existence ? The summer of a dormouse."[br /]
[br /]
[b]Love[/b][br /]
"Man’s love is of man’s life a part; it is a woman’s whole existence. In her first passion, a woman loves her lover, in all the others all she loves is love."[br /]
[br /]
[b]Marriage[/b][br /]
"I have great hopes that we shall love each other all our lives as much as if we had never married at all."[br /]
[br /]
[b]Men and Women[/b][br /]
"But as to women, who can penetrate the real sufferings of their condition ? Man’s very sympathy with their estate has much of selfishness and more suspicion. Their love, their virtue, beauty, education, but form good housekeepers, to breed a nation."[br /]
[br /]
[b]Money [/b][br /]
"I have imbibed such a love for money that I keep some sequins in a drawer to count and cry over them once a week."[br /]
[br /]
[b]Motives[/b][br /]
"We are all selfish and I no more trust myself than others with a good motive."[br /]
[br /]
[b]Nostalgia[/b] [br /]
"The 'good old times' – all times when old are good."[br /]
[br /]
[b]Parties[/b][br /]
"Like other parties of the kind, it was first silent, then talky, then argumentative, then disputatious, then unintelligible, then altogether, then inarticulate and then drunk. When we had reached the last step of this glorious ladder, it was difficult to get down again without stumbling."[br /]
[br /]
[b]Payment[/b][br /]
"Alas ! How deeply painful is all payment !"[br /]
[br /]
[b]Relationships[/b][br /]
"My attachment has neither the blindness of the beginning, nor the microscopic accuracy of the close of such liaisons."[br /]
[br /]
[b]Sorrow [/b][br /]
"Sorrow is knowledge, those that know the most must mourn the deepest, the tree of knowledge is not the tree of life."[br /]
[br /]
[b]Words[/b][br /]
"But words are things and a small drop of ink, falling like dew, upon a thought, produces that which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think."[br /]
[br /]
[b]Writers and Writing [/b][br /]
"To withdraw myself from myself has ever been my sole, my entire, my sincere motive in scribbling at all."[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
"No more we meet in yonder bowers. Absence has made me prone to roving; But older, firmer hearts than ours, have found monotony in loving."[br /]
[br /]
[b]Age and Aging[/b][br /]
"It was one of the deadliest and heaviest feelings of my life to feel that I was no longer a boy. From that moment I began to grow old in my own esteem – and in my esteem age is not estimable."[br /]
[br /]
[b]Change[/b][br /]
"The lapse of ages changes all things – time, language, the earth, the bounds of the sea, the stars of the sky and everything 'about, around and underneath' man, except man himself."[br /]
[br /]
[b]Cries and Crying [/b][br /]
"Oh ! Too convincing – dangerously dear – In woman’s eye the unanswerable tear !"[br /]
[br /]
[b]Debt[/b][br /]
"It is very iniquitous to make me pay my debts – you have no idea of the pain it gives one."[br /]
[br /]
[b]Excuses [/b][br /]
"Your letter of excuses has arrived. I receive the letter but do not admit the excuses except in courtesy, as when a man treads on your toes and begs your pardon – the pardon is granted, but the joint aches, especially if there is a corn upon it."[br /]
[br /]
[b]Giving[/b][br /]
"I do detest everything, which is not perfectly mutual."[br /]
[br /]
[b]Happiness[/b][br /]
"To have joy one must share it. Happiness was born a twin."[br /]
[br /]
[b]History and Historians[/b][br /]
"History is the devil’s scripture."[br /]
[br /]
[b]Inheritance[/b][br /]
"For pleasures past I do not grieve, nor perils gathering near; My greatest grief is that I leave nothing that claims a tear."[br /]
[br /]
[b]Jealousy[/b][br /]
"Who surpasses or subdues mankind, must look down on the hate of those below."[br /]
[br /]
[b]Letters [/b][br /]
"Letters writing is the only device for combining solitude with good company."[br /]
[br /]
[b]Life and Living [/b][br /]
"When one subtracts from life infancy (which is vegetation), sleep, eating and swilling, buttoning and unbuttoning – how much remains of downright existence ? The summer of a dormouse."[br /]
[br /]
[b]Love[/b][br /]
"Man’s love is of man’s life a part; it is a woman’s whole existence. In her first passion, a woman loves her lover, in all the others all she loves is love."[br /]
[br /]
[b]Marriage[/b][br /]
"I have great hopes that we shall love each other all our lives as much as if we had never married at all."[br /]
[br /]
[b]Men and Women[/b][br /]
"But as to women, who can penetrate the real sufferings of their condition ? Man’s very sympathy with their estate has much of selfishness and more suspicion. Their love, their virtue, beauty, education, but form good housekeepers, to breed a nation."[br /]
[br /]
[b]Money [/b][br /]
"I have imbibed such a love for money that I keep some sequins in a drawer to count and cry over them once a week."[br /]
[br /]
[b]Motives[/b][br /]
"We are all selfish and I no more trust myself than others with a good motive."[br /]
[br /]
[b]Nostalgia[/b] [br /]
"The 'good old times' – all times when old are good."[br /]
[br /]
[b]Parties[/b][br /]
"Like other parties of the kind, it was first silent, then talky, then argumentative, then disputatious, then unintelligible, then altogether, then inarticulate and then drunk. When we had reached the last step of this glorious ladder, it was difficult to get down again without stumbling."[br /]
[br /]
[b]Payment[/b][br /]
"Alas ! How deeply painful is all payment !"[br /]
[br /]
[b]Relationships[/b][br /]
"My attachment has neither the blindness of the beginning, nor the microscopic accuracy of the close of such liaisons."[br /]
[br /]
[b]Sorrow [/b][br /]
"Sorrow is knowledge, those that know the most must mourn the deepest, the tree of knowledge is not the tree of life."[br /]
[br /]
[b]Words[/b][br /]
"But words are things and a small drop of ink, falling like dew, upon a thought, produces that which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think."[br /]
[br /]
[b]Writers and Writing [/b][br /]
"To withdraw myself from myself has ever been my sole, my entire, my sincere motive in scribbling at all."[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
