The Cambridge Introduction to Byron

Lord Byron, despite his writing being quite classical, is considered one of the most important Romantic poets, along with William Wordsworth and Samuel L. Coleridge. His works, however, differ in many aspects with the thematic that Wordsworth and Coleridge focused on in their poems, making himself distinct and easily recognized. Besides being famous for his longer, epic and nowadays canonical works, such as Manfred, Childe Harlod's Pilgrimage or Don Juan, he also earned his fame with his good looks, character and controversial life. It is said that he wrote his poems using the poem's personna to express his thoughts and beliefs and making the readers think that the speaker was actually a personification of himself, even if it was not the case, creating with this the Byronic Hero. This happened in the poems that were long enough to develop the character's personality carefully so that the readers could comprehend and follow his philosophy towards life, freedom, romantic passion and politics, in a more elaborated sense. Even though what was being represented did not fully coincide with Byron himself, he assured to make people believe that he was just like that and that he wrote in an autobiographical way. What it is known these days is that it is not completely true; he did express some ideas through his main characters, but contrasting information with his actual life and the letters he sent, parallel to his writings, we realize that actually what he did was sell an image of what he created, the so-called Byronic Hero. We must not forget that apart of his major, widely-known lengthy works, he also wrote shorter poems. In this paper I will argue that, in his shorter poems, since there is no character that can be used as a vehicle to express his thoughts, feelings and ideas, he uses the speaker's voice as an opportunity to let people know of his view of the world in an " indirect " way. First of all, we must talk about the Byronic Hero in isolation from Byron's poems. This hero is a variant of the Romantic Hero, which usually was a figure that disliked social norms and institutions, conventions and who was isolated from society because of external reasons or by his own desire. Often, the Byronic hero is someone temperamental by nature and/or passionate about a particular topic. He is also superior to the average man, emotionally and intellectually, which makes it hard for him to relate in a social environment without being arrogant, sarcastic, extremely self-conscious and sensitive. Some say that the Byronic hero is drawn to a point of nihilism that causes a rebellion against life itself, for his rejection of the established values and moral codes because they do not represent him. With this portrayal, the Byronic hero is a combination of repulsion and fascination, which is a mechanism to strongly attract the readers and feel curious about him.

Of all English poets writing during the Romantic period, George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1824) was the one whose life and art were most consistently joined in the public imagination. Lord Byron became a literary celebrity early in his career, and frequently wrote poetry based on his own experiences, including his travels, his sexual scandals, his personal relationships, and his involvement with the tumultuous political events of the era. In so doing, he forged a category that we have come to call "the Byronic," its hero a wandering, noble outlaw, both erotically-compelling and haunted by loss, defiant and rebellious, stoic yet ultimately a victim of his own passions. This persona emerged primarily from Byron's first major work, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, with its misanthropic wandering hero, and from his so-called Eastern Tales, verse narratives such as The Corsair and The Giaour that feature a recognizable outlaw-hero. The immense popularity of these poems imprinted the Byronic mode upon several generations of writers across Europe and America, an influence that remains in many cultures to this day. Yet Byron produced a much wider range of poetry than this narrative suggests, including lyrics, satires, dramas, and his ironic epic, Don Juan (pronounced "Joo-ahn" in Byron's poem), which is generally considered his masterpiece. Furthermore, his poems

Neohelicon, 1999

European Romantic Review, 2011

Groniek

Byron's Masks of Devotion This essay argues that Byron's devotion was religious, personal, and political. If the meaning of the word "devotion" extends from religious to secular objects, so too Byron's own life followed a trajectory from Scottish Presbyterianism to a poetical skepticism that found expression in Manfred, Cain, and Don Juan. Considered by Matthew Arnold to be one of two leading English Romantic poets (the other was Wordsworth), Byron devoted himself to Greek Independence and inspired democratic movements throughout Spain, Portugal, and Italy. George Gordon was an English poet, born in Scotland, who became Lord Byron at the tender age of ten. His first volume of poems, Fugitive Pieces and Hours of Idleness, were the work of an amateur aristocratic author. A harsh review by Henry Brougham in the Edinburgh Review, led him to lash out against his contemporaries in English Bards and Scotch Reviewers (1809), a biting satire written in the style of heroic couplets and epigrammatic wit popularized by Alexander Pope. Two years abroad gave him experience of Portugal, Spain, Malta, Greece, and Albania, where he began Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, the poem that made him famous (1812). He wrote several Eastern tales, including "The Giaour", which inspired painters such as Eugene Delacroix, and wrote Manfred, Mazeppa, and his epic satire and masterpiece, Don Juan. Byron spent his final year aiding the Italian Carbonari in their struggles to liberate themselves from Austrian rule, and in Greece, to free that country from Turkish occupation. Byron died of fever in Messolonghi, Greece, inspiring many members of London Greek Committee to join the Philhellenic cause. Though born a Scottish Calvinist, Byron struggled with religious, poetic, and political forms of devotion, the three categories that form the subject of this essay. Byron's diverse expressions of devotion to women, poetry, friends and

Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 2011

The quest for liberty in Lord Byron's poetry is a polemical issue because most critics have termed it nihilistic and satanic simply because the poet and his protagonists question Christian revelation and man-made laws. This article sets out to show that although Lord Byron and the Byronic hero as can be seen in the different poems do question Christian revelation and flout a number of generally accepted moral values, they do so in an attempt to find answers, which might help the individual to understand the universe, and be of help to the rest of mankind. The desire for liberty becomes the basic inspirational force, where conflict and warfare are justifiable pathways to the desired end. This paper also looks at the quest for liberty in Byron's poetry from the perspective of the heroes' ideals, justified by human nature and references to mythical rebels. Contrary to the generally accepted critical opinion that Lord Byron's quest for liberty is essentially egocentric, this article seeks to show that the quest for liberty is the Byronic creed and the only constant element in the poet's ambiguous life alongside the detestation of cant. The article argues that the Byronic hero's deconstruction of philosophical and sociopolitical ideals does not result from the poetic persona's lawlessness as generally assumed, but from an innate justifiable call for change, first for the individual and then for the common good. Related to his search for liberty, there are a lot of polemical issues around Byron's notion of the ideal, which are partly addressed in this paper.

Indiana Theory Review, 2016

The works of poet Lord Byron were a tour de force over the course of the nineteenth century—from the serial release of Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage (1812–1818), ever-famous poetry like Don Juan (1819), and his dramatic stage works, such as Manfred (1817), Byron can be noted as one of the most highly influential authors and artists of his time. Though Byronic style and traits were adopted by a variety of authors and poets throughout Europe, Byron’s influence stretched beyond the literary. Berlioz, Brahms, Schumann, Verdi, Tchaikovsky, Strauss, and other nineteenth-century composers also adopted Byronic plots or narrative elements and incorporated them into musical works. Aside from the polemical writing style and sensational authorial persona that mark his work as distinct, Byron also introduced a unique character type, the “Byronic hero.” This novel hero manipulated standard behaviors and plot outcomes associated with earlier conceptions of the “hero” archetype, creating an entirely new standard character that revolutionized literature and art.

Revue de l’Université de Moncton, 2005

Résumé « Churchill’s Grave » et « Monody on the Death of Sheridan » sont les premiers textes à indiquer que Byron commençait à songer sérieusement aux aspects métaphysiques de l’identité de l’auteur. L’immortalité ambiguë qui s’attache au nom d’un poète, un thème mineur ayant toujours subi un traitement conventionnel, devient un thème majeur pendant les huit dernières années de la vie de Byron. « Churchill’s Grave » et les autres écrits de 1816 surtout témoignent d’une plus grande sensibilité à la textualité du poème. Aussi « personnels » ou passionnés qu’auraient pu être ces textes dans la vie naturelle de l’auteur, tous les écrits publics glissent immédiatement vers une sphère intertextuelle dans laquelle l’identité naturelle devient un marqueur sans vie, un « nom » assujetti à d’innombrables appropriations et réappropriations. Les deux poèmes ont formé le style qu’adoptera Byron par la suite puis la façon dont il abordera la célébrité et la notoriété.

The Byron Journal, 2010