George Gordon Lord Byron: A True Romantic

George Gordon Lord Byron Captivates the essence of romantic poetry. George Gordon Lord Byron is accredited with being on of the most brilliant romantic poets of all time and as such he has captivated millions with his poetic writings. Lord Byron had many things that made him such a success: his life was filled with passion and adventure, his writing was influenced by many factors, and his poems were emotional and intellectual thrillers.

Lord Byron was a man if many passions which included: sports, travel, and a plethora of women. Lord Byron’s writings had many influences which included like his life: his childhood and interests, travel and again most of all the women in his life. His poems are emotional and intellectual thrillers, connecting ones emotions to ones thoughts with his writing. The two poems that I have chosen to show his prowess in writing are “To Women” and his last poem “On this day I complete my Thirty-Sixth Year”.

To begin with, Lord Byron had an interesting life from birth in London to his death in Greece. He was born on the 22nd of January of the year 1788. Son of Captain John “Mad-Jack” Byron and his second wife Catherine Gordon; the soon to be Sixth Baron Byron was born with a case of club-foot which left his with a slight limp for the rest of his life. His father having squandered all of his wife’s fortune left the family, leaving George Gordon the only heir to the Byron estates and the title of Lord. From acquiring the new title of lord, George Gordon could not find a difference in him and asked his mother one day, “whether she could perceive any difference in him since he had been made a lord, as he perceived none himself” (Moore, 20). This shows that as a child Byron seemed quite modest unlike his reputation later in his life.

In 1801, George Gordon was sent to school in Harrow where he met his half sister Augusta Byron who was to contribute to much drama in Byron’s adult life. In 1805 Lord Byron entered Trinity College, Cambridge where he came into trouble both in health and wealth. Two years after this Lord Byron published his first collection of literature, which received quite horrible reviews. In response to this, two years later he published “English Bards and Scotch Reviewers: A Satire” which commented on his previous work and its fate in the hands of a rough reviewer. In 1809, Byron took his seat in the House of Lords and in July of that year sailed off to explore the continent with a college mate of his named John Hobhouse. In their travels the graced Spain, Gibraltar and Malta, then to Greece, Albania, where he began to muse over “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage” which he continued to think over and then write, during his stay in Athens. Byron while still in Athens He started conducting another poem, “Maid in Athens” about Theresa Macri. In 1810 they then sailed to the site of Troy where he swam the Hellespont.

In 1811, Byron returned to England to hear that his mother was ill and in sight of death and was unable to return to her bedside to give a proper farewell. In 1812, he made his first speech in the House of Lords in which this helped Byron find himself to fame, “In Moore’s Famous report, Byron “awoke one morning and found myself famous”(Manning, 15). Then after the quite good turnout of Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage Byron succinctly published many fast and high selling works, about this great accomplishment Manning wrote,

“This sensationally successful phase of Byron’s career epitomizes the paradoxical convergence of Murray’s exploitation if the resources of advertising, publishing and distribution to foster the best-sellerdom and star status, with a noble who gave away his copyrights because aristocrats did not write for money. Like all myths, “Byron’ did not resolve a contradiction but dramatically embodied it.” (Manning, 15).

This was then made greater by Byron’s lionizing in Whig society (Manning, 15). During this time Byron had many troubles in his love life. He was married, had a child, was suspected of fathering his half sisters daughter and was then divorced. In 1819, he fell in love with Countess Guicioli and had quite the affair there but also became involved in Italian politics and in 1821 wrote “The Prophecy of Dante”. When the Countess was expelled from the country Byron followed her to Pisa where he wrote a radical journal, Liberal, in 1822. Byron then soon moved again to Genoa following the countess into her families’ refuge. Then in 1823 Byron became an agent to free Greece where he would become a very influential person in this endeavor. Here he completed his last poem, “On This Day I Complete My Thirty-Sixth Year”. He soon then became ill and suffered from seizures. Then in early 1824 he was given the treatment of “bleeding” and was weakened making him more prone to the illness that was plaguing him. Later that year he became feverish and was killed due to the bleeding treatment that ensued, which was a very unfitting end to one who had such an eventful life.

In addition, Lord Byron’s writings had many influences which included like his life: his childhood and interests, travel and again most of all, the women in his life. Like earlier stated George Gordon’s life was full of many passions and all of them influenced his writing. George Gordon’s life rubbed off and is shown in his writing Trudeau had this to say about Byron,

“Critics have noted that, like his poems, Byron's plays frequently contain autobiographical elements, and have drawn parallels between Byron's own controversial and exceptional nature and the qualities of the classic Byronic hero, a defiant yet guilt-ridden protagonist who rebels against the strictures of conventional society to follow his own value system. Furthermore, as many of his dramas feature heroes who have been exiled or persecuted for their actions, many scholars have perceived his plays to be explorations of his own scandalous and colorful experiences.”( Trudeau, 1), from this we see that Trudeau thinks that Byron incorporated his own ideas and thoughts into his writing which leads me to believe that Byron’s romanticism and creative ability stems from his life and actions. From the departure of his father during his childhood, to the awakening of his sexuality by his nurse, to the many travels and the women shared there to his final acts as a lord in the freeing of Greece. Byron had many things to take from his life