2019 - 2020

Lord byron

‫حسن محمد عبدالجبار‬

ALMUSTANSIRIYA | college of art
 Lord Byron

Born: January 22, 1788

The English poet Lord Byron was one of the most important
figures of the Romantic Movement (1785–1830; a period
when English literature was full of virtuous heroes and
themes of love and triumph). Because of his works, active
life, and physical beauty he came to be considered the
perfect image of the romantic poet-hero.

His beginnings
George Gordon Noel Byron, sixth Baron Byron, was born on
January 22, 1788, into a family of fast-decaying nobility.
Captain "Mad Jack" Byron was a "gold digger," marrying
Catherine Gordon chiefly for her annual income. After
spending most of her money and fathering George, he died
in 1791. George was left with an unbalanced mother, the
contempt of his aristocratic relatives for the poor widow and
her son, and a birth defect necessitating that he walk on the
balls and toes of his feet for the rest of his life. All this
worked together to hurt the boy's pride and sensitivity. This
created in him a need for self-assertion, which he soon
sought to gratify in three main directions: love, poetry, and
action.
Despite the awkward way he walked and the numerous
"remedies" that Byron suffered through, his boyhood was full
of play and mischief. His favorite activities were riding and
swimming, both sports where he was physically able. But he
willingly played cricket, appointing a schoolmate to run for
him. At eight years old he fell hopelessly in love with a
cousin. At sixteen when he heard of her engagement he
reportedly was physically ill. Though said by most of his
peers and teachers to have been a genius, Byron was
halfhearted in his schoolwork. But he read constantly. He
had a strong appetite for information and a remarkable
memory. Nevertheless his biography reports Byron as
having been the ringleader of numerous school revolts. He
spoke of his school friends as "passions."
On the death of his granduncle in 1798, Byron inherited the
title and estate. After four years at Harrow (1801–1805), he
went to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he became
conscious for the first time of the difference between the high
goals of idealism (romanticism) and the less important
realities of experience. His quest for some genuine passion
among the frail women of his world accounts for the crowded
catalog of his love affairs.

Early works
In 1807 Byron published his first book of poetry, Hours of
Idleness. In the preface he apologized, "for obtruding
[forcing] myself on the world, when, without doubt, I might be
at my age, more usefully employed." The book was harshly
criticized by the Edinburgh Review. Byron counterattacked
in English Bards and Scotch Reviewers (1809), the first
manifestation (sign) of a gift for satire (making fun of human
weaknesses) and a sarcastic wit (making fun of someone or
something in a harsh way by saying the opposite of what is
meant), which singled him out among the major English
romantics, and which he may have owed to his aristocratic
outlook and his classical education.
In 1809 a two-year trip to the Mediterranean countries
provided material for the first two cantos (the main divisions
of long poems) of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Their
publication in 1812 earned Byron instant glory. They
combined the more popular features of the late-eighteenth-
century romanticism: colorful descriptions of exotic nature,
disillusioned meditations on the vanity of earthly things, a
lyrical exaltation of freedom, and above all, the new hero,
handsome and lonely, yet strongly impassioned even for all
of his weariness with life.

Social life
While his fame was spreading, Byron was busy shocking
London high society. After his affairs with Lady Caroline
Lamb and Lady Oxford, his incestuous (a sexual relationship
between close relatives) love for his half sister Augusta not
only made him a reprobate (a person who is completely
without morals), but also strengthened the sense of guilt and
doom that he had always felt. From then on the theme of
incest was to figure strongly in his writings, starting with the
epic tales (long poems that tell stories) that he published
between 1812 and 1816: The Giaour, The Bride of Abydos,
The Corsair, Lara, The Siege of
Corinth, and Parisina. According to Byron, incestuous love,
criminal although genuine and irresistible, was a suitable
metaphor (symbol) for the tragic condition of man, who is
cursed by God, rebuked (judged harshly) by society, and
hated by himself because of sins for which he is not
responsible. The tales, therefore, add a new dimension of
depth to the Byronic hero: in his total alienation (separation
from one's surroundings) he now actively takes on the tragic
fatality that turns natural instinct into unforgivable sin, and he
deliberately takes his rebellious stand as an outcast against
all accepted beliefs of the right order of things.
While thus seeking relief in imaginative exploration of his
own tortured mind, Byron had been half hoping to find peace
and reconciliation in a more settled life. His marriage to Anna
Isabella Milbanke (January 1, 1815) soon proved a complete
failure. She left him after a year. London society could have
ignored the peculiarities of Byron's private life, but a satire
against the Prince Regent, "Stanzas to a Lady Weeping,"
which he had appended (added on) to The Corsair, brought
about an outpouring of criticism from the Tories (a political
party in England that was loyal to the English monarchy). In
their hands Byron's separation from his wife became an
efficient weapon. On April 25, 1816, Byron had to leave his
native country, never to return.

His travels
In Switzerland Byron spent several months in the company
of the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822). Under
Shelley's influence he read William Wordsworth (1770–1850)
and immersed himself in the unpleasant spirituality that
permeated the third canto of Childe Harold. But The
Prisoner of Chillon and Byron's first drama, Manfred, took
the Byronic hero to a new level of inwardness: his greatness
now lay in the refusal to bow to the hostile powers that
oppressed him, whether he discovered new selfhood in his
very dereliction (negligence) or sought the fulfillment of his
assertiveness in self-destruction.
In October 1816 Byron left for Italy and settled in Venice. His
compositions of 1817, however, show signs of a new
outlook. Spontaneous maturation (growing up) had thus
paved the way for the healing influence of Teresa Guiccioli,
Byron's last love. The poet had at last begun to come to
terms with his desperate idea of life.
It is characteristic of Byron's strength of character that he
increasingly sought to translate his ideas into action,
repeatedly voicing the more radical Whig (a political party in
England that supported reform in government and society)
viewpoint in the House of Lords in 1812–1813. He also ran
real risks to help the Italian Carbonari (a secret group in Italy
that worked for a representative government based on a
constitution) in 1820–1821. His early poetry had contributed
to sensitizing the European mind to the struggle of Greece
under Turkish rule. In 1824 Byron joined the Greek freedom
fighters at Missolonghi, Greece, where he died of fever on
April 19.