Literature II 4th A

Mr. G. Zaplana
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Romanticism in Literature – 1790 -1850

Second Generation of Romantic Poets: Lord Byron

George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (1788- 1824) – Short biography
George Gordon Byron, known simply as Lord Byron, was an English poet, peer and politician who
became a revolutionary in the Greek War of Independence, and is considered one of the leading figures of
the Romantic Movement in English literature. He is regarded as one of the greatest English poets and
remains widely read and influential. Among his best-known works are the lengthy narrative poems Don
Juan and Childe Harold's Pilgrimage; many of his shorter lyrics in Hebrew Melodies also became popular.
He 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 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 died in 1824 at the age of 36 from a fever contracted after the First and Second Siege of
Missolonghi.
His career in brief
In 1805 Byron entered Trinity College, Cambridge, where he piled up debts at an alarming rate and
indulged in the conventional vices of undergraduates there. The signs of his incipient sexual ambivalence
became more pronounced in his strong attachment to boys, often idealized as in the case of John Edleston.
In 1806 Byron had his early poems privately printed in a volume entitled Fugitive Pieces. Later on other
literary works were published. On reaching his majority in 1809, Byron took his seat in the House of Lords,
and then embarked on a grand tour around Europe. After his return to England, he maintained a series of
illegitimate love affairs with a half-sister, married women form the upper class, and young boys. He tried to
cover all this with marriage, but even his wife abandoned him later on. Wounded by the general moral
indignation directed at him, Byron went abroad in 1816, never to return to England.
Legacy
Byron’s writings are more patently autobiographic than even those of his fellow self-revealing
Romantics. Upon close examination, however, the paradox of his complex character can be resolved into
understandable elements. Byron early became aware of reality’s imperfections, but the skepticism and
cynicism bred of his disillusionment coexisted with a propensity to seek ideal perfection in all of life’s
experiences. Consequently, he alternated between deep-seated melancholy and humorous mockery in his
reaction to the disparity between real life and his unattainable ideals. The melancholy of Childe Harold and
the satiric realism of Don Juan are thus two sides of the same coin: the former runs the gamut of the moods
of Romantic despair in reaction to life’s imperfections, while the latter exhibits the humorous irony
attending the unmasking of the hypocritical facade of reality.

Excerpted and adapted from Encyclopaedia Britannica https://www.britannica.com/biography/Lord-Byron-poet#ref1008, accessed

on 21st June, 2020.
The following YouTube videos provide more interesting information on Lord Byron’s life. They are really
worth watching: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DaDVOsCW7o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dpxj4ahPgKU&t=453s

A- Read the following poems by Lord Byron and answer the questions about them.
Literature II 4th A
Mr. G. Zaplana
_______________________________________________________________________________________

She Walks in Beauty1

(You can listen to the poem being recited in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-aDq8O16DU)

She walks in beauty, like the night

Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that’s best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes;
Thus mellowed to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

One shade the more, one ray the less,

Had half impaired the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,
Or softly lightens o’er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express,
How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.

And on that cheek, and o’er that brow,

So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent!

1- Is there any rhyme in the poem? Find the rhyme scheme it follows. Identify stanza form as well.
2- The popular conceptions describe beauty as brilliant and radiant, but that is not the case in this
poem. How could you explain so?
3- Contrary to the previous statement in question 2, what “lightens” or “brightens” the lady in the
poem?
4- What aspects of the lady are being highlighted in the poem? Physical beauty? Inner beauty? Explain
5- Find and explain some rhetorical figures in the poem: metaphor, juxtaposed concepts (opposites),
anaphora, etc.
6- After answering the previous questions, watch this YouTube video with an analysis of the poem:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JbLvZL29WY

1
“She Walks in Beauty" is a short lyrical poem in iambic tetrameter written in 1814 by Lord Byron, and is one of his most famous
works. It is said to have been inspired by an event in Byron's life. On 11 June 1814, Byron attended a party in London. Among the
guests was Mrs. Anne Beatrix Wilmot, wife of Byron’s first cousin, Sir Robert Wilmot. He was struck by her unusual beauty, and the
next morning the poem was written.
Literature II 4th A
Mr. G. Zaplana
_______________________________________________________________________________________
When we two parted2

When we two parted

In silence and tears,
Half broken-hearted
To sever for years,
Pale grew thy cheek and cold,
Colder thy kiss;
Truly that hour foretold
Sorrow to this.

The dew of the morning

Sunk chill on my brow—
It felt like the warning
Of what I feel now.
Thy vows are all broken,
And light is thy fame;
I hear thy name spoken,
And share in its shame.

They name thee before me,

A knell to mine ear;
A shudder comes o'er me—
Why wert thou so dear?
They know not I knew thee,
Who knew thee too well—
Long, long shall I rue thee,
Too deeply to tell.

In secret we met—
In silence I grieve,
That thy heart could forget,
Thy spirit deceive.
If I should meet thee
After long years,
How should I greet thee?—
With silence and tears.

1- Analyse form: Stanza form, rhyme and meter

2- You’ll find “foreshadowing” at the beginning of the poem. What is being foreshadowed? How?
3- People gossip about the lady in the poem. How is that stated? What might the gossips be about?
What is the lady’s reputation like? Explain.
4- What rhetorical questions does the speaker ask the lady? Why do you think he asks so?
5- What kind of relationship did these lovers have? Did the speaker love the lady? Is he hurt now?
Account for your answers.
6- What is the general tone of the poem? Explain.

After answering the questions above, you can listen to a concise analysis of the poem in
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68gvfWBV1jM

2
Most scholars believe this poem to be about Byron's relationship with Lady Frances Wedderburn-Webster, a married aristocrat
with whom Byron had an alleged affair. She was later rumored to have also had an illicit relationship with the Duke of Wellington—
a prominent British military leader—which in turn, the theory goes, prompted the writing of this poem.