George Gordon Byron
Getter Õigus, 11a
George Gordon Byron
1788-1824
 6th Baron Byron
 a British poet, a leading
figure in Romanticism
 born on 22 January
1788
 the son of Captain John
Byron and Catherine
Gordon

The coat of arms
of the Byron
family
Byron
born with a club-foot
 spent his childhood in Aberdeen, Scotland
 in 1789, at the age of 10, inherited the
title and estates of his great-uncle, Lord
Byron
 stayed at Harrow for 4 years (1801-1805)
 attended Trinity College in Cambridge

Byron
in 1807 appeared his first collection of
poetry, Hours Of Idleness
 answered his critics with satire English
Bards And Scotch Reviewers in 1808
 took the seat in the House of Lords in
1809
 travelled to Mediterranean countries
 success came in 1812 with Childe Harold's
Pilgrimage

Byron
many bisexual love
affairs and debts
 married Anne Isabella
Milbanke in 1815
 has only one legitimate
child – daughter Ada
 rumors of incest

Byron
left England in 1816, never to return
 settled in Switzerland with Claire
Clairmont and Percy Bysshe Shelley
 spent 2 years in Italy
 became interested in drama and wrote
The Two Foscari, Sardanapalaus, Cain, and
the unfinished Heaven And Earth.

Byron
armed a brig, the Hercules, and sailed to
Greece to aid the Greeks, who had risen
against their Ottoman overlords
 contracted a malarial fever and died on 19
April 1824
 his body was refused by Westminster and
St Paul’s
 his coffin was placed in the family vault in
Nottinghamshire

The Byronic hero
pervades much of his work
 literary history from John Milton and
other Romantic authors
 an idealised, but flawed character
 great talent and passion
 distaste for society
 self-destructive manner
 alienation from the society
 incestuous love

Childe Harold's Pilgrimage
published 1812-1818
 dedicated to Charlotte Harley
 consists of 4 cantos
 the travels of a world-weary young man
 Childe - a young man who was a candidate
for knighthood
 colorful descriptions of exotic nature, a
lyrical exaltation of freedom, lonely hero

Don Juan
Byron’s magnum opus
 17 cantos
 the epic of its time
 includes all levels — social, political,
literary and ideological
 the first two cantos were published
anonymously in 1819
 completed 16 cantos, leaving the 17th
unfinished

Don Juan

Till, after cloying the gazettes with cant,
The age discovers he is not the true one;
Of such as these I should not care to vaunt,
I'll therefore take our ancient friend Don Juan
She Walks In Beauty

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.
Thank you for your
attention!