7 Lord Byron

Dr. Neeru Tandon

6.0 The Upshot

6.1 Introduction

6.2 Biographic and Career Details

6.3 Image of Byronic Hero

6.4 Byron as a Romantic Poet

6.5 Critics on Byron

6.6 Poetic Technique of Byron:

6.7 Some Interesting Facts:

6.8: She Walks in Beauty: An Analysis

6.9. My Soul is Dark: A Critique

6.10: When We Two Parted: An Analysis

6.11 Summary

6.0 The Upshot

The present module discusses Lord Byron and his three poems: She Walks in Beauty, My Soul is Dark and When We Two Parted. Introduction tells readers about Byron and his connection with romantic poetry. The content further elaborates Byron as a poet. Some interesting facts about Byron and his times make the study interesting. Multiple choice questions and long questions are there to help the learner in knowing the poet and his poems. Some important quotes from the poems are inscribed to help the scholars in understanding the ethos of the prescribed poems. It is further supported by Bibliography and Webliography.

6.1 Introduction: LORD BYRON (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824)

‘’George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron, FRS, commonly known simply as Lord Byron, was an English poet and a leading figure in the Romantic movement.‘‘(Wikipedia)

Lord Byron was the most controversial poet of his time. ‗‘He virtually invented the idea of romantic irony, or the idea of the hero as a tragic figure who is born to ―desire a transcendence that can never be achieved‖ (Hogle, March 21 Lecture). A major poet of the ―second-generation‖ romantics, Lord Byron fused together high romance with his devotion for nature and his negativity. Through his technique he invented ‗Byronic hero.‘ He was of the opinion that ‗people should be free with their life and with whatever they did (Byron, Lord). This can easily be tied back to Byron‘s life; he really did whatever he wanted. He used sarcasm and fought back the negative critiques about his poetry.‘ Lord Byron‘s poems reflect and represent the Romantic Period and reveal the true inner nature of Byron. He, like other poets of Romantic era, was unpredictable but charming full of romance and heroism. Among Byron’s best-known works are the lengthy narrative poems Don Juan and Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, and the short lyric “She Walks in Beauty”.

Byron is regarded as one of the greatest British poets, and remains widely read and influential. He travelled widely across Europe, especially in Italy where he lived for seven years. Later in life, Byron joined the Greek War of Independence fighting the Ottoman Empire, for which many Greeks revere him as a national hero. He died one year later at age 36 from a fever contracted while in Missolonghi. Often described as the most flamboyant and notorious of the major Romantics, Byron was both celebrated and castigated in life for his aristocratic excesses, including huge debts, numerous love affairs with people of both sexes, rumors of a scandalous liaison with his half-sister, and self-imposed exile.

6.2 Biographic and Career Details:

Byron‘s mother, Catherine Gordon was a Scottish heiress descended from Annabella Stewart, daughter of James 1 of Scotland and his father Captain John ‗Mad Jack‘ Byron accepted Scottish customs of his wife. Byron was given his mother‘s Scottish surname. Byron‘s father John Byron was a romantic philanderer, who courted Catherine and captured the heart of wealthy Catherine and quickly spent her 17,000 pound inheritance. He died when Byron was just three years old.

He had been born at 16 Holles Street, London, on January 22,1788.Soon after his birth Mrs. Byron removed to Aberdeen, and the northern city was the poet‘s home till he left for Scotland. Byron lived in Aberdeen, Scotland for nine years and at the age of nine he inherited his uncle‘s title and became a Byron. He could never claim a full authentic English Heritage. Byron had an unusual mother who influenced his life, thoughts and even his behavior. Catherine was overly affectionate, even indulgent and sometimes abusive too towards his only son. Since Byron‘s early preceptors were either clergymen or were destined for the church, it is not surprising that he was early introduced to the Bible, and he acquired for the Book a love which never left him. Perhaps the greatest of all the misfortunes from which Byron‘s early life suffered was the want of a wise and strong guiding hand. His father died before he had completed his fourth year, and therefore, till his accession to the title, his mother was his sole guardian. Byron was seen as a spoilt and rebellious child at Harrow as Catherine almost always gave him the funds he asked for. On August 1, 1811, Mrs Byron died. Onher death Byron wrote, ‗Thank God, her last moments were tranquil. I am told she was in little pain and not aware of her situation. I now feel the truth ‗that we can only have one mother. —Peace be with the dead.‘‘

Byron was entered at Harrow in April 1801. His Harrow years were interrupted by what he himself considered being his most serious love affair. Whatever he wrote was of the deepest interest from a biographical point of view, and show that even after his marriage and separation, Byron had not forgotten the love of his youth. Byron attended Trinity College, Cambridge, intermittently from October 1805 until July 1808, when he received an M.A. degree. During “the most romantic period of [his] life,” he experienced a “violent, though pure, love and passion” for John Edleston, a choirboy at Trinity two years younger than he. Intellectual pursuits interested him less than such London diversions as fencing and boxing lessons, the theater, demimondes, and gambling. Living extravagantly, he began to amass the debts that would bedevil him for years. In March 1809, two months after attaining his majority, he took his seat in the House of Lords; seven times that spring he attended sessions of Parliament.

Like his father, Byron spent his youth in the pursuit of women just to impregnate them and abandon them. Byron married Annabella and they had one daughter Ada.

Although it could never be proved Byron probably fathered a daughter, Medora, with his half sister Augusta, one son was born to a servant named Lucy and finally he sired another daughter, Allegra, with Claire Claremont, Mary Shelley‘s stepsister. Byron did not adore children. Byron was emotional and radical by nature and religiously skeptical, while his wife Annabella was logical, pious, even-tempered and very sober. Byron‘s marriage failed as he was verbally abusive and had continuous connection with Augusta. The reason for their marriage was not true love but in order to escape from growing debt and rumour, he married Annabella, who was said to be the likely heiress of a rich uncle. They married on 2 January 1815, and their daughter, Ada, was born in December of that year. However Byron’s continuing obsession with Augusta (and his continuing sexual escapades with actresses and others) made their marital life a misery. Finally they were legally separated. He was also suspected of homosexuality. During his lifetime he enjoyed unlimited name, fame and fan following for his writings and for being a confessional writer. The extent of his quick fame after the publication of Childe Harold Pilgrimage in 1812 is unimaginable. This was known as ‗Byromania‘, a term coined by his wife. But he had to pay a hefty price for his fame as Ghislaine McDayter points out, ‗physical appetite in others, particularly in women, came increasingly to signify for him the threat of his own consumption, both personal and poetic.‘ The vampire metaphor applied by McDayter is possibly the best model for explaining Byron‘s response to Byromania.

HIS EARLY CAREER:

With Elizabeth Pigot and her brother, John, Byron staged two plays for the entertainment of the community and was encouraged to write his first volumes of poetry. Fugitive Pieces was printed by Ridge of Newark, which contained poems written when Byron was only 17.Howeve it was hurriedly burned on the advice of his friend, the Reverend J. T. Becher.It was followed by Hours of Idleness, which collected many of the previous poems, ‘After his return from his travels, he again entrusted Dallas as his literary agent to publish his poem Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, which Byron thought of little account. The first two cantos of Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage were published in 1812, and were received with acclaim. In his own words, “I awoke one morning and found myself famous”.‘‘

Byron‘s exile from England and his excommunication from British culturewere responsible for his friendship with many literary figures of the time, which heavily influenced his future writings like Shelley, Monk Lewis etc. After a few affairs and a lot of travel, Byron finally settled in Italy at the age of thirty. Then Byron began his long witty satiric mock epic DON JUAN, which ensures his fame for centuries to come. He returned to England in 1811 and faced massive debts and death of his close friends.

Byron planned to attack the Turkish-held fortress of Lepanto with Mavrokordatos. Though Byron had no military experience, he took part of the rebel army under his own command. Before the expedition he fell ill in February 1824. He made a partial recovery, but in early April he caught a violent cold with bleeding, and it was suspected that this treatment, carried out with unsterilized medical instrumentation, may have caused him to develop sepsisand died in Missolonghi on 19 April.

6.3.Image of Byronic Hero: There are two main qualities of the Byronic Hero: a magnanimous man as well as an ordinary mortal who is idealized. Thorslev explains that in the Byronic hero there has ‗ always been an alliance between aggressive humanism, self reliance, and Satanism.‘ Narcissismwas also there in Byronic hero to be noticed. ‗Proud Byronic heroes like Manfred and Dorian imagine themselves beyond the reach of conventional morality, and therefore explore taboos, both moral and sexual. ‘This corruption created excessive guilt feeling in Byronic heroes. In the 1920’s and 30’s, European scholars interested in presenting general overviews of English literature and tracing lineages of dominant themes and figures used the phrase ―Byronic hero‖ more commonly. EinoRailo, in The Haunted Castle (l927), generalized about the “Byronic hero” as a predominantly gothic figure, a dark, mysterious villain whose origins could be found in eighteenth-century fiction. Norton’s definition of the “Byronic hero” follows nineteenth century traditions of oversimplifying Byron’s heroes and reading them biographically. As an influential codifier of the “Byronic hero,” it is worth quoting at length: Byron’s chief claim to be considered an arch-Romantic is that he provided his age with what Taine called its “ruling personae; that is, the model that contemporaries invest with their admiration and sympathy.” This personage is the “Byronic hero.” In his developed form, as we find it in Manfred, he is an alien, mysterious, and gloomy spirit, immensely superior in his passions and powers to the common run of humanity, whom he regards with disdain. He harbors the torturing memory of an enormous, nameless guilt that drives him toward an inevitable doom. He is in his isolation absolutely self-reliant, inflexibly pursuing his own ends according to his self-generated moral code against any opposition, human and supernatural. And he exerts an attraction on other characters, which is the more compelling because it involves their terror at his forgetting of ordinary human concerns and values. The literary descendants of the Byronic hero include Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights, Captain Ahab in Moby-Dick etc. Bertrand Russell, in his History of Western Philosophy, gives a chapter to Byron — not because he was a systematic thinker, but because “Byronism,” established an outlook and a stance toward humanity and the world that entered nineteenth-century philosophy and eventually helped to form Nietzsche’s concept of the Superman, the hero who stands outside the jurisdiction of the ordinary criteria of good and evil. (2:503)

6.4. Byron as a Romantic Poet: The most flamboyant and notorious of the major Romantics, George Gordon Lord Byron, was likewise the most fashionable poet of the day. He created an immensely popular Romantic hero—defiant, melancholy, and haunted by secret guilt—for which, to many, he seemed the model. His multi faceted personality found expression in satire, verse narrative, ode, lyric, speculative drama, historical tragedy, confessional poetry, dramatic monologue, seriocomic epic, and voluminous correspondence, written in Spenserian stanzas, heroic couplets, blank verse, terzarima, ottavarima, and vigorous prose. In his dynamism, sexuality, self-revelation, and demands for freedom for oppressed people everywhere, Byron captivated the Western mind and heart as few writers have, stamping upon nineteenth-century letters, arts, politics, even clothing styles, his image and name as the embodiment of Romanticism.

6.5. Critics on Byron

Elfenbein notes, Byron was commodified in plates, knick-knacks, pictures and other gimmicks now associated with twentieth-century superstars(48).

Andrew Elfenbein explains the phenomenon of response to Byron in the first full-length study of the poet’s Victorian reception, Byron and the Victorians (l995).

Lady Blessington, who gained some popularity by exploiting her intimate involvement with Byron in her Conversations, memorably calls Byron a “perfect chameleon, possessing the fabulous qualities attributed to that animal, of taking the colour of whatever touches him”(71). With questionable credibility, she quotes: People will ‗represent me as an amiable, ill-used gentleman, ‘more sinned against than sinning.’ . . . But, joking apart, what I think of myself is, that 1 am so changeable, being everything by turns and nothing long, — I am such a strange mélange of good and evil, that it would be difficult to describe me.” (220)

6.6. Poetic Technique of Byron:

Byron used his poetry to demonstrate the ephemeral nature of human civilization while creating works of art that would survive for a long time to come.

Lord Byron was a Romantic poet, who had a specific idea about nature and life. He used several poetic devices to express the themes of his poems.

Figurative language and other devices, which serve to enhance the meaning of the poem were used frequently by him.

He mostly wrote epics and lyric poems.

Byron employed meter, anapest, iambs, blank verse, heroic couplets, Hudibrastic verse, terzain, quatrains, and rhyme royal in his diverse poetry.

6.7 Some Interesting Facts:

Byron became a celebrity with the publication of the first two cantos of ‘Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage‘ (1812). He rapidly became the most brilliant star in the dazzling world of Regency London.

He was sought after at every society venue, elected to several exclusive clubs, and frequented the most fashionable London drawing rooms.

He was involved at first in an affair with Lady Caroline Lamb (who called him “mad, bad and dangerous to know”), amongst other amours, and pressed by debt, he began to seek for a suitable marriage, considering among others Annabella Millbanke.

However in 1813 he met for the first time in four years with his half-sister, Augusta Leigh.

Augusta’s daughter Medora (b. 1814) was suspected to have been Byron’s.

Annabella considered Byron insane; she left him—taking their daughter—in January 1816 and began proceedings for a legal separation.

The scandal of the separation, the rumours about Augusta, and ever-increasing debt forced him to leave England, never to return, in April 1816.

Byron attended the funeral of Shelley, which was orchestrated by Trelawny after Williams and Shelley drowned in a boating accident on 8 July 1822.

We are going to discuss three poems of Byron and they are:

a)      She Walks in Beauty,

b)      My Soul is Dark,

c)      When We Two Parted and

6.8 She Walks in Beauty: An Analysis

This is perhaps the most famous of Byron‘s short poems. On 11 June 1814, Byron attended a fashionable party at Lady Sitwell‘s, and met – for the first time – his cousin, Lady Wilmot Horton. The young lady wore a mourning dress and it was the contrast between her youthful beauty and her somber attire that sparked the poem. He wrote it that same evening, and it was included in his 1815 collection, Hebrew Melodies.

It is written in iambic tetrameter, a style typically used for hymns. This makes perfect sense because the Hebrew Melodies collection was intended to be – literally – a collection of Old Testament-themed melodies. Lyrics were to be provided by Byron, and music by a Rabbinical student ,Isaac Nathan. Nathan‘s music was intended to reflect the spirit and style of old Hebrew folk songs. Their collaboration was encouraged by Byron‘s friend Douglas Kinnaird.

She walks in beauty, like the night Of cloudless climes and starry skies, And all that‘s best of dark and bright Meets in her aspect and her eyes; Thus mellowed to that tender light Which Heaven to gaudy day denies.

6.9 My Soul is Dark: An Interpretation

The poem My Soul is Dark is about the narrator and his love affair with music. It is clear that the narrator is depressed and expresses his despair in the poem but in the midst of all that despair, there seems to be a hint of hope that is brought along with music. The first sentence ―My soul is dark‖ straightaway sets the tone of the poem asmelancholy. The soul, in a philosophical, spiritual, religious and psychological sense represents the essence of a person and therefore it is considered one of the most important parts of a human being and the idea that it is ―dark‖ suggests that the narrator is not in a good place and reinforces the idea and tone of the poem.

The first sentence shows us that the poem is written in the first person, to make the reader feel more connected with the narrator and his melancholy. The exclamation ―oh!‖ illustrates the despair that the narrator feels but also adds a sense of urgency ―quickly string the harp I yet can brook to hear,‖ it gives the impression that music is a remedy for the narrator and without it, he may not get out of his miserable mood. The word ―brook‖ highlights that music is the only thing that the narrator can tolerate listening to at the moment which shows that he may be isolated from everybody or, in fact, he may have isolated himself due to his depression. The narrator goes on to describe the effects of the harp as ―fingers fling‖ and ―melting murmurs‖. Byron used alliteration because he wanted to emphasize the sound of the harp and the idea of music as one of the main themes of the poem. The idea of ―fingers fling‖ creates an angelic and peaceful imagery along with ―melting‖ all those unnecessary whispers and mumbles which is keeping the narrator in a state of despair. He expresses hope in the midst of all the despair ―If in this hear a hope be dear/That sound shall charm it forth again‖, it appears that the narrator finds music to be therapeutic and believes that music is a remedy for this torment that he is feeling. This highlights a sense of realness and positivity oppose to the embellished Romanticism usually found during the 19th century and even in this sad poem, there is faith.

The idea of ―sound shall charm it forth‖ creates this imagery of a snake charmer using the power of music through an instrument to hypnotize the snake and it appears that the narrator wants music to have the same effects on him. The word ―charm‖ suggests that the negativity that he is feeling cannot be forced but slowly be allured and the word ―again‖ highlights that this is not the first time the narrator has felt so downhearted, and previously, music may have helped him through his feelings of sorrow.

In terms of form and structure in the poem, the rhyme scheme is simple and constant throughout the poem which compliments to the subject matter. It is ababbcbc in the first stanza and dedeefef in the second stanza. The meter is Iambic tetrameter, similarly to the rhyme scheme. The meter of the poem echoes the sound produces by the harp, creating a gentle and steady beat throughout the poem.

Byron emphasizes the importance of music throughout the poem and argues that ―if in these eyes there lurk a tear, Twill flow and cease to burn my brain.‖ This illustrates how cleansing music is to the narrator and his spiritual self, the word ―lurk‖ suggests that the tear should not be there and the ―tear‖ represents his depression. If he does not express his feelings and let all the tears out, it will ―burn [his] brain‖ highlights how psychologically damaging depression can be and if he does express his feelings, the depression he is feeling will stop damaging himself and psychological well-being.

In the second stanza, the narrator starts the first sentence with ―But bid the strain be wild and deep. Nor let thy notes of joy be first.‖ The word ―but‖ demonstrates that the narrator will disagree with his previous statement and the reader will be apprehensive to what the narrator is feeling now. Byron appears to have changed the direction of the poem, there appears to be a sense of urgency and panic and there is not that hope that was evident in the previous stanza. First time in the poem, the narrator is speaking to another character ―I tell thee, minstrel, I must weep or else this heavy heart will burst‖ and I believe that Byron has done this because it suggests that the narrator was previously speaking to the reader, reinforcing that connection between the speaker and the readers The narrator is talking about his feelings like it is a fact, the word ―must‖ and ―will‖ reinforces the seriousness of what he is feeling. The fact that he is expressing those feelings to a minstrel, who is a medieval entertainer who travel from place to place, reciting poetry and singing songs, illustrates how the narrator has lost hope and it appears that the minstrel is somewhat a doctor to the narrator whom he hopes to cure him of this sadness he is feeling. In terms of imagery, Byron uses alliteration to emphasize his ideas ―heavy heart‖ and ―sleepless silence‖ he may have done this is because of the sounding pattern makes the readers remember those words and it stands out in the poem as well as having a ring to it when it is read out loud.

The vocabulary used in the poem such as ―burn‖, ―ached‖ and ―doomed‖ have a negative connation and it reinforces the idea of the poem as a dark and depressing but also illustrates the narrator‘s feelings. The overall language of the poem is somewhat informal and conversational and the reason is his wish to create this intimacy between the reader and the narrator. Byron appears to be using hyperbole to put emphasis on the narrator‘s depression ―heavy heart will burst‖ highlights this and I believe that Byron has done this because it creates a more intense and dramatic poetic piece; it demands the reader‘s attention by exaggerating his feelings. The first line of the poem ―My soul is dark – Oh! Quickly string‖ and the last line ―And break at once – or yield to song‖ both make contrasting statements, the dash illustrates a break of though and a pause separating the two statements. The first line is somewhat of a declaration of depression and sadness but quickly goes onto a sense of urgency to turn to music, however the last line appears to be a ultimatum of the two directions that narrator can take, either to continue in his depression and surrender himself to his love for music.

6.10 When We Two Parted (1816) conveys the author‘s sorrow at the loss of his beloved. Many scholars believe Byron falsely attributed its writing to 1808 in order to protect the identity of its subject, Lady Frances Wedderburn Webster, who was linked to the Duke of Wellington in a scandalous relationship. The poem is highly autobiographical in that it recounts Byron‘s emotional state following the end of his secret affair with Lady Frances and his frustration at her unfaithfulness to him with the Duke.

The “we two” mentioned in the title are, after all, Byron and Lady Frances, who were involved in 1813 (some people refer to their tryst as a “flirtation,” whatever that means). According to Byron, he “spared” her, which seems to mean he ended up not consummating his relationship with her.

Reading “When We Two Parted,” however, makes us think a little differently. Byron is purposely vague in the poem (no names are used) and his speaker seems not only legitimately upset about the end of his relationship with Lady Frances (“a shudder comes o’er me”), but also guilty of something: “I hear thy name spoken, / And share in its shame.” Despite his feelings of sadness and despair—the moment of parting is tearful and a grim foreshadowing of the poet’s state as he writes—Byron opted to “spare” Lady Frances again, despite his frustration. Byron deleted the poem’s final stanza, which made it clear that Lady Frances was one of the characters, and lied about the date of the poem’s composition (he claimed to have written in 1808, the big fibber) in order to distract and confuse any potentially clever literary detectives.

When We Two Parted‖ is mournful in its depiction of a lost love. The separation alone would have been cause enough for sorrow, but the feeling that his beloved has betrayed their relationship compounds this pain on the part of the speaker. Although they parted as lovers who could not remain together, they become estranged through the beloved‘s infidelity. The speaker mourns even more because their love had been a secret and he must mourn alone; the tone is one of lonely sadness.

The opening stanza is especially well constructed. Each of the first four lines has five syllables. However, the pattern suddenly and unpredictably breaks down in line 5, when the speaker abruptly shifts from five syllables to six, so that the crucial word ―cold‖ receives very strong metrical emphasis. The last words in each of the first five lines are all rich with implications, but the last word of the fifth line receives special stress.

Since there is very little imagery in the poem, the speaker‘s mournful tone is made clear with the language, such as his repetition of ―silence and tears‖ in the first and last stanzas. His beloved‘s infidelity is made the more harsh when he describes her as having grown ―cold‖ toward him. He draws the picture of the two of them meeting several years hence, but saying nothing, since their former relationship can never be publicly acknowledged.

The reason(s) for the lovers‘ parting is never made explicit, and thus we cannot be sure precisely why the woman‘s cheek grew ―cold.‖ Did the parting upset her as her tears might suggest? Or had she begun to lose her affection for the speaker? The fact that her kiss became ―Colder‖ (6) suggests as much, but we cannot be entirely sure.

6.11 Conclusion and Suggestions for Further Reading

For a list of works about Byron, look at Oscar Jose Santucho‘s George Gordon, Lord Byron: A Comprehensive Bibliography of Secondary Materials in English, 1807-1974; it also contains a critical review of research. Thomas J. Wise has a full list of Byron first editions in A Bibliography of the Writings in Verse and Prose of Byron; and Ernest H. Coleridge lists first, later, and foreign editions in the 13-volume The Works of Lord Byron which he edited. Leslie A. Marchand has also written Byron‘s Poetry: A Critical Introduction and there are, of course, numerous other critical studies. The most prominent are Andrew Rutherford, Byron: A Critical Study and Byron: The Critical Heritage, a collection of 19th century writings. Harold Bloom and Paul True blood have also written critical interpretations of Byron.

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