Byron, George Gordon, 6th Baron Byron (1788–1824)
English poet. He became the symbol of Romanticism and political liberalism throughout Europe in the 19th century. His reputation was established with the first two cantos (divisions within a poem) of Childe Harold (1812). Later works include The Prisoner of Chillon (1816), Beppo (1818), Mazeppa (1819), and, most notably, the satirical Don Juan (1819–24). He left England in 1816 and spent most of his later life in Italy.
Born in London and educated at Harrow and Cambridge University, he succeeded to the title of baron in 1798. Byron published his first volume Hours of Idleness in 1807 and attacked its harsh critics in English Bards and Scotch Reviewers (1809). Overnight fame came with the first two cantos of Childe Harold, which romantically describes his tours in Portugal, Spain, and the Balkans (third canto 1816, fourth 1818). In 1815 he married mathematician Ann Milbanke (1792–1860), with whom he had a daughter, Augusta Ada Byron. The couple separated shortly after the birth amid much scandal. He then went to Europe and became friendly with Percy Bysshe Shelley and his wife Mary Shelley. He engaged in Italian revolutionary politics and sailed to Greece in 1823 to further the Greek struggle for independence, but died of fever at Missolonghi.
| Byron's poetic strength can be seen clearly in his romantic and self-dramatizing poems which, together with the events of his life, have given rise to the concept of the Byronic hero. His greatest achievements, however, are a number of exquisite lyrics, such as ‘So we'll go no more a-roving’, the brilliant satire of the Vision of Judgement (1822–23), and the unfinished satire Don Juan. Here his style reached its perfection: smooth, elegant, and deadly. He rebukes the wickedness of humanity, but with an eye always on its ludicrous side. He is also remembered for his lyrics and his colloquially easy Letters (first published in 1830). |
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