Lachin Y Gair
Published 1807 Away, ye gay landscapes, ye garden of roses! In you let the minions of luxury rove; Restore me to the rocks, where the snowflake reposes, Though still they are sacred to freedom and...
View ArticleManfred Dramatic Poem
Manfred is a wonderful work, composed by Byron in 1816-17 as he lived at the Villa Diodati in Switzerland. He had exiled himself from England, leaving under the cloud of a scandal that never...
View ArticleDon Juan Canto
Summary Don Juan is Byron’s great satire, – his great epic – unfinished at his death, and condemned as immoral in his lifetime. It was also immensely popular. Byron published the first two cantos...
View ArticleChilde Harold’s Pilgrimage
Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage was the poem whose publication caused Byron to remark, “I awoke one morning and found myself famous.” Published in 1812, it did indeed bring him fame and literary renown....
View ArticleVersicles
This tongue-in-cheek literary criticism builds to a very funny – and pointed – finish, namely the 1816 publication of Lady Caroline Lamb’s Glenarvon, written after her infamous affair with Byron ended....
View ArticleShe Walks in Beauty
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...
View ArticleWritten After Swimming from Sestos to Abydos
This satiric poem was inspired by Byron’s own swimming feat, which was itself an attempt to recreate Leander’s swim across the Hellespont to visit his lover, Hero. Byron attempted the swim twice; on 3...
View ArticleSo We’ll Go No More A-Roving
This poem, written on 28 February 1817, was included in a letter to Byron’s friend, Thomas Moore. A quick perusal suggests it’s about the transience of life. But it’s actually about Byron’s terrible...
View ArticleOn a Distant View of the Village and School of Harrow on the Hill
1. Ye scenes of my childhood, whose lov’d recollection Embitters the present, compar’d with the past; Where science first dawn’d on the powers of reflection, And friendships were form’d, too romantic...
View ArticleSong of Saul Before His Last Battle
Warriors and chiefs! should the shaft or swordPierce me in leading the host of the Lord,Heed not the corse, though a king’s, in your path:Bury your steel in the bosoms of Gath! Thou who art bearing my...
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