Content Introduction George Gordon Byron and oriental motives in his poetry

2 George Gordon Byron and his biography
George Gordon Byron, sixth Baron Byron, was simply referred to just as Lord Byron. He was an English artist, friend, and legislator who turned into a progressive in the Greek War of Independence. He is viewed as one of the main figures of the Romantic Movement. He is also viewed as one of the best English poets and remains generally read and persuasive. Among his most popular works are the long Don Juan and Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. A significant number of his shorter verses in Hebrew Melodies likewise got well known. He traversed Europe, particularly in Italy, where he lived for a long time in the urban communities of Venice, Ravenna, and Pisa. During his stay in Italy, he often visited his companion and writer Percy Bysshe Shelley. Later in life, Byron joined the Greek War of Independence battling the Ottoman Empire and died of malady driving a crusade during that war, for which Greeks respect him as a national hero. He passed on in 1824 from a fever contracted after the First and Second Siege of Missolonghi.His lone legitimate kid, Ada Lovelace, is viewed as a primary figure in the field of PC programming based on her notes for Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine. Byron’s ill-illegitimate kids include Allegra Byron, who died in youth, and perhaps Elizabeth Medora Leigh. George Gordon Byron is simply known as Lord Byron. He was born in Holles Street, London. He was born on January 22nd, 1788. This birthplace is not occupied by a branch of English Department Store John Lewis.He was the son of Captain John Byron. He was the son of John Byron`s second wife Catherine Gordon. She was the heiress of Gight estate in Aberdeen shire in Scotland. Lord Byron was the only son of this couple. John Byron`s first wife was Amelia, Marchioness of Carmarthen. She had married John Byron after her divorce from her first husband. She then died in 1784. The press reported that she died because of tuberculosis but some others reported that John Byron did not treat her well.John Byron then got married to Catherine Gordon of Gight for the property. He wanted to claim the property of her wife so he added a surname Gordon to his name as well. When Lord Byron was born, he was christened at Saint Marylebone Parish Church as George Gordon Byron.Lord Byron spent his childhood in Aberdeen shire because his mother moved there in 1790. His father visited them at her lodgings but they got separated. Lord Byron`s father was fully in debts and he had sold almost all the property of his wife to repay the debts. Due to this, Byron`s mother fell ill and became a depressed lady. His father died in Valenciennes, France in 1791.Byron`s great-uncle died on May 21st,1798 when Byron was only 10 years old. This gave Lord Byron the opportunity to inherit the ancestral home, Newstead Abbey in Nottinghamshire. He became the 6th Baron Byron of Rochdale. This made his mother very happy and she took him to London to live in this inherited home. The abbey was very much in a crippled state so she leased it to Lord Grey de Ruthyn.She was a depressed lady and would regularly drink to console her. This resulted in losing control of Lord Byron and she was not able to discipline her child. Byron was born with a physical disability and had deformed right foot.Aberdeen Grammar School was the first school where Byron received his primary formal education. In August 1799, he was admitted to Dr. William Glennie`s school in Dulwich. He was a short-tempered boy because of his deformed foot and would usually go out of control. His mother also disturbed his studies because she would often withdraw him from the school. This resulted in a lack of discipline in the young boy. This also resulted in Byron not getting the education of Classical studies.During his stay at Nottinghamshire, Byron developed a good friendship with Elizabeth Bridget Pigot and her brother John Pigot. Byron with their help staged two different plays to amuse the people of their neighborhood circle. Byron wrote many poems in this era and Elizabeth copied most of them. She encouraged him to write his volume of poetry. He was encouraged so he printed Fugitive Pieces. He was 17 years old when his first volume of poetry came but he burnt it soon because it had many amorous poems like To Mary. He was sent to attend Harrow in 1801. He remained there till 1805. He was neither a good student nor a good cricketer. He represented Eton V Harrow cricket in a match at Lord’s cricket ground in 1805.In school, he fell in love with Mary Chaworth. This became the reason that he refused to come back to Harrow in 1803.In1804, he finally came back to Harrow and became social with a group of boys who gave Byron a good exposure to things. Afterwards in 1805, Byron attended Trinity College, Cambridge. In college, he became a close friend of John Edleston. This also became a period of homosexuality in the life of Lord Byron. He spent three years at the college and this period marked an era of sexual episodes, horsing, gambling, and boxing.Around 1808, Byron was fully into debt. His mother who was living at Newstead at that time was afraid of creditors. Byron planned to spend his time with his cousin who was the captain of the ship. But the death of his cousin urged him to cancel the plan. From 1809-1811, Byron went on the trip to Europe. It was a trip for most of the elite class young men at that time. He wanted to see most of Europe but due to Napoleonic war, he could not see Europe so he had to go to the Mediterranean. This journey saved him for some time from his creditors. In some of his letters, he revealed that he wanted to go to the Mediterranean part because he had been listening about Ottoman and Persian Empires since his childhood so he wanted to see them. Some of his letters also reveal that he wanted to see the perspectives of Islam because he was attracted to Sufi-mysticism.In Athens, he met Nicolo Giraud; he was a 14 years old boy then. Byron liked that boy and developed an intimate relationship with him. This boy also taught Byron the Italian language. In 1811, he returned from Malta to England. In 1812, Byron published his poem Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. He became a celebrity when the first two cantos of Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage got published. Afterwards, he produced many other works that won him fame and name. Those works included The Giaour, The Bride of Abydos, The Siege of Corinth and Parisina. During this period, his debts increased rapidly and his life became disturbed. He also met his half-sister Agusta Leigh. There were some rumors of incest relationship between them. He became depressed with the criticism and rumors so he decided to marry Annabelle Millbank. The two got married on January 2, 1815. In December of the same year, they celebrated the birth of their first daughter, Ada. But Byron could not stop himself from meeting Augusta and Charlotte Mardyn which disturbed his marital life to a greater extent.In 1816, Annabelle left Byron because she thought that Byron was insane. She also took their daughter and sought a separation. The reparation happened in March 1816. In April 1816, Byron left England due to the dejection of separation and the immense pressure of the person whom he was to pay. He then decided never to return to England.In 1824, Byron fell extremely ill. The bloodletting weakened him very much. Till April he made a sort of recovery but then he caught a cold. He was treated by the doctor but due to lack of unsterilized medical instruments, he developed sepsis. This resulted in his death on 19th April 1824. He died in Missolonghi. George Gordon Byron was born on the 22^nd of January in 1788. He is well-known as Lord Byron or the 6^th Baron Byron. He was an intelligent child of John (Mad Jack) Byron, a British army officer, while his mother, Catharine Gordon, was a ruined Scots Heiress. Catherine was the second wife of John Byron. He led a traumatic childhood partly because of the fierce temper and insensitivity of his mother and partly because of his clubbed right foot. His father left him in 1791, while his mother left the world in 1811. Lord Byron’s mother took him to Aberdeenshire, England. There, he attended Aberdeen Grammar School and the school of Dr. William Glennie in Dulwich. He was treated with extra care at school because of his clubbed foot. However, due to the mistreatment of his mother coupled with her uneven temper, he lacked manners and discipline in his early years. Later, between 1801 and 1805, he attended Harrow School in London, followed by Trinity College, Cambridge. It was during that time he started documenting his literary ideas on papers. Also, he got engaged in gambling, boxing, horse riding, and sensual escapades during that time. Moreover, during his stay at Cambridge, he developed a lifelong friendship with John Cam Hobhouse, a political figure and Francis Hodgson who later guided him in literary and other matters of his life.Married Life and TragedyLord Byron is a prolific literary figure. Sadly, his life is marred by a series of love affairs, including Lady Oxford and Lady Caroline Lamb. He had had a secret relationship with his half-sister, Augusta, too, who turned him down by marrying Colonel George Leigh. To distract himself, he developed an illegitimate relationship with Lady Frances Webster. He recorded his unsuccessful love affairs in his dark poems: “The Giaour”, “Lara”, “The Bride of Abydos” and “The Corsair.” However, in January 1815, he married Anne Isabella Milbanke and their daughter, Ada Lovelace, was born in the same year. Unfortunately, after a year, Isabella left him because of his suspected love affair with his half-sister. After this tragic end of their marriage, in April 1816, he left England for good. Lord Byron, one of the great poets, died of illness on the 19^th of April in 1824 in Messolonghi, Greece, where he had traveled to support Grecians in their fight for independence from Turks. His body was sent to England but the clergy refused to give him space at Westminster Abbey. Therefore, his remains were buried near Newstead in a family vault.Some Important Facts of His Life At the age of seventeen, he secured a reputable seat in the House of Lords.

1. 
   He led a troubled childhood because of his schizophrenic mother and clubbed foot.
   
2. 
   He had an illegitimate affair with his half-sister,
   
3. 
   His famous pieces include: “She Walks in Beauty”, “The Curse of Minerva” and “When We Two Parted.”
   
4. 
   He played an active role in Greek’s war of independence.
   

Lord Byron is considered one of the most controversial, yet leading figures of the Romantic Movement in Europe. He started writing at an early age but did not publish his pieces. However, in 1806, he started gathering his poems and published the first volume of his collection privately which got poor reception. Later, in 1807 he published “Hours of Idleness” followed by English Bards and Scotch Reviewers. These publications brought him into the limelight and he became known among the literary circle of that time.Moreover, his friendship with John Cam Hobhouse further accelerated his literary career. Together they flew to Greece, Turkey, Malta, Albania, and Portugal. It was during that time he started working on his epic poem, ‘Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage’ which hit the shelves in 1811. Later in 1816, he traveled to Geneva and Switzerland with Shelley and Mary Godwin. Also, he completed the third canto of his poem, “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage” during this time. Besides poetry, he edited the Carbonari newspaper, The Liberal.Lord Byron was a leading figure of the Romantic Movement. His specific ideas about life and nature benefitted the world of literature. Marked by Hudibrastic verse, blank verse, allusive imagery, heroic couplets, and complex structures, his diverse literary pieces won global acclaim. However, his early work, Fugitive Pieces, brought him to the center of criticism, but his later works made inroads into the literary world. He successfully used blank verse and satire in his pieces to explore the ideas of love and nature. Although he is known as a romantic poet, his poems, “The Prisoner of Chillon” and “Darkness” where attempts to discuss reality as it is without adding fictional elements. The recurring themes in most of his pieces are nature, the folly of love, realism in literature, liberty and the power of art. Lord Byron’s unique literary ideas brought new perspectives for English literature. His distinctive writing approach and experimentation with epics and lyrics made him stand out even among the best poets. His narrative and lyrical works are regarded as masterpieces and had had significant impacts on generations. He successfully documented his ideas and feelings about historical tragedies and romanticism in his writings that even today, writers try to imitate his unique style, considering him a beacon for writing plays and poetry.