56
And ached in sleepless silence long;
And now ‘tis doom’d to know the worst,
And break at once - or yield to song.
In 1815 Byron married Miss Isabella Milbanke, but it was an unlucky match. Though Byron was
fond of their only child Augusta Ada, and did not want to break up the family, separation was
inevitable. The scandal around the divorce was enormous. Byron’s enemies found their
opportunity, and used it to the utmost against him.
On April 25, 1816, the poet left England for Switzerland. Here he made the acquaintance of
Shelley, the two poets became close friends. While in Switzerland, Byron wrote the third canto
of “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage”, “The Prisoner of Chillon”, the dramatic poem “Manfred” and
many lyrics. “The Prisoner of Chillon” describes the tragic fate of the Swiss revolutionary
Bonnivard, who spent many years of his life in prison together with his brothers.
In 1817 Byron left Switzerland for Italy. The Italian period (1817- 1823) is considered to be the
summit of Byron’s poetical career. In Italy he wrote “Beppo”(1818), a humorous poem in a
Venetian setting, and his greatest work “Don Juan”, the fourth canto of “Childe Harold’s
Pilgrimage”, “The Prophecy of Dante”, the dramas “Marino Faliero”, “Cain”. At the same period
he wrote his satirical masterpieces “The Vision of Judgement” and “The Age of Bronze”.
Unfortunately, the prudery of Victorian critics obscured these poems from the public, and they
have never received their due esteem. Special words should be said about “Don Juan”, one of his
great poems, a performance of rare artistic skill. Humor, sentiment, adventure, and pathos were
thrown together with that same disconcerting incongruity as they were to be found in life. The
style is a clever imitation of idiom and phrasing of ordinary conversation, used with great
cunning for satiric and comic effects.
The war of Greece against the Turks had been going on that time. Byron longed for action and
went to Greece to take part in the struggle for national independence. There he was seized with
fever and died at Missolonghi on April 18, 1824, at the age of 36. The Greeks desired that his
remains should be buried in the country for which he had spent his life, but his friends wanted
him to be buried in Westminster Abbey. The English authorities refused it, and the poet’s body,
already transported from Greece to England, was buried in the family vault near Newstead. His
spirit might have flourished better in some world other than the heavy Georgian society in which
he grew up. The last episode in Greece showed that he had leadership and courage.
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