9. “Lord Byron is only great as a poet; as
soon as he reflects, he is a child.”
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
10. She Walks In Beauty
SHE walks in beauty, like the And on that cheek, and o'er
One shade the more, one
night that brow,
ray the less,
Of cloudless climes and starry So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
Had half impair'd the
skies; nameless grace The smiles that win, the tints
And all that 's best of dark and Which waves in every raven that glow,
bright tress, But tell of days in goodness
Meet in her aspect and her Or softly lightens o'er her face; spent,
eyes: Where thoughts serenely A mind at peace with all
Thus mellow'd to that tender sweet express below,
light How pure, how dear their A heart whose love is
dwelling-place.
Which heaven to gaudy day innocent!
denies.
11. Lady Caroline Ponsonby Lamb
'Worse than adversity the Childe befell;
He felt the fulness of satiety.'
I read the quot;Christabel;quot;
Very well:
I read the quot;Missionary;quot;
Pretty - very:
I tried at quot;Ilderim;quot;
Ahem!
I read a sheet of quot;Marg'ret of Anjou;quot;
Can you?;
I turned a page of Webster's quot;Waterloo;quot;
Pooh! Pooh!
I looked at Wordsworth's milk-white quot;Rylstone Doe;quot;
Hillo!
I read quot;Glenarvon,quot; too, by Caro Lamb;
God damn!
12. Written After Swimming from Sestos
to Abydos
If, in the month of dark December,
Leander, who was nightly wont
(What maid will not the tale remember?)
To cross thy stream, broad Hellespont!
If, when the wintry tempest roared,
He sped to Hero, nothing loath,
And thus of old thy current poured,
Fair Venus! how I pity both!
For me, degenerate modern wretch,
Though in the genial month of May,
My dripping limbs I faintly stretch,
And think I've done a feat today.
But since he crossed the rapid tide,
According to the doubtful story,
To woo -and -Lord knows what beside,
And swam for Love, as I for Glory;
'Twere hard to say who fared the best:
Sad mortals! thus the gods still plague you!
He lost his labour, I my jest;
For he was drowned, and I've the ague.
15. “You also know my high opinion of your own poetry, -
because it is of no school. I read Cenci - but, besides that
I think the subject essentially undramatic, I am not an
admirer of our old dramatists, as models. I deny that the
English have hitherto had a drama at all. Your Cenci,
however, was a work of power, and poetry.”
16. “Then I remembered Lara. And on
second glance I no longer saw Lord
Byron as he actually was, but as I
imaged the author of Lara ought to
be…Had I dared, I would have wept
and kissed Lord Byron's hand.”
- Stendhal
17. Works Cited
• quot; Christabel Summary - Samuel Taylor Coleridge - Salem on Literature.quot; eNotes. 9 Mar. 2009
<http://www.enotes.com/christabel-salem>.
• quot;Lord Byron: Selected Letters.quot; Lord Byron. 9 Mar. 2009
<http://englishhistory.net/byron/letters.html >.
• quot;Contemporary and Critical Opinion of Lord Byron.quot; Lord Byron. 9 Mar. 2009
<http://englishhistory.net/byron/critical.html >.
• quot;Notices of the Life of Lord Byron by Thomas Moore, 1835.quot; Notices of the Life of Lord Byron by
Thomas Moore, 1835. 9 Mar. 2009 <http://englishhistory.net/byron/moorebyron.html >.
• quot;The Life of Lord Byron.quot; Lord Byron. 9 Mar. 2009 <http://englishhistory.net/byron/life.html >.
• quot;VoS: Byron, Lord, George Gordon .quot; VoS: Voice of the Shuttle. 9 Mar. 2009
<http://vos.ucsb.edu/browse.asp?id=394>.
• half-sister, ron's, lover, and Augusta.. quot;Lord Byron: Images: Portraits of the poet, his family, and
friends.quot; EnglishHistory.net. 9 Mar. 2009 <http://englishhistory.net/byron/images.html>.
• H, T. F.. quot;Vol. 12. The Romantic Revival. The Cambridge History of English and American
Literature: An Encyclopedia in Eighteen Volumes. 1907–21.quot; Bartleby.com: Great Books Online -
- Encyclopedia, Dictionary, Thesaurus and hundreds more. 9 Mar. 2009
<http://bartleby.com/222/index.html>.
• Lermentov, Mikhail. quot; A Hero of Our Time, by Mikhail Lermontov, 1840, 1841.quot; ebooks@ibiblio.
10 Mar. 2009 <http://www.ibiblio.org/eldritch/myl/hero.htm>.
• Literacy, ronic hero. The New Dictionary of Cultural, and Third Edition. 2002. quot;Byronic hero. The
New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition. 2002.quot; Bartleby.com: Great Books Online --
Encyclopedia, Dictionary, Thesaurus and hundreds more. 10 Mar. 2009
<http://www.bartleby.com/59/6/byronichero.html >.
• quot;Lord Byron and English Romantic Poetry.quot; modern poetry: its writing and appreciation. 12 Mar.
2009 <http://www.poetrymagic.co.uk/poets/byron.html>.
Editor's Notes
RACHELExplanation and interpretation:-can someone read this out loud?-basic understanding of what poem is about: a woman that Byron thinks is beautiful, supposedly his cousin Mrs. Wilmot.-rhyme scheme- ABABABCDCCDEFEFEF- not a sonnet- more Romantic-Structure: pattern of punctuation, meter (about 7,8 syllables each line), repeated words-pace: every time there is punctuation Byron wants you to pause and think-where is there short syllables and where long ones? Restlessness, tension, restraint vs. peace, serenity, relax (Romantic values)- really the whole poem is slow until the end where he gets excited and uses an exclamation mark-enjambment: almost every line has punctuation after it, there is no rush of thoughts-any words we don’t understand? Climes in line 2: climate, o’er = over-who is the speaker (voice/tone): Byron is himself for this poem, a man in love.-situation: outdoors, in sunshine and nighttime, joyous (Romantic writing style values)-what did you expect from the poem from these and the title: a beautiful woman right? Well, while he compares this woman to the day, he also compares her to the night and it seems like he’s saying (in line 3) that there can be good things in the dark. This may be a reference to the fact that Mrs. Wilmot was in mourning at the time. Also, in line 6 Byron is talking of how the goodness of the night, the stars and moon, are denied to the day.-Changing perspectives: But in line 8, Byron talks of this beautiful women, this perfect woman, being impaired by the light. So is she not perfect? No, Byron is saying that even if a woman seems perfect she will always have imperfections. Byron’s perspective changes because first he says that all women have something bad about them, but then he changes his mind and says that bad things are ok.-imagery: the words Byron uses to make the poem more sensory and emotiony for us also paint another picture of how to view the poem. With his conflicting words like; night and day, light and dark Byron makes us think of visual beauty, like the night sky in the first couple lines. He’s saying this woman’s exterior is as beautiful as the night sky with a spattering of stars. In lines 3 and 4 we see him call her aspect dark and bright, the woman is also internally beautiful with her dark moods and bright moods. In line 7 Byron says shade and ray, the same thing. If this woman had differences, like she was happy all the time she would not be as perfect for Byron.-theme: imperfections and balance-Relating the poem to Romanticism some more: Look at all the highlights in this poem. How are these words similar to Wordsworth’s poems about nature?
EAThe Cristabel is a long poem made of couplets by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. It is about a girl, Cristabel and her possession by a demon. The White Doe of Rylstone is a poem by William Wordsworth. Glevarvon was Lady Caroline Lamb’s first novel. The main character's love interest in it was similar to Lord Byron and the novel was viewed as an account of her affair with Lord Byron. The rhyme scheme in this poem is AA BB CC DDDD EE FF. In it Byron gives his opinions of what are widely considered as great literary works. He seems to think that they are only average but in the last four lines he conveys that he thinks very highly of Glenarvon by Lady Caroline Lamb and the White Doe of Rylstone by William Wordsworth. It seems that these two authors are the ones he respects the most.
EAThis is another poem of Byron’s, see if you can find Romantic things
ERICmake fun of life
RACHELnot nature – unlike WordsworthTrip to Greece (meditteranean)Especially: Lady Caroline Lamb and his wifeexample- lyric :“On Swimming from Sestos to Abydos” women
EAPercy Shelly’s writing style
EAWhat someone thought of Byron
WE’RE DONE!!!!! WHOO!
ERICPicture: Byron’s mom (Catherine Gordon)Parents: Catherine Gordon, Captain John” Mad Jack” Byrondivorced, lived in povertyMother- grammar school- aberdeenNine- raped by nurseTen- inherited from uncle- newstead abbeyBrace for foot- dunwichSchool in dunwichSchool in harrowMother- southwell- in summer- met marychaworth here
RACHELPicture: Captain John ‘ Mad Jack’ Byron, Byron’s FatherOct- trinity college in cambridgeJan- first poems publishedJune- tour of mediterranean and east for a year or so2 books in 1812 then became very famous
EAAnna Isabella MillbankeMarried 1815Child Ada1816 she took their child and left him England took her side May 1816 left england
ERICPicture = countessCountess in ravenna, italy- 19 with older husbandWent to switzerland where he met shelley and claireclairmont with whom he had an illegitimate child who he called alba and she allegraaffairs with “Lady Caroline Lamb, Lady Oxford, Lady Frances Webster, and also rumored to have has an affair with his half-sister, Augusta Leigh”- not all before or after the countess and claireEventually he had to sell Newstead abbeyJoined the Greek army in 1823Feb = sickApril = comaDied from a fever?Body embalmedHeart buried in missolonghiBody buried near newstead abbey in huckhalltorkard churchThen italy- venice, then met the countess in ravenna
RACHEL1)What was the nation of England doing internationally?Not very involved with his own country besides a bit of politics.2)What is the public’s view of Romanticism?Their view of him was “morbidly important” to Byron, but their views of Romanticism was entirely different. After Lord Byron people actually began to associate Romantic ideas with him. People liked his poetry but later hated him. Although people did not like Byron, they knew that he was being honest when he wrote his poems and that made them respect him. He revealed his inner self and they thought that was brave of him. When he showed himself in his poems he expressed himself as the troubled Romantic hero. His own Byronic hero was based off himself.3)What were some changes in society during the poet’s life?The Monarchs of England:George the Third (1760-1820)- King of Ireland and Great BritainGeorge the Fourth (1820-1830)- Hanover, Ireland, and Great BritainIndustrial Revolution still going on in EuropeThe Luddites start destroying textile machines (Byron’s one of them!)Carbonari Movement in ItalyTowards the end of his life the Greeks were fighting the Turks and he joined the army for Greece4)How much easier was it for Byron then Wordsworth?A lot easier. People like Romanticism now and so after initial criticism on a few of his first poems he started to become more famous.
RACHELInvolvement: wrote his poems, wrote scathing letters, supported Romanticism ideas while in a position in the House of LordsContribution:many poems, had many people influenced by works, and people read his works which spread the idea of Romanticism even further, did so much that the tragic hero is called the Byronic heroHow was Byron’s poetry Romantic?Romantic Poets are not all the same, and Byron is the exception (get it?). He was a man of action while Wordsworth was all about solitude. But they were both Romantic poets in how they were sensitive to the world around them but had crazy personalities with lots of emotion. A lot of Romantic poets were republican like Byron and were sympathetic to the revolutions going on at the time. Romantic poets:Romantic poetry is defined by its simplicity and Byron’s poems mostly fit this returning to nature. Romantic poets were sensible men who were emotional and passionate. They were unique, original and impulsive. Most of them were religious and some of their poems were kind of worshiping nature and being awed by god and being able to see the demons and the darkness of the world. Romantic poets wrote about nature and foreign lands and people and wrote more fiction, happiness, love, and religion.
ERICMelancholyRebelliousManCommitted horrible crime in past
EAWhat a critic thought of him, he took these kind of things to heart
