George Gordon Byron

Byron was one of the poets of the second generation. The characteristics of the poets of the second generation are:

They are angry because the French revolution have failed

They wanted freedom and they hated rules

Byron was born in London in 1788 in an aristocratic family, but he was disgusted by the hypocrisy of aristocracy. But there were some advantages too to be an aristocratic guy in 19^th century, in fact in 1809 he could go to a Grand Tour of Europe, especially in Mediterranean countries like Italy and Greece, particularly those ones that have had a glorious past.

During this journey he started work on one of his most important works: "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage", that tells the story of a disillusioned young nobleman who travels around Europe and makes a lot of experience. Harold was an introvert and sad man that combats against injustices.

He was also loved by women because he was a mysterious man, but he never felt in love with anybody. He was restless, he refuse the rules of the society like Byron. Moreover Harold wanted to know everything he could know, so he was always looking for something of extraordinary. Common people refused him because he wasn't like them, Harold was an outcast like Byron.

Byron continued this story writing years by years during his journey.

When Byron come back to England he had a lot of  scandalous behaviours: he got married but his wife left very quickly just before the birth of their daughter, and he was accused of a relationship with his half sister.

He became an outcast and he left England to never return because he was tired of societies conventions. He went to Geneva were he met Percy and Mary Shelley and Mary's stepsister, Allegra, with whom Byron had another daughter. This is one of the most productive periods of his life, indeed he began to work on "The Prisoner of Chillon", finished the third canto of "Child Harold" and started the drama "Manfred".

In 1816 Byron left Geneva to Venice where he lived in the house of the Countess Teresa Guiccioli and his husband. Through them he enter in the Carbonari, a group of conspirators which were hting against the Austrian oppressors.

In 1822 despite his health was not so good, he went to Greece were Greeks was preparing a revolt against the Turks to help them giving them money and his active participation but he never take part in any military action because in 1824 his health failed him and he died at the age of thirty-six years old.

Works

"So We'll Go No More a Rowing" that he wrote with a musical rhythm because it is a personal interpretation of a traditional folk ballad.

"Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" is a poem written between 1812 and 1819 in which Byron revaluated the wildest nature because it is opposite to the quiet society.

"Don Juan" that remained incomplete after the death of Byron. It tells the story of Don Juan that was very different by Harold because he was a libertine who trips lightly from one adventure to another, used by Byron as a vehicle to satirise the hypocrisy and falsity of conventional life.

"Manfred", that is a poetic drama in which the protagonist is the stereotype of Romantic hero: ambiguously, handsome, passionate, emotional and solitary man that lives alone in a castle.