Today is the birthday, in 1788, of George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron. He was one of the major figures of the Romantic movement, and is regarded as being among the greatest British poets. Among his best-known works are the lengthy narratives Don Juan and Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage.
Byron was educated at Trinity College at the University of Cambridge. Following graduation, he traveled extensively in Europe, living for seven years in Italy, in Venice, Ravenna, Pisa, and Genoa, and then was forced to flee to England after receiving threats of lynching. During his stay in Italy, he would frequently visit his friend and fellow poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Later in life, Byron joined the Greek War of Independence to fight the Ottoman Empire, for which Greeks revere him as a folk hero. He died leading a campaign in 1824, at the age of 36, from a fever contracted after the first and second sieges of Missolonghi.
Byron racked up numerous debts as a young man, owing to what his mother termed a “reckless disregard for money”. From 1809 to 1811, Byron went on the Grand Tour, then a customary part of the education of young noblemen. After the publication of the first two cantos of Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage (1812), Byron became a celebrity. “He rapidly became the most brilliant star in the dazzling world of Regency London. He was sought after at every society venue, elected to several exclusive clubs, and frequented the most fashionable London drawing-rooms.
Involved at first in an affair with Lady Caroline Lamb (who called him “mad, bad and dangerous to know”) and with other lovers and also pressed by debt, he began to seek a suitable marriage, considering – amongst others – Annabella Millbanke. However, in 1813 he met for the first time in four years his half-sister, Augusta Leigh. Rumors of incest surrounded the pair; Augusta’s daughter Medora was suspected to have been Byron’s child. He also had relationships with Jane Elizabeth Harley, Countess of Oxford, Teresa, Contessa Guiccioli who was married at the time, and a certain number of adolescent boys including Nicolo Giraud, a young French-Greek lad who had been a model for the painter Lusieri before Byron found him. When Byron returned to Italy, he became involved with a number of boys in Venice but eventually settled on Loukas Chalandritsanos, age 15, who was with him when he was killed.
He was a magnificent poet and one of my favorites. Among is works are two I especially like: She Walks in Beauty and So, we’ll go no more a roving .
Portrait of Lord Byron (c. 1813)
(another abbreviated post – hoping to be back to full strength next week.
Or Thursday…
Today is the birthday, in 1960, of Michael Hutchence, singer, songwriter from Australian rock band INXS, who had the 1988 UK No.2 & US No.1 single ‘Need You Tonight’. Their 1987 album Kick has sold over 10m copies in the US alone and features four Top 10 singles; ‘Need You Tonight,’ ‘Devil Inside’, ‘New Sensation,’ and ‘Never Tear Us Apart.’ INXS has sold over 55 million records worldwide. Hutchence was found dead in his hotel suite in Sydney on 22nd Nov 1997 age 37. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F93ywiGMDnQ
