Reading Response #3

Lord Byron is famous for more than just the words he put on the paper, but also the way he did it. Charles H. Donelan is a student at Tuff’s University who wrote the article Mortality of the Monosyllable: Freedom and Collective Memory in Byron’s “that there sort of writing”. In this article he analyzes the way Byron writes. It’s almost as if you could understand a bit of Byron’s personality just by his style of writing. Donelan believes that Byron wanted to push the borders of poetry and make a statement with his words even if they were unconventional. He believes that Byron would alter actual events in time and slightly alter them, Donelan expressed this by saying, “Byron develops a hero whose role is representative, rather than decisive, against a background of carefully observed historical reality”. His idea was that Byron would twist the current events of his society as if it was another societies issue and then express his beliefs so that it wouldn’t seem like he was turning on his society. He did this so often that when people explain it they actually call it Byronic. Byron also used puns, rhymes, and imagery in a way that had never been done before. The strength of Byron’s work is due to the strength of his profanity and overall expression of his poetry. One of Byron’s most famous poems is known for its profanity, that poem is Don Juan. The name Juan for the main character and poem is an ironic quotation that transforms into the significance of imperialism into the ‘declaration of symbolic independence’. Byron was good at playing with his words to where they were slightly intriguing to the reader, whomever it was. Donelan It was said that, “Byron’s open-ended, self-conscious, prospective fantasy becomes a strategy for living embodied in a literary experience”. Byron’s style of writing was something never seen before.

            Knowing what I know about Byron he was a man of many worlds, he was well educated and had a great desire to be the best. His love for both sexes gave him an advantage in writing his poetry and he always had the audience on edge. He appealed to ever sense both in person and on paper. His style of writing was smooth and thoughtful. The words rolled well off the tongue but also had a deeper purpose and understanding to it. The way he wrote his poetry showed courage and bravery. He boldly expressed his feelings on his topics knowing that he would be judged by his work. He didn’t want to be a poet for a living for this very fact. He would have rather been in debt than be known for his poetry. He hid from the one thing that truly made him happy. But his imagery and ironic description of the current events of the century made everyone want to know more. It’s almost as if Byron was trying to voice his opinion in a way that wouldn’t hurt his reputation. I agree with Donelan, I think that the power Byron held was something that even he didn’t know what to do with. Had his works not been burned we most likely would have read more about his opinions and ideas on ironic topics. He would always be a huge part of the romanticism era.  This era itself is said to confront the culture in which the poets viewed nature, religion and politics. This can sometimes be offensive, and the works of Byron mildly play off offensiveness with his irony giving a slight balance. 

Lord Byron: So Much For Love

As a gentlemen, Byron did not want to accept money for his poetry even though he needed it because he did not want to be knows as a writer. Image was everything to Byron and his obsession was so fierce that he’d rather be in debt than be seen as a writer. Byron was notorious for his affairs with married women and began to have an affair with Lady Oxford, unlike most affairs, she wasn’t interested in exposing their affair but wanted to be his ‘political muse’. She wanted him to be everything that she saw in him and to venture into politics. The only problem was that politics was not what he was worried about, all Byron cared about was money, and he knew that he needed to marry soon. Byron had still been in a depression after Greece, his mothers’ death, and debts pilling up. All he thought about was the need to marry. While in this depression he connected with his half sister who was like him personality wise which probably made her attractive to him, since he saw himself as attractive. They fell in love and began engaging in sexual relations even though they knew it was socially wrong. His sister suggested that he marry to clear his debt and he did. His wife Anabell, was intriguing to Byron because she was the one woman that did not throw herself all over him and accept his invitations to bed. Soon after they married, while on their honeymoon, Byron became cruel to her. Once he got in bed with her and she did not pleasure his needs he was tired of her. They were completely opposites and did not enjoy one another’s company. Byron’s sister shortly after the honeymoon moved in with them, whether or not her and Byron were involved is not known but it is suspected that they were. Byron and Anabell had a daughter, and when Byron did not stop gambling they took a short break. When she went to her parent’s house for the break Anabell revealed the problems and blackmailed Byron’s involvements in homosexuality to terminate the marriage without hurting Anabell’s name.

"Lord Byron; c'est la vie"

"Lord Byron: c'est la vie" is a blog with a lot of potential when it comes to research on Lord Byron.The overall layout of the blog is easy to use and has a large variety of information on Byron, whether it be a biography, photographs, or connections to greek mythology. Not only they do a fantastic job at breaking down some of his works, for example, "The Dream" by Selina Chart, but they also have a great media representation of his life. I always find it easier to understand someone's writing when i have a background knowledge of their life and a visual of what they look like so this blog had a little bit of everything to truly grasp the life of the young Lord. All of the blog writers clearly understand the life of Byron and what his works did to shape the Romanticism Era of writing. The authors: Selina Chart, Sydney Janes, Valentin Protsenko, and Amanda Reed, do a great job at analyzing and interpreting the text into something that can be easily understood. They take the complex works of a famous poet and make it into a modern day interpretation that can be applied and compared to out lives and morals today. They found a way to interpret not only a video documentary, (that you can also find on our page) but a section on greek mythology that Lord Byron did a poem on. Lord Byron went to school abroad in Greece and most of his inspirations were from the ruins and mythology so it was nice to see that. I think that if you read their blog and our you would get a very good collaboration of ideas and thoughts on his works, and also the differences of opinion. One of Byron's most famous works is the poem, Don Juan. This poem is mostly known for it's profanity and isn't an easy poem to read, and because of that neither blog read it, but Sydney Janes, did a very good job at relating it to his life and explaining it without crossing boundaries or going into detail.

Lord Byron: The Original 'Playboy Lifestyle'

In 1805, Byron began attending Cambridge University to fulfill his final right of passage to become a true gentleman. Once he arrived Byron began living the life of a parting college student, drinking and dancing with the most well known young Lords. He was spending more money than he had and was constantly writing letters home for money for more booze. This was just another step to how wild Byron would become. While at Cambridge he fell in love with a many young men and was crushed by his wanting and desire for people of the same sex. It probably didn’t help that Cambridge had a secret language among the homosexuals towards when and where they’d be doing things, almost like a modern day “booty call”. Had Byron been caught in the midst of homosexual relations he would have been hanged because it was not tolerated. As a way to escape from the harsh judgments in Europe he decided to study and write poetry in Greece. Once Byron arrived he went into a depression because off what he saw, the ancient ruins that we’re so great and marvelous wearing down and this has been learned through his works with the contrast between the higher class and those affected by poverty. At age 23, Byron came home after the adventure in Greece and was greeted with the news of his mother’s death. It’s not sure what made him return to hid lifestyle of partying but after his mothers death and coming home that’s exactly what he did. Byron became a living meat market, with free sex always on the menu. He had realized that now that his mother was gone he needed to marry a wealthy woman and that any scandalous public activity could ultimately damage his chances yet he still did it. He even went as far as to sleeping with a married woman names Lady Caroline, whom made his life a living hell after he left her. She would cut herself in front of him and burn his love letters in public this has been said to what drove him away from her. 

Prose Poem: Feels Like A Lie

Oh Lord, why? Why did she do it? Why would she give the one gift you gave her to someone else? It had a purpose; she had a purpose. But what now?

What's left of her?

She feels like she's less than she was meant to be. But she doesn't know how to pull herself out of the wreck she's in. 

Is she to just go on knowing she made the wrong choice? She feels nothing but regret.

Clothed in a blanket of depression.

Everything she stood for is gone. She has always known you, always walked with you, but Lord she lost herself. This wasn't what she wanted. She just wanted to be his everything. 

She longed to be his world. 

His love. 

When he said he'd always love her she thought it was worth it.

But where is he now? Gone, just like everyone else, but she gave him something that wasn't hers to give. It belonged to someone else, someone who would stay with her forever.

And now she's stuck. In the middle of a never ending maze, and can't find the way out. 

It's dark, and cold. She's fading into the darkness like a rolling fog. 

She needs to feel her way out because she's blinded by evil. All she sees is her mistake in him, the one thing she thought she'd love forever. There needs to be a shimmer of light at the never ending hallways, just to know You will be there when she's ready.

Her haven has been taken over, she's stranded on a island, forgetting what she once had. She stands in the eye of a hurricane and she's pushed to the ground. When she tries to stand up, she can't hold her ground. 

She's withering away with the island. 

In the moment all she saw was gray and she gave herself away. Her parents always talk about what she'll become, but they don't know who she is anymore. She doesn't know who she is anymore.

Sleep isn't an option the nightmares keep her up, she's haunted by her past.

Her life will forever be in chaos. She isn't whole for she lost a part of herself when he left. 

She gave everything to be his everything. There's nothing left of her.

No one said love was easy.   

Byron: A Sexual Magnet, Or A Hero?

Lord Byron was well known for being both a Romantic hero, and also a sexual magnet. He was wanted by both genders, not only sexually but also for friendship, it could be said that he was loved by all. His memoirs were so explicit and crude that they were not published and it was decided that they'd never be seen by the public. Byron's closest friends gathered one month after his death in May, 1824, and burned them. Most of the poetry that have published are still seen today as provocative, even in a society filled with sex, drugs and war. His poetry was capable of touching both men and women because he was bisexual and was capable of understood both men and women. He had a feminine charm to him that shows a complete contradiction in all of his moral values. He was completely genius to the point where it was seen by some as mad. When comparing his personality and place in the world to someone in the past century he would best be described as one of The Beatles. They are similar as they both had women fainting when they walked into a room, they both had adults worrying about them corrupting the young women of the time, and they both had a complete love and passion for their various forms of writing, whether song, or poetry.  Although some may seem him as corrupt those who knew him and people who attempt to understand him through his writing seem his as a passionate hero of freedom and liberty. Lord Byron cared about the way he looked, he made sure that every portrait that was done made him look at handsome, always complementing his best features. This may have been because he was from a good family and wanted to be seen as equal or better than others, or it may have been so that people in later centuries would have something to reference when reading his poetry, a way to seduce from the grave. He was an honorable Lord and worked very hard to maintain his persona.