Book Club Meeting
This Time: Lord Byron Hosted by: Dalton Fincher
The Victorian Byron
Byron was a noble who forsook his place in English politics for a place in English writing. This allowed him to be known as the "Social Lion of London." ("Byron, George Gordon Noel Byron, 6th Baron."). His skill with a pen was nearly unmatched as his fame quickly expanded beyond Britannia's boarders. His was a curious individual as well.
"Byron, who was interested in the power that new scientific inventions could bring to their possessors, was one of Shelley's models for Victor Frankenstein" (Reil). One could say he lived an interesting life.
His Works
"When We Two Parted
In silence and tears,
Half broken-hearted
To sever for years" ("When We Two Parted" 319)
He moves the reader with the way he displays relationships. He had a multitude of romantic relationships with all types of people and the emotions that he felt with them he freely expressed in his poems, for better or worse. Byron, like many others of the time, brought classical themes and icons into his works. One clear example of this is seen in this piece:
"Oh thou! in Hellas deem'd of heavenly birth,
Muse! form'd or fabled at the minstrel's will!"