Lifelong Learning Lecture: Lord Byron: Still Worth Reading
Guest speaker: Dr. Helen Heineman, President Emerita, Framingham State University
Called by one of his lovers, “mad, bad, and dangerous to know,” Byron’s name has become a universal adjective–Byronic–signifying a dark and dangerous figure, brooding and charismatic, usually hiding a secret in his past. His works have inspired the creation of countless others like him, Heathcliff and Mr. Rochester, to name but two.
Though his poetry is not often taught nowadays (most of it long narrative poems, not now in fashion) in this 200th anniversary of his death in 1824, it’s a good time to celebrate his considerable talent. In our time, he has become better known for the life he lived than for the poetry he wrote.
Of the so-called big six Romantic poets, he’s hardest to place, for nobody wrote quite like him. He was the first celebrity writer, and his breakthrough poem was published when he was only 24–Child Harold’s Pilgrimage–when, as he said, he awoke one morning to find he was famous.
After some scandalous conduct and the failure of his marriage, he left England forever, overindulging himself sexually and otherwise. His comic masterpiece is Don Juan, incomplete at 16 cantos. He continued his lifelong quest for religious belief, most especially during his time in Venice at the monastery of San Lazzaro and died at 36, fighting in the Greek war for independence.
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