Byronic Hero Influence

Lord Byron’s creation of the Byronic hero has been greatly used during the course of his life to ours. The influence this type of Romantic hero has had upon the world’s culture of literature, arts, and many other aspects of life has been so big that we may see a Byronic hero character and not even notice it as what it is. The Byronic hero has been a very popular and liked type of hero due to the fact that a Byronic hero is such an intriguing, dark, mysterious character. The hero type that Byron made has been seen in many different poems from him and other poets, some of which trace back to Milton and other poets from the Romantic time period to ours. In order to understand the Byronic hero and how it has influenced the world we must know the hero's characteristics, traits, and qualities that make him up. Here's the list of the qualities a Byronic hero shows, they are......

• Rebelling
• Romantic melancholy
• Guilt for secret sin
• Pride
• Alienation
• Defiance
• Revenge
• Remorse
• Restlessness
• Noble virtues such as….
• Honor
• Altruism
• Courage
• Pure love for a gentle woman
• Distaste for society and social instruments
• Arrogant
• Cynical
• Mysterious
• High level of intelligence and perception
• An outcast, an exile, or an outlaw
• Cunning and ability to adapt
• Expressing a lack of respect for rank and privilege
• Having great talent
• Power of seduction and attraction
• Social and sexual dominance
• Self-destructive behavior
• Sophisticated and well-educated
• Struggles with integrity
• Troubled past
• Unsuccessful in love, the beloved is usually dead
• Emotionally conflicted, bipolar tendencies, or moodiness

The qualities gotten were specifically from these websites> http://www.theinfidels.org/zunb-lordbyron.htm

http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/lesson_images/lesson1148/ByronicTraits.pdf  http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/lord-byron

A Byronic hero may possess some of these qualities, but not every character that possesses these qualities is a Byronic hero. With troubled pasts, scandalous lives, Romantic melancholy, being disliked, but popular at the same time the Byronic hero is in many ways just like Lord Byron himself. The first Byronic hero, Harold, appeared in Lord Byron's poem Childe Harold's Pilgrimage where Lord Byron begins to blend narration and digression to produce the type of descriptive-meditative poetry. Lord Byron uses this type of blend to write Don Juan, where another Byronic hero is introduced to the world of poetry. The Byronic hero is used in many poems by Byron including The Giaour, The Bride of Abydos, The Corsair, Lara, and even Lord Byron's closet play Manfred.
The influence of the Byronic hero has also been seen in the work of many poets and artist of the Romantic time period and Gothic writers of the 19^th century. These poets and artist greatly admired the Byronic hero and the influence of this type of hero has spread like wild fire throughout the centuries. 
After some research I have found some Byronic heroes in our time that we may have never guessed would be. Some of the Byronic heroes of our time include the newspaper comic character Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes. I would have never guessed that Calvin would be a character that has been influenced by the Byronic hero, but he has. The Byronic hero has also influenced music, comic books, films, plays, literature, television shows, and the arts. One of the most popular type of characters in today's culture, vampires, are a perfect example of Byronic heroes because of their troubled past, their love for a specific person, their moodiness, and a few other trait that help them fit in to the category of Byronic hero influenced. All in all our world has been influenced by the Byronic hero in many ways. Our society and culture have embraced the Byronic heroes influence in so many aspects of our life that we do not know of, but the influence of the Byronic hero is there nonetheless.

Obstacles in Byron's Life as a Poet

Born January 22^nd of 1788 in London and dead April 19^th of 1824 in Missologhi, Greece, Lord Byron really made a statement to the world. He influenced our society, changed views, and changed poetry. He was a different sort of individual, doing what he pleased to do and living life in a very scandalous different sort of way known to the society he was born into. It is known that Byron was born with a clubbed-foot (his right one), and that he was highly sensitive about his deformity. To add on to his problems George Gordon Byron, or Lord Byron, discovered that he was attracted to men and women in his early teens. His affection for both genders made Byron live a separate, secretive, and remote life during his youth. When Lord Byron started to write poetry a lot of his poetry was inspired by his affection towards both genders and the love he had towards some specific males and females, which included some of his cousins and some “friends” and possibly even his half-sister with which he lived with for a part of his life. Even though Lord Byron was very popular throughout society, his bisexual relationships made him widely disliked. A lot of his relationship inspired poetry was discouraged from being published by teachers due to Byron’s highly descriptive sexual lines in his poems and inappropriate content. Lord Byron continued to write poetry even though he was criticized for the content of some of his pieces. With time Byron decided to publish some work anonymously and eventually in the end took credit in his published work. Byron’s first poems published received very bad reviews but he didn’t let those bad reviews deter him from writing poetry; instead he published other books of poetry, that in the following year gave him a seat in the House of the Lords. Lord Byron eventually left Europe for good in order to escape all the scandal, his debts, and problems. He continued to write and publish poetry during the time he lived and became a close friend to the famous Romantic poet, Percy Shelley. Lord Byron became one of the most famous poets of his time even though he was greatly disliked by many, but he has become one of the greatest poets in our time because of his influence over society and poetry. What makes Byron such a great poet is that he managed to keep writing words that mattered to him in his poems instead of the words the society he lived in wanted, it made him be an individual and it made his overcome the obstacles in his life.

Darkness, in Present Day?

After Reading Darkness a poem by Lord Byron, it made me think of the possibilities that could lie before us. The first line is "Had a dream, which was not all a dream", when he talks about the "sun" going out Byron is hinting that humanity has lost its faith in god and the presence of loving all living things that comes along with it, which he wishes were a dream but is slowly becoming reality. Without a light to see, people become lost. All that's known for sure is the need to survive, without thinking of the others that also share Earth. The line "Forests were set on fire-but hour by hour, They fell and faded", this is meant to strike a picture of destruction, but isn't that what's happening today? Is the 21st century in darkness and we don't even realize our own downfall? I think 2010 is the closest to "darkness" that the world has ever seen. People are abusing the very thing that has created us, and helped us live for so long, yet hardly anyone cares. Also a large portion that Byron writes about is famine along with death. He talks about famine as a lack of food, but I don't think that's what these people are lacking at all (well maybe a little). I think they're deprived of love and hope. People could never survive without the presence of love, and people wouldn't care to survive if there was nothing to hope or look forward to in the world. When Byron said in Darkness; "Some lay down, and hid their eyes and wept; and some did rest their chins upon their clenched hands, and smil'd;". At least Byron is acknowledging that there are people who still see the natural the beauty of in world, but why does he make them seem like they’re losing the fight, or better yet not even fighting at all? He’s fighting by writing this poem and bringing awareness to, not only people in the 1800's but, centuries of people yet to exist. So who are the evil men enjoying the Earth's extermination and why aren't the others trying to stop them? Why aren't we, in modern day, trying to stop the men who rest their chins on their clenched hands and smile?
-Athena

( To read the poem click on "Darkness")

Bryon's family life.

Byron was born in 1788 with a clubfoot. He was the son of captain John Byron, and Catharine Gordon. He spent the beginning of his life in Aberdeen with his mother. He attended school up until he was ten years old when he inherited the title and property of his great uncle in 1798. Then he went off to Dulwich, Harrow, and Cambridge. Where he built up a lot of debt. While he was at college he met his half sister, Augusta Leigh. They were believed to be having a little more then a brother and sister relationship with each other, more along the lines of a lover rather than family member. In 1807 Byron’s first collection of poetry came out “Hours Of Idleness”, it ended up getting bad reviews. In 1808 he came out with “English Bards and Scotch Reviewersin”, which ended up with a little success. The next year Byron became a lord and began to take his grand tour, visiting Spain, Malta, Albania, Greece and the Aegean. It seemed that his traveling gave him inspiration because it’s when he traveled he came out with some amazing poetry. In 1812, he published the first two cantos of “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage” he became very adored in London. In 1814, Byron’s “The Corsiar” sold 10,000 copies on the very first day it was published. Later he married a woman named Anne Isabella Milbanke in 1815. They had a daughter named Ada the same year. A year later Byron and Milbanke separated. When rumors started going around about his incest and his debt he decided to leave England for good and never return. He went and lived with Percy Bysshy Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley and Claire Clairmont who ended becoming his mistress. While living there he wrote two cantos of childe Harold and the “Prisoner of Chillon” By the end of summer Byron decided he wanted to finish his travels. He spent two years in Italy. He wrote a poem called “Lament of Tasso” where it was inspired by a place he visited called in Rome. He also wrote his masterpiece of “Don Juan” while in Italy.

When Byron died from a horrible fever he caught. His body was returned to England and was placed in the family vault at Hucknall Torkard.