Byron's Masterpeice- Don Juan

The poem Don Juan is very long so summarizing it would be more understandabl, so I did some research and this is the summary of Don Juan that made the most sense to me so I would think that any other teen would understand it somewhat too. These are not my words because the poem is the size of a book. I think it's over eighty cantos long. So this makes it more simple for the reader.

Byron dedicates the poem to the Poet Laureate, Robert Southey; satirizes Southey and the other Lake Poets for their politics, pretentions and verse; and insults the Foreign Secretary, Castlereagh.

Don Juan is born to Don Jose and Donna Inez; his education. Don Alfonso discovers his wife, Julia, and 16-year old Juan; Don Juan is sent traveling to escape the scandal.

Don Juan sets sail from Cadiz and is shipwrecked. He washes ashore on a Greek pirate island where he meets Haidée, the pirate's daughter.

Lambro, Haidée's father, returns after being rumoured dead to find Don Juan in possession of his home and daughter.

Lambro captures Don Juan and sends him off to slavery in Turkey. Haidée dies.

The Sultan's latest wife, Gulbeyaz, sees Juan on the slave block and anonymously purchases him. Her servant, Baba, conducts Juan to her palace disguised as a girl. Juan spurn's Gulbeyaz' advances which are interrupted by the arrival of the Sultan.

Juan, still disguised, is led back to the seraglio with the rest of the female slaves. His disguise is not discovered, but several of the harem vie for the opportunity to share their beds, and Dudù prevails. Gulbeyaz is informed and summons Juan and Dudù in a rage.

The action jumps to preparation for the Russian attack on the Turkish fortress of Ismail. Juan, disguised as an English mercenary, and his companions are brought to the Russian general, Suwarrow.

Ismail is attacked and taken. Juan saves a young orphaned girl, Leila.

Juan comes to St Petersburgh with news of the victory, and attracts the attentions of Catherine the Great.

Catherine sends Don Juan ambassador to England. Leila accompanies him.

Juan arrives in England.

Leila's education is entrusted to Mrs. Pinchbeck.

Lord Henry and Lady Adeline Amundeville invite Juan to their country seat.

Juan rides to the hounds, and begins to spend time with Lady Adeline.

Lady Adeline tries to arrange a match for Juan, but does not approve when Aurora Raby catches his eye.

Lord Henry holds court, and Juan meets a ghost.




If you feel like you would want to read the rest of the poem then click here, http://www.online-literature.com/byron/don-juan/1/




Baily Copeland

Biography

Lord Byron was born January 22^nd 1788, to John Byron and Catherine Gordon. Byron's names changed throughout his life. He was born George Gordon Byron in London. Gordon was a baptismal name, his name was changed several times. At the age of 10, he inherited the English Barony of Byron, becoming Lord Byron.  When Byron's mother-in-law, Judith Noel died in 1822, her will required that he change his surname to "Noel" in order to inherit half her estate. While not at school or college, Byron lived with his mother at Burgage Manor. Byron made friendships with Elizabeth Pigot and her brother, John, he staged two plays for the entertainment of the community with these two. Elizabeth Pigot encouraged him to write his first volumes of poetry, which were mostly poems from when he was 14. Byron's first loves included Mary Duff and Margaret Parker, his distant cousins, and Mary Chaworth, whom he met while at Harrow. Byron later wrote that his passion for Duff began when he was eight years old. Byron refused to return to Harrow in September 1803 because of his love for Chaworth. In Byron's later memoirs Mary Chaworth was the person who had adult sexual feeling with. Byron returned to Harrow in January 1804, where he had made emotional involvements with the local boys. The most successful of those was with the John FitzGibbon, who he had later run into in Italy. His later poems explain what he calls a "consciousness of sexual differences that may in the end make England untenable to him" Byron was in fact attracted to both sexes, While at Trinity, Byron met and formed a close friendship with the younger John Edleston. About his "protégé" he wrote, "He has been my almost constant associate since October, 1805, when I entered Trinity College” He later was more fond of married women, In 1812, Byron embarked on a well-publicized affair with the married Lady Caroline Lamb that shocked the British public. Byron broke up with Lamb so he would be able to date others such as Lady Oxford, but Lamb never entirely recovered, pursuing him even after he tired of her. She was emotionally disturbed, and lost so much weight that Byron cruelly commented to her mother-in-law, his friend Lady Melbourne, that he was "haunted by a skeleton.” Long after the break-up of Lady Caroline, he started to date her cousin Anne Isabella Milbanke, he had proposed several times with no luck, but eventually had gotten married at Seaham Hall, County Durham, on 2 January 1815. The marriage proved unhappy. He treated her poorly. They had a daughter. On 16 January 1816, Lady Byron left him, taking Ada with her. On 21 April, Byron signed the Deed of Separation, or a divorce, Lady Byron describes it as a very unhappy marriage.

Blake's Prophesies Revealed (Community Blog)

When looking through the blogs made by my English class at CAL I was really interested in a specific blog called Blake's Prophecies Revealed that helped by further understand the prophecies of William Blake. The group that created this blog includes my classmates Edde Diaz, Makenna Childers, Alex Pinzone and Hanh Tran.  This blog was put together in a very organized and neat manner that really fits together that made me want to continue looking through it. They have a brown color scheme that gives a scholar feeling to it which is really appropriate because they are teaching about William Blake.
The posts of this blog specify on Blake's prophecies which include the prophecies of America, Europe, and Asia. They go into depth to describe and explain the symbolism within each prophecy. Since the prophecies of Blake include a lot of symbolism throughout the poems he wrote it was hard for me to understand all of his deeper meanings. These posts are very helpful because they helped me get that deeper understanding of the prophecies that I needed in order to understand the prophecies he wrote. Each post also includes a copy of the original art that Blake made that go with each prophecy poem. The pictures are very interesting because they themselves include so much symbolism that goes with the poem.
What really got my attention from this blog was an entry made by Edde Diaz on an article by Thomas J. J. Altizer called “The Revolutionary Vision of William Blake”. This post describes Blake's opinion and beliefs of Christianity. Edde Diaz portrays the meaning of Christianity that Blake describes in his poems and life. This post is something that I really enjoyed reading because it shows different point of views and is very well explained.

I found this blog very helpful and full of interesting information that really does help further understand William Blake as a poet. This blog teaches on the prophecies of Blake and on his opinion of Christianity. The blog helps understand the symbolism in Blake’s work and can teach everyone at least a little about William Blake. I think that this blog has fulfilled its goal in sharing its knowledge of William Blake’s prophesies, and helps reveal a lot.

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.