My Lord Byron...a Misunderstood Poet Today

Anyone who knows me well will already know that I have a Dead Poet Crush on Lord Byron. I'm one of the few women I know who is in love with a man who has been dead for nearly 200 years. His beautiful, poetic countenance graces my living quarters...yes, I actually have reproductions of his portraits hanging in my home! My husband once said that he thought he was going to have to start wearing a Lord Byron mask to bed. That Christmas, I presented him with a Lord Byron mask that I found through the National Portrait Gallery in London! Best of all, it was based on the portrait of Byron clad in his Albanian clothing!

But here is the killer for me...the most anthologized poem by this brilliant, witty man is "She Walks in Beauty." Everyone knows that poem, and I'm pretty sure their dogs know it, too. Incidentally, Byron was an animal lover, and he especially loved his dogs!

Just to refresh your memory, here is the poem in its entirety:

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/she-walks-in-beauty-7/

Nice, pretty little poem, right? So, why is it such a killer for me?

1) It is most definitely not representative of Byron's work; and
2) Most teachers fail to teach it in its true context.

Byron wrote a tremendous amount during his short, thirty-six years here on Earth. Of all the poems to choose to include in anthologies of English literature, why this one? Possibly because it is short...possibly because it is sooooooo romantic. Okay, news flash here, Byron was a Romantic poet, with a capital "R" not a romantic poet. Romanticism focused on imagination, nature, symbolism and mythology, exoticism, etc. Okay, that's the very, very, very simple explanation.

I will tell you exactly what poem made me first fall in love with Lord Byron when I was a young high school kid: "The Prisoner of Chillon." Wow. I don't know exactly what it was about this one that that wrapped itself around my very soul, but I have never forgotten it.

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-prisoner-of-chillon-2/

From the opening stanza, "My hair is grey, but not with years/Nor grew it white/In a single night..." to the final words, "My very chains and I grew friends,/So much a long communion tends/To make us what we are:--even I/Regain'd my freedom with a sigh..." I was caught up, enraptured, in complete love.

As I went on to study him in graduate school, I came to know his satiric wit, and if you ask my opinion, whatever that is worth, his masterpiece is Don Juan. Funny, satiric, beautiful in some places, laugh out loud funny in others. This is the real Byron. I won't post the link here because there are several. Just go to Poem Hunter website and look for it.

Secondly, let me explain how teachers fail to teach "She Walks in Beauty" in its proper context. Byron wrote it as the opening poem for his Hebrew Melodies, a series of poems that he wrote to go with the music of a Jewish composer friend, Isaac Nathan. The poems, as you might surmise from the title, have as their topics a variety of Old Testament stories. It is not about a woman, folks, so stop sighing over it in that way! Beauty...capital "B"...something that artists seek and attempt to put into words, pictures, music the best way they know how!

I could go on and on about Lord Byron. And on. And on. And on. I will suggest, however, strongly, that you check him out on your own...and with these thoughts in mind in order to truly appreciate his genius and wit!