FAMOUS ENGLISH POETS
LORD BYRON
Monograph Number One in The Mentor Reading Course
“I awoke one morning and found myself famous,” said the great poet Byron. This was almost the very truth. A single poem, a long one indeed, “Childe Harold,” made him the most talked of man of his time. His fame grew in a night. And yet he is said to have been prouder of being a descendant of those Byrons who came into England with William the Conqueror than of having been the author of “Childe Harold.”
The Byrons were an ancient and honorable family, numbering among them many famous soldiers and landowners. George Noel Gordon Byron, the poet, was born on January 22, 1788. His father was Captain John Byron, a profligate and spendthrift. His mother was Catherine Gordon, the second wife of “Mad Jack Byron,” as the poet’s father was called. His parents soon separated, Mrs. Byron taking her son with her.
In 1798 the poet’s great-uncle died, and George became Lord Byron at the age of ten. He and his mother were now assured of a comfortable income, and he was sent to Harrow School, where, in spite of his lameness, which he had suffered from birth, he became a good athlete.
At the age of sixteen Byron fell desperately in love with Mary Chaworth, a distant relative, two years older than himself. Her indifference broke the poet’s heart—for the time being.