History of english literature

Dedication to Robert Southey
Lord Byron scornfully dedicated Don Juan (1819–1824) to his artistic rival and enemy Robert Southey, who then was the incumbent Poet Laureate of Britain (1813–43); in stanza III Byron said: "You, Bob! are rather insolent, you know, / At being disappointed in your wish / To supersede all warblers here below, / And be the only Blackbird in the dish; / And then you overstrain yourself, or so, / And tumble downward like the flying fish / Gasping on the deck, because you soar too high, Bob, / And fall, for lack of moisture quite a-dry, Bob!"[11] This reference seems to be a dig at unsuccessful copulation.


CONCLUSION
To sum up, Lord Byron is one of the most prominent authors in the Romantic Era. His style and title helped bring him to fame in the 19th century. Many things inspired Lord Byron’s writing, most of which was women. Lord Byron was not only just a poet, he was an extraordinary person. He did everything from poetry, to politics, to funding a Greek fleet for war. The poetry however, is the majority of the reason why he is well known. He created and formed and new style of character and had a major impact on the Romantic Era of poetry.
Byron’s work has its great merits, even with its defects. With both style and matter, most stanzas came out extravagant with only a few being mediocre. Although hard to read aloud, his blank verses seemed to blend in with rhyme.” This gave Lord Byron’s work even more respect than it already had ("George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron.").
The Romantic Era of Poetry was greatly influenced by Lord Byron. His poetry and style created a new type and style of character that the world had never seen before. Some even say this character was just a shadow of his persona. Lord Byron’s mysterious nature and romantic views help set this persona he created in his work. His romance style came from his promiscuous nature.
As a poet Byron's position is a peculiar one. It has been said of him that he is a romantic poet only on the other fringe of his consciousness. He was deeply influenced by the ancients and still more by Pope and his school. Matthew Arnold says of him: "His instincts are fundamentally classical in form without an adequate precision and sacrifices nothing to suggestion." He affected to disdain the stylistic innovations of the lake poets and to admire Pope and the English classical school. He used satire and wit. His Don Juan was written in the eight-line stanza (Ottava rima) of the Italian mock-heroic poets. At a time when wit was divorced from poetry, he gave a rich feast of witty sallies, puns and jokes in his poetry.

Yet a powerful romanticism is the core of Byron's poetry. In the words of Prof. Cazamian, "his passion for freedom, his vanity and egoism, his love of nature, his fierce indignation at and discontent with the present mark him as a romanticist". With Childe Harold Byron introduced into English literature the figure of the disillusioned man, the hero satiated with pleasures and debauchery despising mankind and revolting against the laws of the society. All his writings are pervaded by his personality which is a complex one. His life was wayward, passionate, wilful and profligate and embodied the very spirit of romantic rebellion against all conventions of society, religion and poetry. His militant and passionate personality was writ large on all his writings and lent a romantic charm to his works in the eye of all his readers, English and continental. All his heroes are the veiled representations of himself - Cain, Manfred, Childe Harold who were distinguished by pride and scorn, but they always kept a tender place in their hearts for some woman, who was gentle, loving and impassioned. It is because of these essential romantic characteristics of revolt, passion and ego-centric consciousness which distinguish Byron's poetry that he has been incontestably the most popular of the English romantic poets in Europe and his influence, particularly in France was immense. He, however, wrote some poems of love and liberty which are characterised by classical poise and balance. His All for Love and On the Castle of Chilian combine romantic passion for love and liberty with the classical restraint of expressions.