Lord Byron and the Romantic Period

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Lord Byron’s works, such as Don Juan and other poems reflect not only the suave and charming characteristics of the Romantic Period, but they also reveal the nature of Byron’s uncommitted and scandalous life. Byron, like most Romantic era authors, was very unpredictable and opinionated in all of his writings. From the hatred of his upbringing, to the love of adventure, and also to the love of meaningless relationships with various women were majorly influenced and illustrated through all of his works and especially in “Don Juan.” Yet he still managed to infiltrate his poems with charm, romance, and heroism. Byron was a perfect fit for the Romantic Period and his poems and he was therefore known as a great contributor towards the era. Many of the Romantic writers were passionate authors that were never once afraid to share their opinion. From its beginning, in circa A.D. 1780, the majority of the writers used their literary works to attempt to influence the readers, or at least make their voice heard. The works consisted of criticism against the lack of freedom in England, to the dire state of the economy, and a rally cry of independence individualism. The writings came full circle when people would write about the desire to discover for themselves, the optimistic view of days to come despite war and economic strife, and also a new start for the imaginative mind (Kries). These imaginative minds are often separated into two different generations, or styles of writings, based on the style of authors and the experiences that they wrote about. The first generation of poets wrote about the longing for freedom and attempted to see the light at the end of the tunnel and remained hopeful. The optimistic poets, such as Wil... ... middle of paper ... ...t, Foresman and Co. 1982. Horton, Ronald A. Ed. British Literature. Greenville, SC: Bob Jones Univ. Press. 1999. MacCarthy, Fiona. Byron; Life and Legend. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. 2002. Marchand, Leslie A.. Byron's poetry: A Critical Introduction. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin. 2002. Buxton, John. Byron and Shelley: The History of a Friendship. New York, NY: Harcourt, Brace, & World, Inc.. 1968. "English literature: The Romantic Period." The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia. © 1994, 2000-2006, on Infoplease. © 2000–2007 Pearson Education, publishing as Infoplease. . (accessed 21 February 2011). Kreis, Steven. Lecture 16: The Romantic Critique of the Enlightenment. © 2000 on Historyguide. 04 August 09, (accessed 21 February 2011).

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