Lord Byron and Greece - Essay Example

But one cannot forget his sacrifices for what he did for freedom of Greece. Byron was fond of travels and travelled whole Europe after which he felt his dual personality should be recognised by Don Juan instead of Bryon, so most of his biographies represent "Don Juan". Byron after travelling stopped eventually to Pisa where P.B. Shelley was awaiting for him, as she remained his lifetime devoted friend. Shelley's death lead him towards an entire different direction, he started involving in political freedom and stopped at Greece, where he found struggles for democracy and freedom from Turkey.

Byron was so relentless in helping the Greek cause that he invested his everything to organise the mission to help the Greek cause. Byron was on his way towards struggle for Greeks by training troops in the squalid, marshy town of Missolonghi, that he incapacitated an incurable fever. The fever took his life on April 19, 1824, just after his thirty-sixth birthday. Although he was not much praised with respect to the Greek army, but his sudden absence from the Greek platform could not be compensated and resulted in a vacuum, which is till there and can be felt whenever 'liberation of the Greek' is discussed.

Such a national hero is still unborn in Greece. Lord Byron was no doubt a revolutionist, a complete liberal,. lutionary movements in Italy and Spain, Lord Byron published his own journal named 'Liberal', "Byron defined a liberal as one interested in national sovereignty, not social reform" 3. If we analyse his life with respect to political issues that he was confronted to throughout his life we would come to know that he was the one who believed "in the very root of the word liberal, he was the one who possessed in true sense the colour of a liberal not only in his political career but also in his personal life, the acted according to his own will and pleasure, he was his own master.

Gross has written in his article "His acts were unrestricted, unrestrained, and his political views are frank, open, and bold" 4. Byron had been subjected to many influences oppressive to his natural talents and besides holding political views, he had written from many aspects other than sheer self-expression, gained his liberty gradually through experiences, which had much to do in shaping and determining what his freest expression would be. Byron started taking interest in Greek politics when he attended the House of Lords where he became a strong advocate of social reform.

"In the spring of 1812, his maiden speech in the House of Lords and his new friendship with the Holland had committed him politically to the Whigs, and he was therefore to be kept in Murray's drawing room as a strictly literary find." 5Before entering the House of Lords Byron was confronted to the conservative critic responses by the then political poets, and was subjected to such names like "Byron's political caprice" and "Byron's inexperience". However "In 1811 he was one of the few men in Parliament to defend the actions of the Luddites and the following year spoke against the Frame Breaking Bill, by which the