Mary Baldwin College - Bluestocking Yearbook (Staunton, VA)

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4 The Annual of brave men. Later on we have records of seven Byron brothers all on the field at one time fighting for their country. However. Byron ' s immediate inheritance was far from being honorable, The grand-uncle, from whom he had received his title, was an erratic, misanthropic old man with a blackened record, hav- ing been brought up before the House of Lords for the murder of a cousin. His father was a drunken, reckless, scape-grace, who squandered his wife ' s fortune and then left her. His moth- er, a woman of small intellect, had a violent temper and was subject to frequent outbreaks which amounted almost to insani- t} ' . Though Byron had ancestors from whom he inherited the best of traits, he was compelled to feel the effe ct of his bad blood. His m.other ' s influence over him was indeed harmful; her treatment was capricious and contradictory. At one moment she would lavish upon him passionate caresses and praise the beauty of his eyes, and at the next moment she would cast him from her as a lame brat. It was she who could arouse most frequently and to the highest degree, all that was bad in him. His temper in childhood was sullen, stubborn and revolt- ing. He would fall into silent rages, and upon one occasion when his nurse reproved him for soiling his frock, he seized the frock, tore it from top to bottom and then stood defiant. This was due to the example of his mother who, it is said, would often give vent to her rage by tearing up pocket-handker- chiefs. ■ However, we have proof of how susceptible he was to kind and gentle treatment. His nurse, who was a very good woman and to whom he was devoted, tell us that Byron when kindly treated exhibited sweetness and docility of spirit, his manners, she adds, were winning and attractive. From the earliest period he had shown an intense and passionately affec- tionate nature, his heart responding readily to any display of affection, and he tells us that he was really desperately in love when eight years old. When he grew older he felt his moth- er ' s short comings very severely, and upon one occasion, when a quarrel between them had been unusually violent, some one said to him. Byron, j-our mother is a fool. He replied bit- terly, I know it. Though he led a very wild and dissipated life while at school, he was a great favorite among his school-

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The Mary Baldwin Seminary. 3 star, God ' s hrilliatit caiulle, the noble creature. Here font- times successively they employ the same thou.t ht, and each time under a new aspect. But it is when speaking of God that their verses attain to the highest degree of grandeur and sublimity. They think of God in a series of short, accumu- lated passionate images, like a succession of lightning flashes. So it is in Judith. Whenever the poet speaks of the Lord it is with a profusion of poetic names : The Guardian of the Heavens, the Shepherd of Majesty, the Bestower of Glory, the All-powerful Judge, and many more. Every time he thinks of God he sees him with his mind, like a quick, luminous vision, and each time under a new aspect. Someone has said that the first and most .sincere hymn was the one brief word, ' ' O. Theirs were hardly longer. They only repeated time after time, some deep, passionate word, with monotonous vehemency, and, in reading the poem, we find no less than twenty-five of these deep, passion- ate words, each one, as we have seen a warm, fervent hymn in praise of the Creator, and each one giving evidence of the heartfelt love and adoration, with which their strong, barba- rian hearts w ere filled. Nannie W. McFarland. THE INFLUENCE OF BYRON ' S LIFE UPON HIS WORKS. It has been said that perhaps the work of no poet has been so greatty influenced by his life as that of Byron; and when we are familiar with his character and with the vicissitudes of his life we can readily appreciate this assertion. The Byron family was an old and honorable one, the no- bility dating from the time of Charles I., who had held a cer- tain Bj-ron in high favor, and who had created him Baron, not only for his faithful services to his country and his king, but for the merit of his personal character. However, long before they were a titled family there are meritorious records of many Byrons showing that they were always not only good men but

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The Mary Baldwin Seminary. 5 mates. He formed many warm friendships and much to his credit these friendships were never forgotten. He was consid- ered a very brave boy, always more ready to give a IjIow than to take one, and he never failed to take the part of tlie weak- er boy in the various controversies of school life. As he grew older his mother ' s influence still continued to affect him, and was developing in him a bitterness, a rebellious- ness, and a misanthropy which found outlet in moody fits. However, this was not his only trouble; he had other difficulties to contend with, and chief among them was his poverty. His income was very small, and the estate which he had inherited was seriously encumbered. Thus he was constantly being placed in some embarrassing position the circumstances of which he could not control. Perhaps much of the moodiness and gloominess which characterizes him at this period can be attrib- uted to this poverty. It was a great blow to his pride that he could not live as he thought the dignity of his position demand- ed. He had vers- rigid ideas of birth and though all through his life his views were liberal, he proudly held himself distinct from the people. The next year after he had domiciled himself at Xewstead he made his first trip upon the Continent. The account of his departure from his native land is very pathetic. He was feeling very desolate and depressed; in his literary attempts, in his love affairs and in many other ways, he had met bitter disap- pointments. The preparations for his journey were looked upon with indifference by most of those whom he thought his friends. He says that on the day of his departure he chanced to meet one of his old school fellows to whom he had been very much attached during his school days. Upon being asked to come and sit awhile with him to indulge in a farewell chat, the friend excused himself on the plea of an engagement to go shopping with some ladies. One can imagine the bitterness and indigna- tion with which he records this, adding that, with one or two exceptions, he believed his mother to be the only person who cared a whit as to his fate. After two years he returned to England bringing with him the first two Cantos of his Childe Harold. The stor - of its success is known to all. Byron himself tells us that he awoke one morning to find himself fa-