THEMES OF LORD BYRON'S POEMS

Lord Byron uses the theme of life and death frequently in many of his poems to show the importance of these themes in the Romantic Era. The meaning of life in Byron's work is based on how he views his own life, and depicts it as light. The theme of life is shown when he writes about the sun and expresses "The bright sun was extinguish'd" (BYRON 107). In this particular poem, he talks about the sun as it reflects life because as the light dies out, so does everything around it, meaning that light is essential for life. In the Romantic Era, the importance of life was everything to the romantics, and so they strived to live a successful, meaningful life before disease or illness took over. Opposite to the theme of life, is the theme of death, which was also important to the people of this time. Lord Byron's poetry often reflected the theme of death, as in his time many of his lovers passed before he believed they were supposed to. The theme of death is represented by the image of darkness that is seen when he writes "Seasonless, herbless, treeless, man less, lifeless-- A lump of death" ("DARK", 21). Byron's view on life at this time was very bitter, and the way he described it, it was based on his hardships in life, such as the death of one of his lover's. The themes of life and death are very significant in Byron's poetry as it was mainly influenced by his life growing up in the era and his hardships during his time.