A Guide to Byron's Verse in Fifty Poems

An accessible introduction to the range, value, and diversity of Byron's poetry. Fifty short essays are each devoted to a single poetic work. The essays provide the background and context for the poem, as well as demonstrating the life of the poetry in terms of genre, form, style, and literary tradition.

Richard Lansdown taught at James Cook University in Cairns for twenty years, after stints in Finland and New South Wales, before taking up the chair in Modern English Literature and Culture at the University of Groningen in 2017. He retired in 2022 and is now connected to the School of Humanities at the University of Tasmania in Hobart.

- Introduction
- Part One. Youth
- 1: 'On Leaving Newstead Abbey' [November 1803]
- 2: 'Fragment. Written Shortly After the Marriage of Miss Chaworth' [August 1805]
- 3: 'On a Distant View of the Village and School, of Harrow, on the Hill' [summer 1806]
- 4: 'Damaetas' [early 1807]
- 5: 'Oscar of Alva' [October 1807]
- Part TWo. The Discovery of the Mediterranean
- 6: 'Lines to Mr Hodgson' [June 1809]
- 7: Childe Harold's Pilgrimage: A Romaunt, Cantos I and II [October 1809-March 1810]
- 8: 'Song' ('Maid of Athens') [February 1810]
- 9: 'Written after Swimming from Sestos to Abydos' [May 1810]
- 10: The Curse of Minerva [March 1811]
- Part Three. Fame and Infamy
- 11: 'An Ode to the Framers of the Frame Bill' [March 1812]
- 12: 'Il Diavolo Inamorato' [April-May 1812]
- 13: The Giaour: A Fragment of a Turkish Tale [late 1812]
- 14: 'The Devil's Drive' [December 1813]
- 15: 'Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte' [April 1814]
- 16: Lara: A Tale [May-June 1814]
- 17: 'Harmodia' [September 1814]
- 18: 'The Harp the Monarch Minstrel Swept' [February 1815]
- 19: The Siege of Corinth: A Poem [January-October 1815]
- 20: 'Churchill's Grave, A Fact Literally Rendered' [June-July 1816]
- Part Four. The Genevan Interlude
- 21: Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto the Third [April-June 1816]
- 22: The Prisoner of Chillon: A Fable [June 1816]
- 23: 'The Dream' [July 1816]
- 24: 'Could I remount the river of my years' [July 1816]
- 25: 'Epistle to Augusta' [July 1816]
- 26: Manfred: A Dramatic Poem [August 1816-May 1817]
- Part Five. Italy: A New Lease of Life
- 27: 'So, We'll Go No More A Roving' [February 1817]
- 28: Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto the Fourth [June-July 1818]
- 29: 'Epistle from Mr Murray to Dr Polidori' [August 1817]
- 30: Beppo: A Venetian Story [October 1817]
- 31: Mazeppa: A Poem [April 1817-September 1818]
- 32: 'To the Po. June 2nd 1819'
- 33: Don Juan, Cantos I and II [July 1818-January 1819]
- 34: Don Juan, Cantos III and IV [September-November 1819]
- 35: Marino Faliero, Doge of Venice: An Historical Tragedy [April-July 1820]
- 36: Don Juan, Canto V [October-November 1820]
- 37: Sardanapalus, A Tragedy [January-May 1821]
- 38: The Two Foscari, An Historical Tragedy [June-July 1821]
- 39: Cain, A Mystery [July-September 1821]
- 40: The Vision of Judgment [September-October 1821]
- 41: Heaven and Earth, A Mystery [October 1821]
- 42: The Deformed Transformed; A Drama [January-February 1822]
- 43: Don Juan, Cantos VI and VIII [January-July 1822]
- 44: Don Juan, Cantos IX-XI [August-October 1822]
- 45: Don Juan, Cantos XII-XIV [November 1822-March 1823]
- 46: The Island [January-February 1823]
- 47: Don Juan, Cantos XV-XVII [March-May 1823]
- Part Six. Greece: Deeper Earth
- 48: 'Journal in Cephalonia' [June 1823]
- 49: 'Aristomenes. Canto First' [10 September 1823]
- 50: 'Last Words on Greece' [March 1824?]
- Afterword: The Poet Speaks