Byron and Anniversaries

Jonathon Shears once remarked that Byron was ‘always attentive to anniversaries’. This essay will focus on some patterns we might discern in Byron’s autobiographical prose, with glancing comparative analysis of the way he treats anniversaries in verse. Byron’s anniversaries are linked with his apprehension of what the later nineteenth century called ‘watershed’ moments. Historical turning points are used to focalize his dramas (for example, Manfred’s knowledge that his days are numbered or Marino Faliero waiting for the first toll from St Mark’s), but they also feature in the narrative poems where Byron displays a fascination with the way that characters in crucial situations cast backward glances over life while they look ahead into the unknown.