Of all the British Romantic poets, George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788–1824), continues to have the most divided reputation. Renowned for having a larger-than-life personality, Byron lived a double existence as a revolutionary poet as well as a political revolutionary. As an artist, Byron is best remembered for his invention of the so-called “Byronic hero,” a Romantic archetype that became hugely popular with the four-part publication of his long narrative poem, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage (1812–1818). This archetype, said to be modeled on Byron himself, was defiant, moody, and often seen to be brooding over some secret guilt. Byron pushed this archetype further in his magnum opus, Don Juan (1819–1824). 

In addition to his writing, Byron led a separate life as a political revolutionary who dedicated himself to the defense of liberty. He famously died from a fever he contracted while preparing to attack Turkish forces in 1824, during the Greek war for independence. This bifurcation between Byron’s artistic and political endeavors reflects a division central to his character. Even as he consistently pledged life and limb to real-world causes, he remained forever drawn to the kind of abstract philosophical and aesthetic ideals explored in “She Walks in Beauty.”