6 Lessons From Lord Byron – How To Make Others Swoon With Words
Lord Byron’s poetry and personality turned him into a superstar. In this post, we learn 6 lessons from Lord Byron and examine how he moved others with his language and how we can make our readers swoon too.
Who Was Lord Byron?
Lord Byron was born 22 January 1788, and died 19 April 1824. He was an English poet and a leading figure in the Romantic movement. He was one of the first great literary celebrities, captivating Europe with his poetry and personality. In his autobiographical poem, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, he also created a new literary archetype: the brooding, rebellious ‘Byronic hero’. Byron was a remarkable writer of conversational, witty letters, and their publication further enhanced his literary reputation. His best-known works are Don Juan and Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. His shorter lyrics in Hebrew Melodies which includes the famous poem, ‘She Walks In Beauty‘, also became popular.
How To Make Others Swoon With Words
What if our words could reduce our readers to tears? If they could make them fall in love with our hero? Or energise readers enough to get them through a hard day? If writers can do that, if you can make others swoon with your words, then you’d be the ultimate word wizard, wouldn’t you?
Well, you can! You can learn from one of the best: Lord Byron. He was the ultimate enticer – he had to be. If he didn’t have a way with words, society would have shunned him.
Lord Byron led a scandalous life filled with sexual affairs, incest, sexual abuse, debts, and drugs. He was literally flirting with prison. And yet, this ‘bad boy’ of literature managed to send his generation into a frenzy. He was a topic of conversation and a sought-after guest in high society. His publications sold like hot cakes. He clearly spoke to the people of his time. Let’s see what we can learn from him.
6 Lessons From Lord Byron
Here are the 6 lessons writers can learn from Lord Byron.
1. Know The Power Of Words
Words are used to impart information. But writers don’t want to create instruction manuals. We want words to stir emotions, evoke landscapes, and summon historical events. Words should move people to do things they hadn’t thought of before.
Byron knew the power a poet could wield. This is what he wrote in his poem Don Juan (Canto 3, stanza 88):
But words are things, and a small drop of ink,
Falling like dew, upon a thought, produces
That which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think.
It means writers need to know that they do have power. That doesn’t mean we should all engage in writing propaganda. We must wield that power responsibly. It means that we need to reflect on our language. Ask yourself: What’s the effect of your writing on others?
As a romantic poet, the answer was easy for Lord Byron: emotion. We’ll get to that later.
2. Learn From The Masters
Byron knew the market. He knew his fellow poets who demanded their fair share of the attention. He read Coleridge, Wordsworth, Keats, and Robert Southey, and he had a very harsh opinion of them. In the dedication of his poem Don Juan, he bashed them all. His readers were to decide for themselves if Byron was so much better than the other poets.
Byron could carry it off because he learned from the masters. His use of classical themes tells us that he studied Homer and Virgil. He admired Alexander Pope for his satirical heroic couplets. He studied their diction, their poetic technique, and their themes. That’s what you must do, too!
Read as many other writers as you can. Browse other time periods and even literature from foreign cultures. Even writers you hate can offer a lesson.
Find out what you like and what you dislike from these other writers. What devices do they employ to tell their stories? They will certainly provide you with the next lesson.
3. Level Up On Your Vocabulary
Before you can move anyone with your written words, you need to know those words first. Analyse how you speak, and how you write. How large is your vocabulary? Is your diction varied? Do you use different registers?
Elevate your vocabulary. Of course, you may describe someone as ‘beautiful’ or ‘pretty.’ But wouldn’t ‘buoyant,’ ‘angelic,’ or ‘breathtaking’ be better? Any thesaurus can help with this.
Great sources for new words are crossword puzzles or other word games like Wordle (here’s an explanation of how word games can help you improve as a writer).
Find new words, look them up, and create a word list. Make it your personal job to use these words in the next story or poem you’ll write.Â
4. Words Are Music
Writers (poets especially) are composers at heart. We don’t just need fancy words. We need their sounds to add to the meaning. One way to do that is to collect onomatopoeic words. But there’s more to it. Rhythm is important, and even rhyme. Here’s a whole series of articles to tell you more about the sound effects of poetry.
Let’s look at how Byron does it in the poem She Walks In Beauty.
She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that’s best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes;
Thus mellowed to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies. […]
Notice how Byron makes the ‘night’ rhyme with ‘bright’ and ‘light’? Not only is this a great rhyme, but it’s also an unusual fusion of opposites. That’s fresh and exciting.
If you check the meter, you’ll notice it’s in iambic pentameter. This is a conscious choice, as it’s popular with readers (find out why in the post on ‘Rhythm In Poetry’).
5. Authenticity Sells
Byron once said that ‘Truth is strange, stranger than fiction (Don Juan, Canto 14, Stanza 101).’ He wrote from experience. A good example is the archetype he created, the ‘Byronic hero’. This is a cynical personality, lonesome, tormented by past trauma, rebelling against society and politics, ever bending the rules with dubious morals. These heroes are very charismatic because they’re also capable of great things. In short, the model is Lord Byron himself.
Byron was being authentic in his writings. He continually expanded his mental horizon. For example, he used his grand tour of the Mediterranean as the canvas for his poem Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. When he published it in 1812, he became famous overnight.
So, why is authenticity so important? Because then you’ll write about what you know. Boring lives make boring literature. Instead, embrace life, just as Lord Byron did. No need to be scandalous or promiscuous. No need to break any laws. But explore, travel, and be open to what life offers you. The more interested you are, the more interesting your writing will be. Write about your experiences, about how you felt, where you struggled, or failed, and celebrate your successes.
6. Evoke Emotion
As writers, we already know a few tricks on how to do that, right? We use our senses to achieve Show, don’t tell. We know how to avoid clichés. Now that we’ve elevated our vocabulary, we can infuse our writing with even more emotion. Because emotion will make the ladies swoon and the gentlemen break out in a sweat. Or vice versa.
Let’s look at an excerpt from Lord Byron’s poem To Woman.
Woman! experience might have told me
That all must love thee, who behold thee: […]
How throbs the pulse, when first we view
The eye that rolls in glossy blue,
Or sparkles black, or mildly throws
A beam from under hazel brows!
The throbbing pulse and the rolling eye – we all know what these movements mean. That’s showing at its best. Wait for the final twist.
How quick we credit every oath,
And hear her plight the willing troth!
Fondly we hope ’twill last for ay,
When, lo! she changes in a day.
This record will for ever stand,’
“Woman, thy vows are trac’d in sand.”
Can you see the vows written in the sand, and then suddenly the sea washes over them? At least that’s what’s happening in my mind. Byron creates powerful images. He uses his ‘experience’ to build up our expectations, and then he deflates it all at the end. That’s what I call making your readers swoon.
The Last Word
Lord Byron is a mesmerising poet. His life is breathtaking, and his poetry is insanely beautiful. Do explore both. And if you can use these lessons to improve your own writing, all the better! Make us all swoon with your poems and stories.
Further Reading:
Source for image: Jean-Baptiste Mauzaisse, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
By Susanne Bennett. Susanne is a German-American writer who is a journalist by trade and a writer by heart. After years of working at German public radio and an online news portal, she has decided to accept challenges by Deadlines for Writers. Currently she is writing her first novel with them. She is known for overweight purses and carrying a novel everywhere. Follow her on Facebook.
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