Useful Takeaways from the Childhood of a Great Writer
How Lord Byron’s story helps me
How can the life of Lord Byron, a romantic poet and an English lord, possibly have any practical value for us now? He lived more than two hundred years ago. Print culture then was a world away from online blogging, search engine optimization, and algorithms. His life must be more like a quill pen under glass in a museum than a useful model to follow if you’re a writer in 2020. It’s a relic. An antique. A curiosity.
I’ve found just the opposite is true. The chapters of Byron’s life story ground me and reassure me. They make me feel that even when his experience two centuries ago was different from mine his struggles are nevertheless familiar and recognizable to me. He managed to create memorable letters, poems and journal entries from material that was painful to him. This encourages and inspires me to try the same thing myself.
Knowing some of the episodes of his early life also reminds me that writing as a vocation is noble. Writers are among the great artists of any age. Their work often builds upon messy childhood beginnings. The discovery of their gift usually comes to them through an evaluation of their difficulties. Realizing this as a truth of Lord Byron’s story make me feel neither as alone nor as insignificant as I sometimes think.
