His remaining eight years were spent mostly in Italy.  Here, his great beauty, his exile, his poetry, and his passionate love of liberty made him a prominent figure throughout Europe.  Notwithstanding this fame, life was a disappointment to Byron.  Baffled but rebellious, he openly defied the conventions of his country; and seemed to enjoy the shock it gave to his countrymen.

[Illustration:  BYRON AT SEVENTEEN. From a painting.]

The closing year of his life shone brightest of all.  His main activities had hitherto been directed to the selfish pursuit of his own pleasure; and he had failed to obtain happiness.  But in 1823 Byron went to Greece to aid the Greeks, who were battling with Turkey for their independence.  Into this struggle for freedom, he poured his whole energies, displaying “a wonderful aptitude for managing the complicated intrigues and plans and selfishnesses which lay in the way.”  His efforts cost him his life.  He contracted fever, and, after restlessly battling with the disease, said quietly, one April morning in 1824, “Now I shall go to sleep.”  His relatives asked in vain for permission to inter him in Westminster Abbey.  He was buried in the family vault at Hucknall, Notthinghamshire, not far from Newstead Abbey.

[Illustration:  NEWSTEAD ABBEY, BYRON’S HOME.]

Early Works.—­The poems that Byron wrote during his brilliant sojourn in London, amid the whirl of social gayeties, are The Giaour, The Bride of Abydos, The Corsair, Parisina, Lara, and The Siege of Corinth.  These narrative poems are romantic tales of oriental passion and coloring, which show the influence of Scott.  They are told with a dash and a fine-sounding rhetoric well fitted to attract immediate attention; but they lack the qualities of sincere feeling, lofty thought, and subtle beauty, which give lasting fame.

His next publication, The Prisoner of Chillon (1816), is a much worthier poem.  The pathetic story is feelingly told in language that often displays remarkable energy and mastery of expression and versification.  His picture of the oppressive vacancy which the Prisoner felt is a well-executed piece of very difficult word painting:—­

  “There were no stars, no earth, no time,
  No check, no change, no good, no crime—­
  But silence, and a stirless breath
  Which neither was of life nor death;
  A sea of stagnant idleness,
  Blind, boundless, mute, and motionless!”

[Illustration:  CASTLE OF CHILLON.]

Dramas.—­Byron wrote a number of dramas, the best of which are Manfred (1817) and Cain (1821).  His spirit of defiance and his insatiable thirst for power are the subjects of these dramas.  Manfred is a man of guilt who is at war with humanity, and who seeks refuge on the mountain tops and by the wild cataract.  He is fearless and untamed in all his misery, and even in the hour of death does not quail before the spirits of darkness, but defies them with the cry:—­