Summary After seven stanzas in which he complains of the difficulty of making a beginning in poetry; confesses that his imagination is weakening; that the sad truth turns what was once romantic to burlesque (“And if I laugh at any mortal thing, / ‘Tis that I may not weep” — […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Canto IVSummary and Analysis Canto III
Summary After several stanzas on the subject of love, in which he concludes that love and marriage are incompatible, Byron returns to Haidee and Juan. Her father’s long-delayed return makes her more imprudent. Having taken care of all his business, Lambro returns to his island port, which is on the […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Canto IIISummary and Analysis Canto II
Summary At Cadiz, Spain, Juan boards the ship Trinidada bound for Leghorn, Italy, where he is to visit relatives settled there. His suite consists of three servants and a tutor. As Juan has no experience on shipboard, he promptly becomes seasick. Hardly has the ship set sail when a storm […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Canto IISummary and Analysis Canto I
Summary The author begins by saying that since his own age cannot supply a suitable hero for his poem, he will use an old friend, Don Juan. Don Juan was born in Seville, Spain. His parents are Don Jose and Donna Inez. Donna Inez is learned and has a good […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Canto ISummary and Analysis Dedication
Summary Robert Southey and William Wordsworth, who have both sold themselves to the king, would like to be considered the greatest poets of the age. Posterity will decide whether they or Walter Scott, Samuel Rogers, Thomas Campbell, Thomas Moore, and George Crabbe will enjoy the largest share of fame. As […]
Read more Summary and Analysis DedicationCharacter List
Don Juan The son of an easygoing father and a strict mother who is doted on by his parents. At the age of sixteen he has an affair with Donna Julia. Don Jose Juan’s father, who is unfaithful to his wife and careless of his reputation. Donna Inez Juan’s mother, […]
Read more Character ListAbout Don Juan
Like Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, Byron’s Don Juan is an unfinished poem. How Byron might have ended it is idle speculation. It could have gone on indefinitely like a comic strip as long as the public showed an interest in its continuation. All Byron had to do was to change the […]
Read more About Don JuanPoem Summary
Canto I Don Juan was born in Seville, Spain, the son of Don Jose, a member of the nobility, and Donna Inez, a woman of considerable learning. Juan’s parents did not get along well with each other because Don Jose was interested in women rather than in knowledge and was […]
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