Byron at Home

This essay examines the various ways, literal and metaphorical, that Byron thought of himself, or may be thought of, as ‘at home’. Byron is both associated with many particular dwelling places in which he found, or made himself, at home but he is also seen, as he presents himself over and over again, as the exile, the wanderer, the sea-goer ‘whose bark drives on and on, and anchor’d ne’er shall be’. He is not simply play-acting here but neither can we take him quite at his word. There is a real sense that Byron had, more than most, the knack of making himself ‘at home’.