Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte

George Gordon Byron (1788-1824), 6th Baron Byron and Fellowsip of the Royal Society, was one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement, and is regarded as among the greatest of English poets of all times.

On April 10 1814, after the abdication of Napoleon Buonaparte from the "throne of the world", Byron wrote two notes to the publisher John Murray, to inform him that he had written an "ode on the fall of Napoleon", that Murray could print it or not as he pleased; but that if it appeared by itself, it was to be published anonymously. But although he had stipulated that the Ode should be published anonymously, Byron had no objection to "its being said to be mine". So, a first edition consisting of fifteen stanzas was issued on the 16th of April, 1814. A complete version of the Ode, including the concluding stanzas, was not printed in Byron's lifetime, but was published only in the seventeen volume of the Murray's edition of 1832.