| Summary: | An investigation of the classical education Byron received at the various schools he attended, and at Cambridge, confirms it was at Harrow that he became deeply attached to classical Greek poetry and Greek ideals in poetry. How this attachment influenced his practice as a poet and his conception of poetry involves not only consideration of both his translations from ancient Greek and his early work where the influence is particularly pronounced, but also later poems such as "Prometheus" and "Don Juan" The modern Greek poetry Byron encountered on his first visit to Greece had a further influence on him. How much he came to know of the range of modern Greek poetry current at that time, and how this acquaintance left its mark upon his poetry, involves considering not only his translations from modern Greek, published and unpublished, but also the poems or parts of his poems which have associations with Greek works such as "The Greek Marseillaise", "The Rossanglogallos", and the Cretan pastoral romance "The Fair Shepherdess" 'While associations with modern Greek poetry occur most frequently in the poetry Byron wrote between 1809 and the publication of his "Turkish Tales", "Don Juan" reveals a continuing influence of the material he met on his first visit. Byron's eventual return to Greece appears to coincide with a renewed interest in classical and modern Greek poetry, indicated in some of his last poems.
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