On This Day I Complete My Thirty Sixth Year

• Summary

  • Written privately on Byron's 36th birthday in his journal when preparing to join the Greek War of Independence.
  • Writes about his life, confronted by his own mortality. He expresses an importance in establishing a legacy.
  • Poem begins with speaker saying he is no longer loved, and this lack of love in his life makes him feel unable to love himself.
• Ideas of the poem

  • Rejection of hedonism, nihilism, and the puer aeternus (mythology).
  • Hedonistic lifestyles lead to moral degradation, emotional isolation, and depression.
  • Can be interpreted as a philosophical poem.
• Rhyme and Meter


  • Iambic tetrameter/iambic dimeter: short end line creates the feeling of the stanzas being cut short, suggests Byron's own life being cut short.
  • ABAB rhyme scheme, conveys Byron's conflicted state of mind.
• Greek War of Independence

  • Greek war metaphorically represents Byron's own battle for freedom, fighting to be freed from society's views of him.
  • Suggests Byron has grown tired of his hedonistic lifestyle, and wants to use this war to redeem himself, possibly gaining a sense of honour.
• "Still let me love!"

  • Theme of love: the lack of love creates a feeling of emptiness. Byron (or the speaker) has become bitter, which from his perspective makes his life pointless if he cannot love others.
  • Exclamation may suggest a sense of desperation and pleading, perhaps a hopeful tone as Byron is looking forward to the future and his willingness to change.
  • Shortened line emphasises Byron's growth and selflessness, shown by the desire to love another person.
• "'Tis time this heart should be unmoved."


  • Sense of self-disgust and self-punishment, suggests the heart is unable to love or feel anything, it is "unmoved."
  • Conditional tense "should" implies the speaker wants to control his emotions as a form of atonement for the bad deeds in his lifetime/youth (hedonistic lifestyle).
• "My days are in the yellow leaf;"

  • Abstract metaphor of "yellow leaf" conveys an image of autumn. Byron/speaker metaphorically compares his life to the seasons, representing the fact that he's slowly withering away and no longer youthful.
  • Link to Romantic idea of seeing man as an extension of nature's attributes.
• "The flowers and fruits of Love are gone."

  • Extended metaphor represents the excitement and beauty of youth, the speaker enjoyed his life when he was young, whether his life was purposeful or not.
  • Capitalised "Love" may reflect its importance, link to "Still let me love!"
  • "flowers and fruits" shows Romantic imagery of nature, presenting its beauty and nurture.
  • "Love" is personified.
• "The worm, the canker, and the grief."

  • Speaker combines destructive forces of nature ("worm" and "canker") and the cause of destruction in humans ("grief"). Suggests that the only things left for him relate to ageing and decay.
  • Repeated idea in Romantic poetry of the "worm" as a destructive force, symbolic for corruption, and biblical reference to the serpent.
  • "canker" = fungal plant disease, link to death and decay.
• "The fire that on my bosom preys."

  • "Fire" as a metaphor for love, suggests it is a dangerous and destructive force, with "bosom" being close to heart emphasising this sense of danger.
  • Also a metaphor for sex, representing the speaker's/Byron's lost sexual passion once he aged and matured.
  • Animalistic imagery of "preys" further highlights love as a corrupting, dangerous, and predatory force.
  • Stanza 3 has a semantic field of cremation, possibly referencing Percy Shelley's cremation.
• "The hope, the fear, the jealous care."

  • Asyndetic list of three abstract nouns, conveys an extreme range of emotions as Byron readies himself to go to war.
  • The speaker openly expresses these emotions and sees them as empowering.
  • Oxymoron of "jealous care" shows contradictory statements, perhaps reflecting the contrasts between older and younger, more free Byron.
• "portion of the pain // And power of Love, I cannot share, // But wear the chain."

  • Plosive alliteration highlight the sense of pain and bitterness that love has caused for the speaker.
  • "I cannot share" links to the Romantic emphasis on the importance of individual experience, suggests a sense of loneliness and isolation.
  • "chain" as a metaphor for love showing a sense of restraint, imprisonment and lack of freedom. Speaker views love as a burden rather than something joyful due to his bitterness.
• "The sword, the banner, and the field."

  • Militaristic language.
  • May perhaps reflect the Holy Trinity through synecdoches which symbolise war in an archaic manner.
  • Lack of conjunctions suggests the speaker's time is running out, Byron expects to die (ironic as Byron predicts his own death).
• "Unworthy manhood!"

  • Self-hatred and criticism suggests guilt, or perhaps the speaker's recognition that he could have used his youthful years better.
  • May refer to fighting and dying honourably at war or conveying phallic imagery, alluding to Byron's sexuality.
  • "unworthy" suggests he feels unloved/unwanted.
  • Speaker may desire to redeem his manhood in the seemingly honourable act of war.
• "If thou regrett'st thy Youth, why live?

  • Rhetorical question suggests the speaker thinks his hedonistic lifestyle was shallow and regrets the way he lived.
  • Through this Byron/the speaker argues that it is better to die for a noble cause than to continue living in a state of despair.
  • Dies in war = becomes noble and honourable, creating a legacy for himself in an attempt to erase his scandalous past.
• "Then look around, and choose thy Ground, // And take thy rest."

  • "choose thy Ground" suggests Byron wanted to have a choice in his final days, to die an honourable death at war leaving behind the legacy he wanted to.
  • "choose" also suggests soldiers choose to die in battle, they have an active and glorified death for an honourable cause.
  • Link to Romantic ideas of freedom and the ability to make one's own decisions.
  • Dual meaning of "rest" being either relaxation or death.