Influences of George Gordon Byron on Asdren

Abstract Poets and writers who introduced Byron to the Albanians a few years before his death, who expressed their sympathy, respect, and admiration for his works, and who were influenced by him in one way or another are Jeronim De Rada, Elena Gjika, Anastas Kullurioti, Faik Konica, Asdren, Luigj Gurakuqi, Ismail Kadare, Agim Shehu, Dhori Qirjazi, Faik Deda, etc. Some of them even wrote poems about Byron. Out of all the aforementioned Albanian poets, one of the Albanian poets most influenced by Byron was Asdren. Using qualitative and comparative literary methods, this article examines the impact of Byron’s poetry on Asdren’s poetry by focusing on the main similarities and differences of these two poets who belong to different literatures and cultures. The paper concludes that Asdren is beyond doubt one of the poets most influenced by Byron. His poems have strange and interesting similarities as well as concordance with the themes, motifs, messages, and style of Byron’s poems. Most likely, Asdren read Byron’s poems and tried to imitate his way of writing, therefore Asdren’s poems are quite similar to Byron’s poems in terms of themes, motifs, symbols, style, etc., though there are differences between their poems as well. The themes and motifs of tyranny, rebellion, struggle for freedom, sacrifice, suffering, honor, death, etc., connect Byron’s poetry to Asdren’s.