"Fare Thee Well" is an 1816 poem by
Lord Byron.
Background
Lord Byron married
Annabella Milbanke
Anne Isabella Noel Byron, 11th Baroness Wentworth and Baroness Byron (''née'' Milbanke; 17 May 1792 – 16 May 1860), nicknamed Annabella and commonly known as Lady Byron, was wife of poet George Gordon Byron, more commonly known as Lord Byro ...
on 2 January 1815. At the end of that year, their only child was born, a girl later known as
Ada Lovelace
Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace (''née'' Byron; 10 December 1815 – 27 November 1852) was an English mathematician and writer, chiefly known for her work on Charles Babbage's proposed mechanical general-purpose computer, the A ...
, the computer programmer. Over the next few months, their marriage crumbled, and in March 1816 they made a legal settlement of separation. That month, Byron composed "Fare Thee Well" and enclosed a note that said, "Dearest Bell – I send you the first verses that ever I attempted to write upon you, and perhaps the last that I may ever write at all."
In April he signed a Deed of Separation and added the following notation:
Byron left England and never saw his wife or daughter again.
References
{{Reflist
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Fare Thee Well (full text on Wikisource)Fare Thee Well background
Poetry by Lord Byron
1816 poems