Which Romantic poet wrote the satirical epic 'Don Juan'?

Lord Byron wrote the satirical epic poem “Don Juan.” Byron composed it between 1818 and 1824, transforming the traditional Spanish legend of Don Juan into a comic and critical portrait of a young man who is more often seduced than seducer.

The poem is unfinished and consists of 16 completed cantos plus a partial seventeenth. It is written in ottava rima, an eight-line Italian stanza form whose final rhyming couplet often creates a witty punchline or sudden anticlimax. Byron used this flexible structure to mix adventure, social criticism, sexual comedy, political commentary, and reflections on poetry.

The first two cantos appeared in 1819 and provoked controversy because Byron mocked fashionable morality, public figures, and literary conventions. Later cantos followed over the next several years, with some published after resistance from Byron’s publisher. The poem was still incomplete when Byron died in Greece in 1824.

The title can cause confusion because “Don Juan” is also the name of the legendary character and of many later adaptations. Byron’s poem is not a straightforward retelling of the legend: its distinctive achievement is the combination of epic scale with conversational wit, irony, and satire.