Allegra Byron 1819 poem "Julian and Maddalo: A Conversation": In the next stanza he imagines her grown to a woman: "A wonder of this earth ... Like one of Shakespeare's women." Allegra Byron Clara Allegra Byron (12 January 1817 – 20 April 1822) was the illegitimate daughter of the poet George Gordon, Lord Byron and Claire Clairmont. Born in Bath, England, she was initially named Alba, meaning "dawn", or "white", by her mother. At first she lived with her mother, her mother's stepsister, Mary Shelley, and Mary's husband Percy Bysshe Shelley. When she was fifteen months old, she was turned over to
Lord Byron and the Blessingtons. Lady Blessington based much of the material in her book, "Conversations with Lord Byron", on the time spent together there. This book became an important biographical text about Byron’s life just prior to his death. Byron was living in Genoa when, in 1823, while growing bored with his life there, he accepted overtures for his support from representatives of the movement for Greek independence from the Ottoman Empire. At first, Byron did not wish to leave his twenty-two-year-old mistress Countess Teresa Guiccioli who had abandoned her husband to live with him; ultimately Guiccioli's father, Count Gamba was