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 her. The offer was not accepted. Byron made his way to Smyrna, where he and Hobhouse cadged a ride to Constantinople on HMS "Salsette". While "Salsette" was anchored awaiting Ottoman permission to dock at the city, on 3 May 1810 Byron and Lieutenant Ekenhead, of "Salsette"s Marines, swam the Hellespont. Byron commemorated this feat in the second canto of "Don Juan". He returned to England from Malta in July 1811 aboard . Byron became a celebrity with the publication of the first two cantos of "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" (1812). "He rapidly became the most brilliant star in the dazzling world