In the early 19th century, despite the piecemeal publication of the poem in 1819, the contemporary literary critics said that "Don Juan" was an immoral poetical work in which narrative Lord Byron was too free in satirising the social subjects of the poem, which made persons and personages readily identifiable. Concerning the poem’s origins, Byron said that "Don Juan" resulted from the “humorous paradoxes . . . provoked by advice and opposition” of friends and colleagues, rivals and enemies. In a letter (19 September 1818) to the Irish poet Thomas Moore, Byron spoke of satirical intent: “I have finished the first canto . . . of a poem in the style and manner of "Beppo" [1818, encouraged by the good success of the same. It new poem is . . . meant to be a little quietly facetious upon every thing. But I doubt whether it is not — at least as far as it has gone — too free for these very modest days.”