George Gordon, Lord Byron

George Gordon, Lord Byron, lived from January 22, 1788 (London, England), to April 19, 1824 (Missolonghi, Greece). He was an English Romantic poet and satirist.

The beauty and brilliance of his writings are at his poetic masterpieces like Childe Harold's Pilgrimage and Don Juan, as well as the dramatic poems Manfred and Cain, and the satire English Bards and Scotch Reviewers; also important are his letters, journals, and conversations.

One of his most important works was Don Juan, a book-length narrative poem. (In Byron's poem, "Juan" is pronounced in its Anglicized form; the opening stanza rhymes "Juan" with "new one" and "true one.").

Byron Statue, Hyde Park, London, 1881.

Canto 1

I want a hero, an uncommon want,

When every year and month sends forth a new one,

Till after cloying the gazettes with cant,

The age discovers he is not the true one.

Of such as these I should not care to vaunt;

I'll therefore take our ancient friend Don Juan.

We all have seen him in the pantomime,

Sent to the devil somewhat ere his time.

One of his most familiar poems, She Walks in Beauty, opens:

She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that's best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes.

In his personal life Byron was notorious for his numerous romantic affairs, both with women and men; his lover, Lady Caroline Lamb, described him as "mad, bad, and dangerous to know."

Byron went into self-imposed exile in Italy (he assisted the Italian freedom fighters working for democracy)... Depressed by both his daughter's death and the drowning of Percy Bysshe Shelley, Byron took up a new cause - that of Greek independence from the Ottoman Empire. Summoning support, he arrived in Greece with weapons and supplies, but before he could join the fight, went down with a deadly fever (malaria). [1]

He was buried in the Parish Church of St. Mary Magdalene in the town of Hucknall, near Nottingham, in the United Kingdom.

## External links[edit]

* Lord Byron, 1788-1824 Biography.

## References[edit]

1. ↑ Lord Byron IMDb.