George Gordon Noel Byron, 6th Baron Byron, 1788-1824, British poet acclaimed as one of the leading figures of the romantic movement. The "Byronic hero"- lonely, rebellious, and brooding- first appeared in Manfred (1817). Among his other works are Childe Harold (1812-1818), The Prisoner of Chillon (1816), and the epic satire Don Juan (1819-1824). Byron was notorious for his love affairs and unconventional lifestyle. He died while working to secure Greek independence from the Turks.
As to Don Juan, confess . . . that it is the sublime of that there sort of writing; it may be bawdy, but is it not good English? It may be profligate, but is it not life, is it not the thing? Could any man have written it who has not lived in the world? and tooled in a post-chaise? in a hackney coach? in a Gondola? against a wall? in a court carriage? in a vis a vis? on a table? and under it?
Many are poets but without the name, For what is poesy but to create From overfeeling good or ill; and aim At an external life beyond our fate, And be the new Prometheus of new men.
Society is now one polished horde, Formed of two mighty tribes, the Bores and Bored.
The lapse of ages changes all things- time, language, the earth, the bounds of the sea, the stars of the sky, and every thing about, around, and underneath man, except man himself.
The mind can make Substance, and people planets of its own With beings brighter than have been, and give A breath to forms which can outlive all flesh.
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Writing Poetry
