Lord Byron, (George Gordon)
1788-1824
Romantic Poet
I can never get people to understand that poetry is the
expression of excited passion, and that there is no such thing as a life of
passion any more than a continuous earthquake, or an eternal fever. Besides,
who would ever shave themselves in such a state?
Lord Byron, in a letter to Thomas Moore, 5 July 1821
George Gordon Byron was born in London in 1788. He attended Trinity College in Cambridge, and after attaining his M.A. degree in 1809, Byron went on a two-year adventurous excursion through Portugal and Spain to Malta. During this period — Lord Byron accumulated material in which he used in his well noted poetry, "Childe Harold" to the last of his well known masterpiece, "Don Juan." He quickly became the darling and celebrity of an esoteric London literary circle and formed friendships with affluent writers like Percy Bysshe Shelley, Thomas More, and political moralist activist, John Cam Hobhouse.
He occupied a seat in the House of Lords and supported the Liberal party for a short period of time. He was very handsome and quite popular with the ladies as well, and many were in pursuit of his affection, one being Lady Caroline Lamb. It is known that she caused him so much distress with her public tantrums that he turned to Annabella Milbanke for stability. Byron eventually married Annabella in 1815, but this union ended in a legal separation a year later.
Bored with his many encounters and relationships, and with life in general, Byron turned to organizing an expedition to assist the Greek war for independence from the Turks. Training troops proved to be a hardship and a laborious task for Byron. While he was aware of the poor military conditions in Greece; he also felt compelled to help out with the cause against the Turks just the same. Consequently his health suffered, and he later died from a series of feverish attacks. He was thirty six years old. To this day, Byron is revered by the Greek population as a national hero.
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