George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron, FRS , commonly known as Lord Byron, was an English poet, peer, politician, and a leading figure in the Romantic movement. He is regarded as one of the greatest British poets and remains widely read and influential. Among his best-known works are the lengthy narrative poems, Don Juan and Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, and the short lyric poem, "She Walks in Beauty".
He travelled extensively across Europe, especially in Italy, where he lived for seven years in Venice, Ravenna and Pisa, where he had a chance to frequent his friend the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Later in his brief life, Byron joined the Greek War of Independence fighting the Ottoman Empire, for which Greeks revere him as a national hero. He died in 1824 at the age of 36, from a fever contracted while in Missolonghi.
Often described as the most flamboyant and notorious of the major Romantics, Byron was both celebrated and castigated in life for his aristocratic excesses, including huge debts, numerous love affairs – with men as well as women, as well as rumours of a scandalous liaison with his half-sister – and self-imposed exile. His only legitimate child, Ada Lovelace, is regarded by some as the first computer programmer based on her notes for Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine. His illegitimate children include Allegra Byron, who died in childhood, and possibly, Elizabeth Medora Leigh.
“He seems
To have seen better days, as who has not
Who has seen yesterday?”
Werner, Act I, sc. i (1822).
Stanzas for Music http://readytogoebooks.com/LB-StanzM-beautysd.htm, st. 1 (1816).
“A change came o'er the spirit of my dream.”
Stanza 3.
The Dream (1816)
“Hands promiscuously applied,
Round the slight waist, or down the glowing side.”
The Waltz, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
Letter to Thomas Moore, 5 November 1820 http://books.google.com/books?id=K-s_AAAAYAAJ&q=%22When+a+man+hath+no+freedom+to+fight+for+at+home+Let+him+combat+for+that+of+his+neighbours+Let+him+think+of+the+glories+of+Greece+and+of+Rome+And+get+knock'd+on+the+head+for+his+labours+To+do+good+to+mankind+is+the+chivalrous+plan+And+is+always+as+nobly+requited+Then+battle+for+freedom+wherever+you+can+And+if+not+shot+or+hang'd+you+'ll+get+knighted%22&pg=PA377#v=onepage
“Mark! where his carnage and his conquests cease!
He makes a solitude, and calls it — peace!”
Canto II, stanza 20. Here Byron is using an adaptation of a quote from Agricola by the Roman historian Tacitus (c. 30). The original words in the text are Auferre, trucidare, rapere, falsis nominibus imperium; atque, ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant (To robbery, slaighter, plunder, they give the lying name of empire; they make a wilderness, and call it peace). This has also been reported as Solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant (They make solitude, which they call peace).
The Bride of Abydos (1813)
“Hope withering fled, and Mercy sighed farewell!”
Canto I, stanza 9.
The Corsair (1814)
“There 's not a joy the world can give like that it takes away.”
Stanzas for Music (March 1815), reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
“Sublime tobacco! which from east to west
Cheers the tar's labor or the Turkman's rest.”
The Island (1823), Canto II, Stanza 19.
Farewell! if ever fondest Prayer (1808).
“That which I am, I am; I did not seek
For life, nor did I make myself.”
Cain (1821), Act III, sc. i.
St. 1.
So, We'll Go No More A-Roving (1817)
“And to his eye
There was but one beloved face on earth,
And that was shining on him.”
Stanza 2.
The Dream (1816)
“Where the virgins are soft as the roses they twine,
And all, save the spirit of man, is divine?”
Canto I, stanza 1.
The Bride of Abydos (1813)
To Thomas Moore, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
Letter to his publisher, John Murray (3 November 1821).
“Eat, drink, and love; the rest's not worth a fillip.”
Act I, scene 2 http://books.google.com/books?id=q4QR8v_hOigC&pg=PA249&lpg=PA249&dq=%22Eat,+drink,+and+love;+the+rest's+not+worth+a+fillip.%22&source=bl&ots=ey6M4uLNpl&sig=L0zlgXlw1OgHOZzN50sGeRHkc50&hl=en&ei=CJQ7TObKK4XbnAeE-LXlAw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7&ved=0CC4Q6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=%22Eat%2C%20drink%2C%20and%20love%3B%20the%20rest's%20not%20worth%20a%20fillip.%22&f=false.
Sardanapalus (1821)
“The best of prophets of the future is the past.”
Journal (28 January 1821).
“Tis pleasure, sure, to see one's name in print;
A book's a book, although there's nothing in 't.”
Source: English Bards and Scotch Reviewers (1809), Line 51.
“Shrine of the mighty! can it be
That this is all remains of thee?”
Source: The Giaour (1813), Line 106.
Song for the Luddites http://readytogoebooks.com/LB-Luddites.htm (1816).
Parisina, Stanza 1, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
Act II, scene ii.
Manfred (1817)
Ode to Napoleon Bonaparte http://readytogoebooks.com/LB-Nap-06.htm, st. 29 (1814).
Age of Bronze, Stanza 3, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
The Destruction of Sennacherib, st. 6.
Hebrew Melodies (1815)
Act III, scene i.
Manfred (1817)
Act I, scene ii.
Manfred (1817)
Source: The Giaour (1813), Line 1127.
“And both were young, and one was beautiful.”
Stanza 2.
The Dream (1816)
Act I, scene i.
Manfred (1817)
“What say you to such a supper with such a woman?”
Note to a Letter on Bowles's Strictures, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
“The careful pilot of my proper woe.”
Epistle to Augusta, Stanza 3, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
The Prisoner of Chillon http://readytogoebooks.com/PC31.htm, st. 1 (1816).
“Folly loves the martyrdom of fame.”
Source: Monody on the Death of Sheridan (1816), Line 68.
“Lord of himself,—that heritage of woe!”
Lara, Canto I, Stanza 2, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
On This Day I Complete My Thirty-Sixth Year http://readytogoebooks.com/LP14.htm, st. 2 (1824).
Stanza 44.
Beppo (1818)
Canto I, stanza 6.
The Bride of Abydos (1813)
“Better to err with Pope, than shine with Pye.”
Source: English Bards and Scotch Reviewers (1809), Line 102.
“Hark! to the hurried question of despair:
"Where is my child?"—an echo answers, "Where?"”
Canto II, stanza 27; this can be compared to: I came to the place of my birth, and cried, "The friends of my youth, where are they?" And echo answered, "Where are they?", Anonymous Arabic manuscript
The Bride of Abydos (1813)
