“I know not what I could have been, but feel
I am not what I should be — let it end.”

Act IV, scene 1.
Sardanapalus (1821)
Context: I am the very slave of circumstance
And impulse — borne away with every breath!
Misplaced upon the throne — misplaced in life.
I know not what I could have been, but feel
I am not what I should be — let it end.

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George Gordon Byron 227
English poet and a leading figure in the Romantic movement 1788–1824

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