Literary Birthday – 22 January – Lord Byron

Lord Byron was born on 22 January 1788 and died on 19 April 1824.

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…

Lord Byron Quotes

1. There is something pagan in me that I cannot shake off. In short, I deny nothing, but doubt everything.
2. If I don’t write to empty my mind, I go mad.
3. If I could always read, I should never feel the want of company.
4. My great comfort is, that the temporary celebrity I have wrung from the world has been in the very teeth of all opinions and prejudices. I have flattered no ruling powers; I have never concealed a single thought that tempted me.
5. ‘Tis strange — but true; for truth is always strange; stranger than fiction.
6. Though I love my country, I do not love my countrymen.
7. America is a model of force and freedom and moderation – with all the coarseness and rudeness of its people.
8. Words are things, and a small drop of ink, falling like dew upon a thought, produces that which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think.
9. The heart will break, but broken live on.
10. I doubt sometimes whether a quiet and unagitated life would have suited me – yet I sometimes long for it.

Read: 6 Lessons From Lord Byron – How To Make Others Swoon With Words

Lord Byron was an English poet and satirist and a leading figure in the Romantic movement. His poetic genius was never called into question despite various controversial and even scandalous storylines involving his personal life. With Percy Bysshe Shelley and John Keats, he was a major figure among the second generation of English Romantic writers. Byron’s first published volume of poetry was Hours of Idleness. Among Byron’s best-known works are Don Juan and Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. His most consistent targets in Don Juan were the hypocrisy underlying various social and sexual conventions and, ‘the vain ambitions and pretenses of poets, lovers, generals, rulers, and humanity in general’. (via) His best known poem is perhaps, ‘She Walks In Beauty’. He is regarded as one of the greatest British poets and is still widely read and influential. He died at 36 from a fever in Greece.

Source for image: Jean-Baptiste Mauzaisse, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Byron,_George_Gordon_(1788-1824);_alias_Lord_Byron,_schrijver_en_dichter,_Mauzaisse,_Jean-Baptiste,_Felixarchief,_12_12873.jpg

by Amanda Patterson

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