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Lord George Byron |
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George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron, born January 22, 1788, died April 19, 1824. Byron was an English poet and a leading figure in Romanticism. Among Lord Byron's best known works are the narrative poems Childe Harold's Pilgrimage and Don Juan. The latter remained incomplete on his death. He was regarded as one of the greatest European poets, and is still widely read. Lord Byron's fame rests not only on his writings, but also on his life, which featured extravagant living, numerous love affairs, debts, separation, and allegations of incest and sodomy; he was famously described by Lady Caroline Lamb as "mad, bad, and dangerous to know". Byron served as a regional leader of Italy's revolutionary organization the Carbonari in its struggle against Austria, and later travelled to fight against the Turks in the Greek War of Independence, for which the Greeks consider him a national hero. He died from fever in Missolonghi. |