Lord Byron
George Gordon, (later Noel) Byron is not only one of the best-known of English poets but also the most romantic, scandal-ridden but heroic figure of English literature. His fame appears to rest almost equally upon his poetry and his unconventional life. He was born in 1788 and at the age of 10 he succeeded to the title Lord Byron which he inherited on his great uncle’s death. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge University where he formed an attachment to a younger man, John Eddleston which continued until Eddleston’s death. His many amorous relationships with women included the tragic affair with Lady Caroline Lamb. He travelled across Europe and fought on the side of the Greeks against the Turks. He opposed the removal of the Elgin Marbles to England and is regarded as a national hero in Greece. He lived abroad for a period to escape charges against him of sodomy and incest and died from an infection while fighting against the Turks in 1824. His work epitomized Romanticism in English poetry and works such as She Walks in Beauty, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage and Don Juan have an everlasting appeal throughout and beyond the English speaking world. Byron met and lived for some time with the contemporary poet Percy Bysshe Shelley and his wife Mary Shelley who wrote the classic Frankenstein. He was refused a burial at Westminster Abbey but more than a century after his death a plaque was placed for him in Poets’ Corner of the Abbey. There is a statue of Byron in the Wren Library of Trinity College and a portrait in the Hall.
Size: 3600px × 5175px
Location: London, England
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