Lord Byron
Lord George Gordon Byron (1788 - 1824) bio je čuven ne samo po svojoj poeziji,već i po svom devijantnom životu zbog čega je bio trn u oku engleske aristokratije u ono vreme.Ovaj mladi čovek,mistik,melanholičnog pogleda ostavio je neizbrisiv trag na evropsku poeziju,muziku,operu i slikarstvo XIX veka.Zbog incestoidne veze sa svojom polusestrom bio je primoran da napusti Englesku 1816 i ostatak života je proveo putujući Evropom.Umro je 1824 u grčkom mestu Misalongi od groznice gde je potpomagao ustanak Grka protiv Osmanlijskog carstva.
* * *
Now at thirty years my hair is grey
I wonder what would be like at forty ?
I thought of a peruke the other day
My heart is not much greener and, in short I,
I squandered my whole summer while it was May,
And feel no more the spirit to retort I,
Have spent my life, both interest and principal,
And deem not, what I deemed, my soul invincible...
What is the end of Fame ?
It is about to fill a certain portion of uncertain paper
Some liken it to climb upon a hill,
Whose summit, like all hills, is lost and vapour ;
For this men write, speak, preach, and heroes kill,
And bards burn what they call their midnight taper,
To have, when the original is dust,
A name, a wretched picture and worse,bust.
* * *
Pesme
And Thou Art Dead, As Young and Fair
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto the Fourth
By the Rivers of Babylon We Sat Down and Wept