English Romantic poet (1788-1824)
There is pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar:
I love not man the less, but Nature more,
From these our interviews, in which I steal
From all I may be, or have been before,
To mingle with the Universe, and feel
What I can ne'er express, yet cannot all conceal.
LORD BYRON
Childe Harold
Sorrow is Knowledge: they who know the most
Must mourn the deepest o'er the fatal truth,
The Tree of Knowledge is not that of Life.
LORD BYRON
Manfred
Pleasure's a sin, and sometimes sin's a pleasure.
LORD BYRON
Don Juan
We are the fools of Time and Terror: Days
Steal on us, and steal from us; yet we live,
Loathing our life, and dreading still to die.
LORD BYRON
Manfred
Grief is fantastical, and loves the dead,
And the apparel of the grave.
LORD BYRON
The Two Foscari
Deep Vengeance is the daughter of deep Silence.
LORD BYRON
Marino Faliero
I hate all pain,
Given or received; we have enough within us
The meanest vassal as the loftiest monarch,
Not to add to each other's natural burden
Of mortal misery.
LORD BYRON
Sardanapalus
Tyranny
Is far the worst of treasons. Dost thou deem
None rebels except subjects? The prince who
Neglects or violates his trust is more
A brigand than the robber-chief.
LORD BYRON
The Two Foscari
But what is hope? Nothing but the paint on the face of Existence; the least touch of truth rubs it off, and then we see what a hollow-cheeked harlot we have got hold of.
LORD BYRON
letter, October 28, 1815
The sight of blood to crowds begets the thirst of more,
As the first wine-cup leads to the long revel.
LORD BYRON
Marino Faliero
Once more upon the waters! yet once more!
And the waves bound beneath me as a steed
That knows his rider.
LORD BYRON
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage
There is no passion
More spectral or fantastical than Hate;
Not even its opposite, Love, so peoples air
With phantoms, as this madness of the heart.
LORD BYRON
The Two Foscari
Blood only serves to wash ambition's hands.
LORD BYRON
Don Juan
They never fail who die
In a great cause: the block may soak their gore:
Their heads may sodden in the sun; their limbs
Be strung to city gates and castle walls--
But still their Spirit walks abroad. Though years
Elapse, and others share as dark a doom,
They but augment the deep and sweeping thoughts
Which overpower all others, and conduct
The world at last to Freedom.
LORD BYRON
Marino Faliero
O Gold! I still prefer thee unto paper,
Which makes bank credit like a bark of vapour.
LORD BYRON
Don Juan
What is
Death, so it be but glorious? 'Tis a sunset;
And mortals may be happy to resemble
The Gods but in decay.
LORD BYRON
Sardanapalus
Joy's recollection is no longer joy,
While Sorrow's memory is a sorrow still.
LORD BYRON
Marino Faliero
Heart on her lips and soul within her eyes,
Soft as her clime, and sunny as her skies.
LORD BYRON
Beppo
Let us have wine and women, mirth and laughter,
Sermons and soda-water the day after.
LORD BYRON
Don Juan
She was a good deal shock'd; not shock'd at tears,
For women shed and use them at their liking;
But there is something when man's eye appears
Wet, still more disagreeable and striking.
LORD BYRON
Don Juan