Emma Alvarez Site: Lord Byron, A Life Full Of Passions
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Lord Byron, A Life Full Of Passions
For many, Lord Byron is a famous poet. But besides that, George Gordon Byron was a disconcerting character: extravagant, interesting, and also a very advanced man for his times.
Lord Byron was born in London, on January 22, 1788. He belonged to an important aristocratic English family. His father died when he was just 3 years old. He was a captain, and his mother was his second wife, Catherine Gordon of Gigh, a very temperamental woman.
When George Gordon Byron was ten, he inherited a fortune, and also debts, from his great-uncle, in addition to the title of Baron Byron.
George was born with a deformity in a foot. Many said that he'll never be able to walk. But his tenacity pushed him to fight against this problem. It was said that he learned to run before to walk.
He suffered many jokes for this deformity, and also needed the special cares of his nurse: Mary Gray, with whom, very early, he was initiated into sexuality.
If Lord Byron inherited something from his father, it was the taste for women, the promiscuity, and the liking for love affairs.
During all his life, Lord Byron had a love/hate relationship with his mother. Catherine was devastated by the early loss of her husband, and the former infidelities of him. She called her son "the little devil", and he called his mother "the old woman" or "the widow".
Although Lord Byron always said that his mother was the only person that truly understood him.
For all his life, he was very fond to reading. His favorite book was "One Thousand And One Nights". His first poems were born from his first disappointments in his love life.
When he was 18 years old, he published his first poems book. This first book was very criticized. The answer to this critics was a satyric work, and this was his first success
His stance at the College was full of scandal. In Cambridge, George Gordon Byron stood out as brilliant student as well as for his extravagances, his excesses, and his bisexual encounters. During this time, he also established important friendships, and very positive contacts.
For a time, he was attracted to politics, and managed to have a seat in the House Of Lords, but he left it and went to travel. He traveled through Greece, Spain, Portugal, Malta... these travels inspired him in his works.
When he was in Turkey, he tried to discover Troy. And during this time, he had many love relationships, both with men as with women.
The published poems got the approval of the public. Lord Byron was a poet that offered a vision beyond the rules. He offered an exaltation of the senses and an infinite nostalgia.
In his travels, Byron met great personalities of his times. An anecdote is that during a meeting with friends, they decided to write a series of terror stories. One of those friends was Mary Shelley, that wrote the popular Frankenstein.
He also met Goethe, whom he defined as the first talent of his century.
Some time later, politics seduced him again. In 1824, and when he was only 36 years old, Lord Byron died. It was in the fight for independence of Greece against the Turkish. Byron caught a fever and that was what put an end to his life, a life full of emotions and searches.
-Emma Alvarez-
Brilliant mini biography of Lord Byron written by Emma Alvarez. I had a hard time selecting one paragraph, because the entire peice felt like it lost signifance if it wasn't posted in its entirety. I did have to edit out a sentence or two to fit it into one entry. Lord Byron, i love thee.
