Lord Byron, the British romantic poet, and satirist are regarded as one of the greatest English poets. He is best known for using the English language brilliantly and for his amorous lifestyle. His name was George Gordon Byron, the sixth Baron Byron.
He was a leading personality in the Romantic Movement. He is also known as the most notorious and flamboyant of the major romantics as well as the most fashionable poet of the era.
Born on 22 January 1788, George Gordon Byron became “Lord Byron” at the age of 10. He considered Alexander Pope his ideal but never lost the touch of reality.
Lord Byron Works
He was a deist and freethinker. He supported liberty in his work and deeds as well. He gave time, energy, money and ultimately his life to the Greek war of independence.
He expressed his thinking through satire, verse narrative, lyric, ode, historical tragedy, speculative drama, confessional poetry, dramatic monologue, vigorous prose and some more.
The impact of Byron was great as he captivated the mind and heart of western people, which very few writers could do. His name is like the embodiment of Romanticism.
The Early Life of Lord Byron
Lord Byron was the sixth Baron of a fading aristocratic family. He was born clubfoot and this kept him self-cautious in his entire life. As a boy, George lacked discipline and sense of moderation because his father had abandoned him, he had a schizophrenic mother and a nurse, who used to abuse him.
In 1803, when he was 15-year-old, he fell deeply in love with his distant cousin and this unrequited passion is expressed in many of his poems. From 1805 to 1808, though Byron attended Trinity College, but was also engaged in several sexual escapades and fell deep into debt. He found
He found a diversion from school during this time and formed a stable relationship with John Cam Hobhouse, who invited him to liberal politics. He joined Cambridge Whig Club.
Early Writing of Lord Byron
Lord Byron’s first volume of poetry, Hours of Idleness, in 1808 received a scathing review. To this Byron retaliated and wrote a satirical poem, “English Bards and Scotch Reviewers”. This poem helped him gain his literary recognition as this confronted the community with wit and satire.
By the age of 21, Lord Byron had a seat in the House of Lords. He embarked a grand tour through Mediterranean and Aegean Sea after one year and wrote “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage”. It was a poem from the reflections of a young man on traveling in foreign lands.
Lord Byron Poems
In July 1811, Byron’s mother died and he returned to England. He did a series of love affairs while staying there. The uproar and the guilt of these affairs could be seen in his dark and remorseful poems, “The Giaour,” “The Corsair” and “The Bride of Abydos”.
In September 1814, Byron proposed to Isabella Milbanke, an educated and intellectual lady and they married in January 1815.
In December of the same year, his daughter Augusta Ada, known as Ada Lovelace, was born. However, by January the couple got separated. Isabella left Byron because of his drinking, increased debt and
However, by January the couple got separated. Isabella left Byron because of his drinking, increased debt and rumors of his affair with his half-sister. One of the reasons was his bisexuality also. Byron never saw his wife and daughter after that.
Later Life of Lord Byron
Byron left England in April 1816 with an intention of never to return. He became friends with Percy Bysshe Shelley in Geneva. Here, Byron wrote his third canto to Childe Harold in which he depicted his travel from Belgium to Switzerland.
By the end of the summer the Shelley family departed for England and Mary Shelley’s stepsister, Claire gave birth to Byron’s daughter, Allegra in January.
However, in October 1816, Byron sailed with John Hobhouse to Italy and in his way, he continued being lustful with several women. These experiences have been portrayed in his greatest poem, “Don Juan”. This poem revealed a completely different side of Byron’s personality.
Lord Byron – The Hero
In 1823, Byron accepted an invitation to support Greek independence from the Ottoman Empire. Byron spent thousands of pounds of his own money and took command of a Greek unit personally.
On February 15, 1824, he fell ill. He was bled by the doctors there but the condition weakened further and perhaps gave him an infection as well.
At the age of 36, Byron died on April 19, 1824. He had become a hero in Greece and was deeply moaned in England as well. His body was brought back to England where the clergy refused to bury him at Westminster Abbey, as per the custom.
So, he was buried near Newstead, in the family vault. However, in 1969, 145 years after his death, a memorial of Byron could be placed on Westminster Abbey’s floor.
COMPLETE LIST OF LORD BYRON’S POETRY, 1807-1824
HOURS OF IDLENESS [1807]
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‘On the Death of a Young Lady, cousin to the author, and very dear to him’
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‘To E–‘
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‘To D–‘
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‘Epitaph on a Friend’
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‘A Fragment’
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‘On Leaving Newstead Abbey’
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Lines written in ‘Letters of an Italian Nun and an English Gentleman; by J. J, Rousseau: founded on Facts’
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‘Answer to the foregoing, addressed to Miss–‘
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Adrian’s Address to his Soul when Dying’
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Translations from Catullus, Ad Lesbiam
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Translations of the ‘Epitaph of Virgil and Tibulus, by Domitius Marsus
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Imitation of Tibullus, ‘Sulpicia ad Cerinthum’
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Translation from Catullus, ‘Lugete Veneres, Cupidinesque,’ &c.
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Imitaded from Catuluss, ‘To Ellen’
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Translation from Horace, ‘Justum et tenacem,’ &.c
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From Anacreon [‘I wish to tune my quivering lyre’]
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From Anacreon [‘Twas now the hour when Night had driven’]
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From the Prometheus Vinctus of Aeschylus
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‘To Emma’
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‘To M. S. G.’ [‘Whene’er I view those lips of thine’]
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‘To Caroline’ [‘Think’st thou I saw thy beauteous eyes’
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‘To Caroline’ [‘When I hear you express an affection so warm’]
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‘To Caroline’ [Oh! When shall the grave hide forever my sorrows?’]
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‘Stanzas to a Lady, with the Poems of Cameons’
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‘The First Kiss of Love’
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‘On a Change of Masters at a great Public School’
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‘To the Duke of Dorset’
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‘Fragment, written shortly after the Marriage of Miss Chaworth’
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‘Granta: A Medley’
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‘On a Distant View of the Village and School of Harrow on the Hill’
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‘To M–‘
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‘To Woman’
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‘To M. S. G.’ [‘When I dream that you love me, you’ll surely forgive’]
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‘To Mary, on receiving her Picture’
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‘To Lesbia’
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‘Lines addressed to a Young Lady, who was alarmed at the Sound of a Bullet hissing near her’
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‘Love’s Last Adieu’
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‘Damaetas’
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‘To Marion’
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‘To a Lady, who presented to the Author a Lock of Hair, braided with his own, and appointed a night in December to meet him in the Garden’
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‘Oscar of Alva: A Tale’
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‘The Episode of Nisus and Euryalus’
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Translation from the Medea of Euripides
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‘Thoughts Suggested by a College Examination’
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‘To a beautiful Quaker’
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‘The Cornelian’
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‘An Occasional Prologue to ‘The Wheel of Fortune”
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‘On the Death of Mr Fox’
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‘The Tear’
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‘Reply to some Verses of J. M. B. Pigot, Esq.. on the Cruelty of his Mistress’
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‘To the Sighing Strephon’
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‘To Eliza’
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‘Lachin y Gar’
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‘To Romance’
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‘Answer to some Verses sent by a Friend to the Author, complaining that one of his Descriptions was rather too warmly drawn’
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‘Elegy on Newstead Abbey’
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‘Childish Recollections’
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‘Answer to a beautiful Poem, entitled ‘The Common Lot”
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‘To a Lady who presented the Author with the Velvet Band which bound her Tresses’
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‘Remembrance’
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‘Lines addressed to the Rev. J. T, Becher, on his advising the Author to mix more with Society’
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‘The Death of Calmar and Orla: An Imitation of Macpherson’s Ossian’
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‘L’Amitie est l’Amour sans Ailes’
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‘The Prayer of Nature’
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‘To Edward Noel Long, Esq.’
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‘Oh! Had my fate been join’d with thine!’
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‘I would I were a careless Child’
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‘When I roved a young Highlander’
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‘To George, Earl Delawarr’
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‘To the Earl of Clare’
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‘Lines Written beneath an Elm in the Churchyard of Harrow’
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English Bards and Scotch Reviewers: A Satire
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Hints from Horace: Being an Allusion in English Verse, to the Epistle ‘Ad Pisones, De Arte Poetica’
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The Curse of Minerva
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‘To Iolanthe’
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Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage
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The Waltz: An Apostrophic Hymn
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The Giaour
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The Bride of Abydos: A Turkish Tale
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The Corsair
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Lara
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‘Ode to Napoleon Bonaparte’
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‘The Harp the Monarch Minstrel Swept’
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‘If that High World’
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‘The Wild Gazelle’
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‘Oh! Weep for Those!’
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‘On Jordan’s Banks’
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‘Jephtha’s Daughter’
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‘Oh! Snatched Away in Beauty’s Bloom’
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‘My Soul is Dark’
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‘I Saw Thee Weep’
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‘Thy Days are Done’
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‘Song of Saul before his last Battle’
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‘Saul’
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‘All is Vanity, saith the Preacher’
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‘When Coldness Wraps This Suffering Clay’
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‘Vision of Belshazzar’
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‘Sun of the Sleepless!’
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‘Were my Bosom as False as thou Deem’st it to be’
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‘Herod’s Lament for Mariamne’
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‘On the Day of Destruction of Jerusalem by Titus’
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‘By the Rivers of Babylon we sat down and Wept’
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‘The Destruction of Sennacherib’
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‘A Spirit pass’d before me’
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The Siege of Corinth
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‘Fare thee Well’
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‘A Sketch’
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‘Stanzas to Augusta’ [‘When all around grew drear and dark’]
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‘Stanzas to Augusta’ [‘Though the Day of my Destiny’s over’]
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‘Epistle to Augusta’
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‘Lines on Hearing that Lady Byron was Ill’
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‘Monody on the Death of the Right Hon. R. B. Sheridan’
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‘The Dream’
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The Prisoner of Chillon
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‘Sonnet to Chillon’
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The Parisina
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‘The Lament of Tasso
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Manfred
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Beppo: A Venetian Story
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Mazeppa
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‘Ode on Venice’
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Dedication
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The Prophecy of Dante
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The Morgante Maggiore of Pulci
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‘Francesca of Rimini’
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Sardanapalus: A Tragedy
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The Two Foscari: An Historical Tragedy
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Cain: A Mystery
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Marino Faliero, Doge of Venice; An Historical Tragedy
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The Vision of Judgement
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Werner: Or, the Inheritance: A Tragedy
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Heaven and Earth: A Mystery
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The Age of Bronze: Or, Carmen Seculare et Annus Haud Mirabilis
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The Blues: A Literary Eclogue
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The Deformed Transformed: A Drama
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The Island; Or, Christian and his Comrades
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‘The Adieu, Written under the Impression that the Author would soon die’
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‘To a Vain Lady’
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‘To Anne’
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‘To the Same’ [‘Oh, say not, sweet Anne, that the fates have decreed’]
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‘To the Author of a Sonnet beginning, ‘Said is my Verse, you say, and yet no Tear”
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‘On finding a Fan’
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‘Farewell to the Muse’
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‘To an Oak at Newstead’
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‘On Revisiting Harrow’
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‘Epitaph to John Adams of Southwell, a Carrier, who died of Drunkenness’
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‘To my Son’
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‘Farewell! If ever fondest Prayer’
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‘Bright be the Place of thy Soul’
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‘When We Two Parted’
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‘To a Youthful Friend’
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‘Lines Inscribed Upon a Cup formed from a Skull’
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‘Well, thou art Happy!’
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‘Inscription on the Monument of a Newfoundland Dog’
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‘To a Lady, on being asked my Reason for quitting England in the Spring’
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‘Remind me not, Remind me not’
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‘There was a Time, I need not Name’
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‘And wilt thou weep when I am low?’
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‘Fill the Goblet Again: a song’
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‘Stanzas to a Lady, on Leaving England’
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‘Lines to Mr Hodgson: Written on Board the Lisbon Packet’
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‘Lines Written in an Album at Malta’
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‘To Florence’
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‘Stanzas Composed during a Thunder-storm’
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‘Stanzas written on passing the Ambracian Gulf’
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‘The Spell is Broke, the Charm is Flown!’
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‘Written after swimming from Sestos to Abydos’
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‘Lines in the Travellers’ Book at Orchomenus’
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‘Maid of Athens, ere we part’
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‘Translations of the Nurse’s Dole in the Medea of Euripides’
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‘My Epitaph’
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‘Substitute for an Epitaph’
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‘Lines written beneath a Picture’
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‘Translation of the famous Greek War Song’
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‘Translation of the Romaic Song’
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‘On Parting’
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‘Epitaph for Joseph Blackett, Late Poet and Shoemaker’
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‘Farewell to Malta’
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‘To Dives: A Fragment’
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‘On Moore’s Last Operatic Farce, or Farcial Opera’
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‘Epistle to a Friend, in answer to some Lines exhorting the Author to be Cheerful, and to ‘banish care”
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‘To Thyrza’
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‘Stanzas’ [‘Away, away, ye Notes of Wo’]
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‘Stanzas’ [‘One Struggle more, and I am free’]
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‘Euthanasia’
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‘And thou art dead, as young and fair’
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‘Stanzas’ [‘If sometimes in the Haunts of Men’]
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‘On a Cornelian Heart which was broken’
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‘Lines from the French’
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‘Lines to a Lady Weeping’
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‘The Chain I Gave’
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‘Lines written on a Blank Leaf of ‘The Pleasures of Memory”
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‘Address, Spoken at the Opening of Drury Lane Theatre, October 10, 1812’
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‘Parenthetical Address, by Dr Plagiary’
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‘Verses fund in a Summer-house at Hales Owen’
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‘Remember Thee! Remember Thee!’
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‘To Time’
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‘Translation of a Romaic Love Song’
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‘Stanzas’ [‘Thou art not false’]
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‘On Being Asked what was the ‘Origin of Love”
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‘Stanzas’ [‘Remember him…’]
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‘On Lord Thurlow’s Poems’
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‘To Lord Thurlow’
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To Thomas Moore, Written the Evening before his Visit to Mr Leigh Hunt, in Horsemonger-Lane Jail
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‘Impromptu, in reply to a Friend’
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‘Sonnet, to Geneva’
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‘Sonnet, to the Same’
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‘From the Portuguese’
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‘Another Version’
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‘The Devil’s Drive: An Unfinished Rhapsody’
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‘Windsor Poetics’
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‘Stanzas for Music’ [‘I speak not, I trace not’]
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‘Address intended to be recited at the Caledonian Meeting’
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‘Fragment of an Epistle to Thomas Moore’
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‘Condolatory Address to Sarah, Countess of Jersey, on the Prince Regent’s reutnring her Pictures to Mrs Mee’
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‘To Belshazzar’
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‘Elegiac Stanzas on the Death of Sir Peter Parker, Bart’
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‘Stanzas for Music’ [‘There’s not a Joy the World can give’]
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‘Stanzas for Music’ [‘There be none of Beauty’s Daughters’]
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‘On Napoleon’s Escape from Elba’
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‘Ode from the French’ [‘We do not curse thee, Waterloo’]
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‘From the French’ [‘Must thou go,my glorious Chief?’]
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‘On the Star of ‘The Legion of Honor’ from the French’
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‘Napoleon’s Farewell, from the French’
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‘Endorsement to the Deed of Separation,in the April of 1816’
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‘Darkness‘
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‘Churchill’s Grave’
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‘Prometheus’
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‘A Fragment’ [‘Could I remount the river of my years’]
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‘Sonnet to Lake Leman’
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‘Romance muy Dolorosodel Sitio y Toma de Alhama’
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‘A very mournful Ballad on the Siege and Conquest of Alhama’
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‘Sonetto di Vittorelli. Per Monaca’
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‘Translation from Vittorelli, On a Nun’
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‘Stanzas for Music’ [‘They say that Hope is Happiness’]
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‘To Thomas Moore’ [‘My Bark is on the Shore’]
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‘On the Bust of Helen by Canova’
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‘Song for the Luddites’
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‘To Thomas Moore’ [‘What are you doing now?]
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‘So we’ll go no more a roving’
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‘Versicles’
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‘To Mr Murray’ [‘To hook the Reader’]
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‘Epistle from Mr Murray to Dr Polidori’
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‘Epistle to Mr Murray’ [‘My dear Mr Murray / You’re in a damn’d hurry’]
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‘To Mr Murray’ [‘Strahan, Tonson, Lintot of the Times’]
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‘On the Birth of John William Rizzo Hoppner’
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‘Stanzas to the Po’
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Sonnet to George the Fourth, on the Repeal of Lord Edward Fitzgerald’s Forfeiture
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‘Epigram from the French of Rulhieres’
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‘Stanzas’ [‘Could love forever’]
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‘On my Wedding day’
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Epitaph for William Pitt’
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‘Epigram’ [‘In digging up your Bones, Tom Paine’]
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‘Stanzas’ [‘When a Man hath no Freedom to fight for at home’]
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‘Epigram’ [‘The World is a Bundle of Hay’]
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‘The Charity Ball’
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‘Epigram on my Wedding Day’
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‘On my Thirty-third Birth Day’
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‘Epigram on the Braziers’ Company’
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‘Martial, Lib. I.Epist. I.’
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‘Bowles and Campbell’
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‘Epigrams on Lord Castlereagh’
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‘Epitaph on Lord Castlereagh’
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‘John Keats’
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‘The Conquest: A Fragment’
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‘To Mr Murray’ [‘For Oxford and for Waldegrave’
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‘The Irish Avatar’
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‘Stanzas Written on the Road between Florence and Pisa’
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‘Stanzas to a Hindoo Air’
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‘Impromptu’ [‘Beneath Blessington’s Eyes’]
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‘To the Countess of Blessington’
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‘On this Day I complete my Thirty-Sixth Year’
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Don Juan
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‘Dedication’
More Info On- Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Leighton, William Lamb