(2)
LIFE
Lord Byron was the son of captain John Byron and Catherine Gordon. He was born with a club foot and spend his childhood poor. In 1798, Byron inherited a title and wealth from his great-uncle. He then attended Dulwich, Harrow, and Cambridge University. In 1807, he published "Hours of Idleness," his first collection of poetry. He married Isabella Milbanke in 1815, but soon separated from her and moved to Geneva with his friend and fellow poet Percy Shelley. After many travels and adventure throughout his life, Byron decided to go to Greece and help the Greeks overthrow the Ottomans who ruled them. Before he saw any military action, however, he died from a fever on April 19, 1824. (1)
A POEM BY GEORGE GORDON BYRON
FOR MUSIC
THERE be none of Beautys daughters
With a magic like thee;
And like music on the waters
Is thy sweet voice to me:
When, as if its sound were causing
The charmed oceans pausing,
The waves lie still and gleaming,
And the lulld winds seem dreaming:
And the midnight moon is weaving
Her bright chain oer the deep;
Whose breast is gently heaving,
As an infants asleep:
So the spirit bows before thee,
To listen and adore thee;
With a full but soft emotion,
Like the swell of Summers ocean.(3)
A SPIRIT PASSED BEFOR ME
A spirit passed before me: I beheld
The face of immortality unveiled -
Deep sleep came down on every eye save mine -
And there it stood, -all formless -but divine:
Along my bones the creeping flesh did quake;
And as my damp hair stiffened, thus it spake:
"Is man more just than God? Is man more pure
Than He who deems even Seraphs insecure?
Creatures of clay -vain dwellers in the dust!
The moth survives you, and are ye more just?
Things of a day! you wither ere the night,
Heedless and blind to Wisdoms wasted light!"(5)
This is a picture of the house Byron rented in the summer of 1816, located in Cologny, named the Villa Diodati. (4)
1)http://www.online-literature.com/byron/
2)http://www.gac.culture.gov.uk/search/object.asp?object key=24070
3)http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/for-music/
4)http://www.english.upenn.edu/Projects/knarf/Gifs/diodati.html
5)http://www.online-literature.com/byron/697/
