Celebrated and admonished for his aristocratic excesses that translated into numerous love affairs with men and women, Lord Byron is immortalized in the canon of English Literature as one of the greatest British poets, and one of the most influential figures in the Romantic Movement. As flamboyant as he was eloquent, Byron remains once of the most widely read writers of the modern day, and is best known for his works "Don Juan" and "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage". Here are 5 of the most touching lines delivered by real life's Don Quixote:
1.
"There is a 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"
While it is important to fill our lives with the presence of others, and the laughter they bring; it is just as rewarding to be filled with the idea that we ourselves are a presence, and that alone is caused to laugh about.
2.
"She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that's best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes..."
When your heart over to someone, you don't love them for, you love them despite. Of their virtues. Of their flaws. A love that is the love of one who possesses a true heart.
3.
"Sorrow is knowledge, those that know the most must mourn the deepest, the tree of knowledge is not the tree of life."
Though there is much inspiration and fascination be had to venture forth, to learn about the world. There also awaits many tears to be shed. To discover that it is place where much sadness has occurred, and even now, remains all the more sadder.
4.
"In secret we met -
In silence I grieve,
That thy heart could forget,
Thy spirit deceive.
After long years,
How should I greet thee?
With silence and tears"
Love is a test. A test that deceives. Deceives us into forgetting that it is as much a test of time than the love itself.
5.
"The heart will break, but broken live on."
In life as much as the love there is to be had and given, there is to be much sorrow. Sadness that leaves the heart in as many pieces as the tears shed. Yet, through the pain of continuing on through such brokenness, mists that echo of mourning, there awaits to be given, to be had, much love.
Though Lord Byron's dalliance and exploits are long at an end, his flatteries, his intimacies of profound proportions remain to echo within the poetry he has left behind. To remind us that with much love comes great sorrow, and through sorrow, a greater love.
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