I Would I Were a Careless Child

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Full Biography part 1
Full Biography part 2
Lord Byron (George Gordon) was born in London in January 1788. He published his first poems at tthe age of 19, at 21 started travelling, at 28 left England forever. He died during Greek Independence war in 1824. Most of his work was done during his journeys (1816-24). His most famoous works include Manfred, Cain and Childe Harold.

And Thou Art Dead, As Young and Fair
By the Rivers of Babylon We Sat Down and Wept
Darkness
Dear Doctor, I Have Read Your Play
The Destruction of Sennacherib
Don Juan: Dedication
Fare Thee Well
Farewell! If Ever Fondest Prayer
The Harp the Monarch Minstrel Swept
I Would I Were a Careless Child
Inscription on the Monument of a Newfoundland Dog
John Keats
Lachin Y Gair
Lara: Canto The First (Excerpt)
Lines Inscribed Upon a Cup Formed from a Skull
Lines to Mr. Hodgson Written on Board the Lisbon Packet
Manfred
My Soul is Dark
Oh! Snatched Away in Beauty's Bloom
On This Day I Complete My Thirty-sixth Year
Prometheus
Remember Thee! Remember Thee!
The Eve of Waterloo
She walks in Beauty
There be None of Beauty's Daughters
We'll go no more a-roving
When we Two parted
Epistle To Augusta
Churchill's Grave
A Spirit Passed Before Me
On Chillon
Stanzas For Music
I would I were a careless child,
Still dwelling in my Highland cave,
Or roaming through the dusky wild,
Or bounding o'er the dark blue wave;
The cumbrous pomp of Saxon pride
Accords not with the freeborn soul,
Which loves the mountain's craggy side,
And seeks the rocks where billows roll.

Little Gaint Ladder Fortune! take back these cultured lands,
Take back this name of splendid sound!
I hate the touch of servile hands,
I hate the slaves that cringe around.
Place me among the rocks I love,
Which sound to Ocean's wildest roar;
I ask but this - again to rove
Through scenes my youth hath known before.
Few are my years, and yet I feel
The world was ne'er designed for me:
Ah! why do dark'ning shades conceal
The hour when man must cease to be?
Once I beheld a splendid dream,
A visionary scene of bliss:
Truth! - wherefore did thy hated beam
Awake me to a world like this?

I loves - but those I love are gone;
Had friends - my early friends are fled:
How cheerless feels the heart alone,
When all its former hopes are dead!
Though gay companions o'er the bowl
Dispel awhile the sense of ill'
Though pleasure stirs the maddening soul,
The heart - the heart - is lonely still.

How dull! to hear the voice of those
Whom rank or chance, whom wealth or power,
Have made, though neither friends nor foes,
Associates of the festive hour.
Give me again a faithful few,
In years and feelings still the same,
And I will fly the midnight crew,
Where boist'rous joy is but a name.

And woman, lovely woman! thou,
My hope, my comforter, my all!
How cold must be my bosom now,
When e'en thy smiles begin to pall!
Without a sigh would I resign
This busy scene of splendid woe,
To make that calm contentment mine,
Which virtue know, or seems to know.

Fain would I fly the haunts of men -
I seek to shun, not hate mankind;
My breast requires the sullen glen,
Whose gloom may suit a darken'd mind.
Oh! that to me the wings were given
Which bear the turtle to her nest!
Then would I cleave the vault of heaven,
To flee away, and be at rest.




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