Lines Inscribed Upon a Cup Formed from a Skull

Published in1808

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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
Start not - nor deem my spirit fled;
In me behold the only skull
From which, unlike a living head,
Whatever flows is never dull.

I lived, I loved, I quaffed, like thee:
I died: let earth my bones resign;
Fill up - thou canst not injure me;
The worm hath fouler lips than thine.

Better to hold the sparkling grape,
Than nurse the earth-worm's slimy
brood;
And circle in the goblet's shape
The drink of gods, than reptile's food.

Where once my wit, perchance, hath shone,
In aid of others' let me shine;
And when, alas! our brains are gone,
What nobler substitute than wine?

Quaff while thou canst: another race,
When thou and thine, like me, are sped,
May rescue thee from earth's embrace,
And rhyme and revel with the dead.

Why not? since through life's little day
Our heads such sad effects produce;
Redeemed from worms and wasting clay,
This chance is theirs, to be of use.






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