Lord Byron

George Gordon Noel Byron, 6th Baron Byron, best known as Lord Byron (January 22, 1788-1824).

The Romantic poet best-known in his own day, Byron was famously described by Lady Caroline Lamb as "Mad, bad and dangerous to know". He almost certainly suffered from bipolar disorder, which was the source of his tempestuous moods.

His father was an English aristocrat; his mother was a Scottish one. His father left his mother before he was born. As a result his mother moved back to northeast Scotland shortly after his birth in London and he was raised in Aberdeen, Scotland in straitened circumstances.

Notable Poems:

• The Giaour
• Childe Harold
• Don Juan

Byron's reputation has diminished considerably, however, since the early 20th century, and especially in the light of modernist and postmodernist critical studies of his work.