Alexandre de Humboldt

The Watzmann, 1825, Caspar David Friedrich

Medium: oil

Self-portrait as a young man, 1800, Caspar David Friedrich

Lord Byron (1788-1824).

English poet.

He was a poet, peer, politician, and leading figure in the Romantic movement. He is regarded as one of the greatest British poets and remains widely read and influential.

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Often described as the most flamboyant and notorious of the major Romantics, Byron was both celebrated and castigated in his life for his aristocratic excesses, which included huge debts, numerous love affairs with both men and women, as well as rumours of a scandalous liaison with his half-sister. One of his lovers, Lady Caroline Lamb, summed him up in the famous phrase “mad, bad, and dangerous to know”.

Byron is often considered the first “celebrity.” In his lifetime, he was hailed as the greatest living poet in the world.

He spent his last years in Greece, trying to raise money for the Greeks as they struggled to fight for independence from the Ottoman Empire.

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He adored animals and loved sports.

He had a very short and violent temper. He was known to be very charming, he worked to make sure he stayed as good-looking as possible. He was deeply concerned about his weight.

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He was only married to Anne Isabella Milbanke from 1815 to 1816. He was the father of Ada Lovelace and Allegra Byron, and illegitimate children.

He may have died from sepsis.

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Famous poems :

Don Juan

She Walks In Beauty

Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage

Darkness

When We Two Parted

John Keats (1795-1821).

English poet.

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He was one of the main figures of the second generation of Romantic poets, along with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley, despite his works having been in publication for only four years.

English Romantic lyric poet who devoted his short life to the perfection of a poetry marked by vivid imagery, great sensuous appeal, and an attempt to express a philosophy through classical legend.

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Keats was particularly horrible at reading his own poems not giving them justice. Keats’ poetry received fierce criticism from the then critics, yet his reputation has proved to be more enduring than the names of any of his critics. Despite being one of the major members of the Romantic Movement, Keats was never directly associated with the other poets of the movement and he often felt uneasy amongst them.

He studied medicine at a London hospital and became a licensed apothecary in 1816. But he never practiced to pursue his dream of becoming a poet.

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He was engaged to Fanny Brawne.

He died of tuberculosis, like his mother and brother..

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Famous poems :

To Autumn

On Seeing the Elgin Marbles

To Sleep

Ode to a Nightingale

Ode on Melancholy

La Belle Dame Sans Merci

Ode on a Grecian Urn

Endymion

Peru

“Bombs of dust from main cone.” Paricutin Volcano erupting in April 1943. Michoacán, Mexico. Arno Brehme, field work photographs. Smithsonian Field Book Project.

Original caption:

The Watzmann, 1825, Caspar David Friedrich