The statue of Lord Byron is a copy of the Thorvaldsen original of Byron that stands in the library of Trinity College, in Cambridge.
The stone statue shows Lord Byron seated, dressed in an elegant suit with a cloak with his right arm folden over his chest and holding in his left hand, the remainder of a book (probably because of vandalism). His head is turned to his right and his eyes to the sky.
The inscription on the base (with a poem by Lord Byron) reads:
"Byron 1788-1824
But I have lived, and have not lived in vain:
My mind may lose its force, my blood its fire,
And my frame perish even in conquering pain;
But there is that within me which shall tire
Torture and Time, and breathe when I expire."
Childe Harold IV, CXXXVII."
George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron FRS (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), known simply as Lord Byron, was an English poet, peer, and politician who became a revolutionary in the Greek War of Independence, and is considered one of the historical leading figures of the Romantic movement of his era. He is regarded as one of the greatest English poets and remains widely read and influential. Among his best-known works are the lengthy narrative poems Don Juan and Childe Harold's Pilgrimage; many of his shorter lyrics in Hebrew Melodies also became popular.
He travelled extensively across Europe, especially in Italy, where he lived for seven years in the cities of Venice, Ravenna and Pisa. During his stay in Italy he frequently visited his friend and fellow poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Later in life Byron joined the Greek War of Independence fighting the Ottoman Empire, and died of disease leading a campaign during that war, for which Greeks revere him as a national hero. He died in 1824 at the age of 36 from a fever contracted after the First and Second Siege of Missolonghi.
Often described as the most flamboyant and notorious of the major Romantics, Byron was considered a celebrity in his era both for his success as a Romantic poet and for his aristocratic excesses, which included huge debts and many sex scandals - numerous love affairs with both men and women in a time when bisexuality was considered a crime, as well as rumours of a scandalous, incestous 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".
Wikipedia gives a list of his major works and selected shorter lyric poems. (
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