Defeated Yet Triumphant

They never fail who die

In a great cause. The block may soak their gore;

Their heads may sodden in the sun; their limbs

Be strung to city gates and castle walls;

But still their spirit walks abroad.

Though years

Elapse and others share as dark a doom,

They but augment the deep and sweeping thoughts

Which overpower all others and conduct

The world, at last, to freedom.

Lord Byron

Lord Byron (born January 22, 1788, London, England—died April 19, 1824, Missolonghi, Greece) British Romantic poet and satirist whose poetry and personality captured the imagination of Europe. Renowned as the “gloomy egoist” of his autobiographical poem Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage (1812–18) in the 19th century, he is now more generally esteemed for the satiric realism of Don Juan (1819–24). "I was born for opposition,” Byron proclaimed in Don Juan, Canto XV. The outstanding elements of his poetry both support his self-analysis and insure his enduring reputation. As a major political and social satirist, he repeatedly denounces war, tyranny, and hypocrisy. As an untiring champion of liberty, he firmly believed that “Revolution / Alone can save the earth from hell’s pollution”, a tenet he defended with his life.

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