Happy Birthday Lord Byron: 224 years young today

Lord Byron, Thomas Philips 1835

As with all of us, Lord Byron owed much to his mother, Catherine "Golden Dolly" Gordon.  Catherine, a woman known for her lack of judgment, matched only by her lack of self control, was the second wife of Captain "Mad Jack" Gordon, the 5th Baron Byron.  Mad Jack had his own shortcomings.  He was known as a womanizer and murderer.   But, his mother's love of reading and liquor laid the foundation for the young Byron's tortured path to success.

Lord Byron wrote the following poem about his 33rd birthday. 

Through life's dull road, so dim and dirty,

I have dragg'd to three-and-thirty.

What have these years left to me?

Nothing--except thirty-three.

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My 41st is much happier.