Byron -- Subversive and Prophetic Poems

http://www.bartleby.com/100/368.html

Byron - a prophetic guy...

"For freedom's battle, once begun,
Bequeath'd by bleeding sire to son,
Though baffled oft, is ever won."
--The Giaour. Line 123.

"Lord of himself,—that heritage of woe!"
--Lara. Canto i. Stanza 2.

"Whose game was empires
and whose stakes were thrones,
Whose table earth,
whose dice were human bones."
--Age of Bronze. Stanza 3.

"The thorns which I have reap'd are of the tree
I planted; they have torn me, and I bleed.
I should have known what fruit would spring from such a seed."
--Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto iv. Stanza 10.

"I loved my country, and I hated him."
--The Vision of Judgment. lxxxiii.

"Christians have burnt each other, quite persuaded
That all the Apostles would have done as they did."
-- Don Juan. Canto i. Stanza 83.

* * *

Noting that the "official" US Poet Laureate
has turned against the hand that feeds him:

U.S. poet laureate opposes war with Iraq
http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/entertainment/5112907.htm