re: wow ..
George Gordon, Lord Byron, was indeed a dude. He had a short but brilliant literary career, recognized as exceptional even by his contemporaries, and was notorious for his rakish, brawling ways and his prodigious sexual appetites. He eventually wound up in Greece where he became committed to the cause of Greek independence from the Turks. To everyone's surprise, probably even his own, he transformed himself into a man of action and sponsored and commanded a band of Greek freedom fighters. He died on campaign of a fever, and he is honored and revered by the Greek people to this day as one of of their national heroes. This poem is one of my favorites.