English peer and poet George Gordon Byron was one of the bad boys of the Romantic movement and, by some accounts, the first ‘celebrity.’ Like countless celebrities who would come after, he was embroiled in a number of romantic scandals and never accused of being overly pious (to put it Britishly).
Lifelong affection over here! We include it in our 7th grade curriculum, but making it a recitation might make some students loathe it, unfortunately.