"Lines Written in Early Spring"

I heard a thousand blended notes, . While in a grove I sate¹ reclined, In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts Bring sad thoughts to the mind.

To her fair works did nature link The human soul that through me ran; And much it grieved² my heart to think What man has made of man.

Through primrose tufts in that green bower, The periwinkle trailed its wreaths. And 'tis my faith that every flower Enjoys air it breathes.

The birds around me hopped and played, Their thoughts I cannot measure: — But the least motion which they made, It seemed a thrill of pleasure.

The budding twigs spread out their fan,

To catch the breezy air:

And I must think, do all I can,

That there was pleasure there.

If this belief from heaven be sent, If such be Nature's holy plan, Have I not reason to lament⁵ What man has made of man?

"Westminster Bridge¹' (1802). Even when crossing Westminster Bridge between five and six o'clock in the morning Wordsworth was composing a sonnet in his mind. Without all its smoke and bustle London was as beautiful as any natural landscape.

Earth has not anything to show more fair: Dull would he be of soul who could pass by

¹ sat

² caused sorrow or suffering to

³ to feel great sorrow

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A sight so touching in its majesty; This City now doth, like a garment wear The beauty of the morning silent, bare, Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples He Open unto the fields and to the sky; All bright and glittering in the smokeless air. Never did sun more beautifully steep In his first splendour, valley, rock, or hill; Ne'er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep! The river glidcth at his own free will: Dear God! The very houses seem asleep; And all that mighty heart is lying still!

Samuel taylor coleridge

(1772—1834)

S. T. Coleridge's ['koulrid3iz] literary reputation rests on a small group of poems, his theory of poetry, his comments on W. Wordsworth's poems and his writings on Shakespeare. At various times he was a great poet, a brilliant critic and theoreti­cian. He is considered to be the father of modern English literary criticism.

S. T. Coleridge was born in Devonshire ['devnjis] in the family of a clergyman. As a child he was noted for his bookish and dreamy nature. At the age of three he could read and before he was five he had read "The Arabian Nights". When his father died he was sent to a charity school¹ in London. Later he attended Cambridge Uni­versity, where he made friends with Southey. At the University he was famous for his knowledge of ancient tongues and philosophy. He left Cambridge without taking his degree. In his youth Coleridge was greatly influenced by revolutionary ideas. He even wanted to found a colony in America where the rules of an ideal society would be applied. But the project was not carried out. When he met W. Wordsworth his ideas of revolution were not so keen, and he turned to poetry.

Coleridge as a poet is known for his long poem "The Rime² of the Ancient Mariner³" (1798), his contribution to the "Lyrical Bal­lads"; "Kubla Khan" (1797) and "Christabel ['kristabal] (1816). The subject matter of his poems consists of supernatural events occurring in remote Southern seas, in the magic realm of Kubla

¹ a school where poor children can get a free education, with free food and clothes

² rhyme

³ a sailor

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Khan and in a medieval castle. The emotional effect of the poems depends on terror, evil and sin.

"The Rime of the Ancient Mariner". It is one of Coleridge's best-known poems and tells how a sailor shoots an albatross that has come through the snow and fog to his ship surrounded by ice. As a result his ship is cursed¹, because the albatross is a symbol of the universal goodness of nature. It is a punishable of­fence against nature to kill the bird. All the crew except the sailor die of thirst. The sailor is now condemned² to wander from land to land, teaching people to love "man and bird and beast". It is only when love of all living things finds way into his heart that he is saved and forgiven. Since then the mariner has a longing to tell his tale.

This ballad, is the history of a soul in pain. The story is put into the mouth of a common sailor. He is a man of older and more primitive times. He tells about things as he sees them in a simple language, and his obsolete speech gives the impression of bygone times and events.

GEORGE GORDON BYRON

(1788—1824)

G. G. Byron ['baiaren], the English revolutionary romanticist, was a poet who struggled against despotism and reaction with his pen and sword. He called people to fight against the social evils of his time and challenged the laws and morals of his con­temporary society.

The poet was born in an ancient aristocratic family in London, His father, an army captain, died when the boy was three years old. Byron was lame and felt distressed about it all his life. At the age of ten he inherited his great-uncle's estate, Newstead Abbey [4nju:stid], and spent his childhood in Scotland. He was given a good education at Harrow Public School and Cambridge Uni­versity. At twenty-one he was by birthright seated in the House of Lords.

Byron was very, handsome. In spite of his lameness he was a good swimmer and rider. He seemed proud, tragic and melancholic. But he could also be very cheerful and witty. His contemporary young men tried to imitate his clothes, his manners and even his limping gait. His works show his unusual intelligence, experience and knowledge of life.

Byron's literary career began while he was at Cambridge. His first volume of verse entitled "Hours of Idleness" (1807) contained a number of lyrics dealing with love, regret and parting. There

¹ ruin, misery and suffering are brought upon the ship

² here: nunished

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were also some fragments of translation from Latin and Greek poetry. The volume was ridiculed by the Edinburgh. Review¹. The poet answered with a biting satire in verse, "English Bards and Scotch Reviewers" (1809), in which he attacked the reactionary critics and the three Lake School Poets, Wordsworth, Coleridge and Southey. He did not like their childish sentimentality.

Byron was also disappointed in the results of the French Re­volution; but he looked upon it as the greatest event of those times.

After graduating from the University in 1809 Byron started on a tour through Portugal, Spain, Greece, Turkey and Albania. He returned home in 1811. In his speech on the framework bill (1812) in the House of Lords Byron opposed the government's reactionary policy and defended the Luddites². He said, "You call,^ these men a mob³, desperate, dangerous and ignorant; ..Are we aware of our obligations to a mob? It is the mob that labour in your fields and serve in your houses, — that man your navy, and recruit your army, — that have enabled you to defy all the world, and can also defy you when neglect and, calamity have driven them to despair! You may call the people a mob, but do not forget that a mob too often speaks the sentiments of the people." "Song for the Luddites" was also written in defence of the workers.

"Song for the Luddites"

As the Liberty lads o'er the sea* Bought their freedom, and cheaply, with blood,

So we, boys, we

Will die fighting, or live free, And down with all kings but King Ludd!

When the web that we weave is complete, And the shuttle exchanged for the sword,

We will fling the winding sheet

O'er the despot at our feet, And dye it deep in the gore⁵ he has pour'd.

Though black as his heart its hue, Since his veins are corrupted to mud,

¹ the leading literary magazine of that time

² frame-breakers or Luddites were workers, who expressed their protest against exploitation by breaking machines. Ned Ludd [Ud] was the first to destroy stocking frames.

³ a crowd

⁴ Here Byron means the War of Independence (1775—1783) in North America.

⁵ blood

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Yet this is the dew Which the tree shall renew Of Liberty planted by Ludd!

"Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" (1812). After two years of tour­ing on the Continent Lord Byron produced the first two cantos of a travelogue "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" ['tfaild 'пэггэЫг 'pilgrimid33. After its publication he said, "I awoke one morning to find myself famous." In this poem Byron has built up a cha­racter of a sensitive, disillusioned and generous-minded wanderer, exiled from society which he despises. Disgusted with the gay life of the court his hero sets out on a journey abroad.

Adieu, adieu! my native shore

Fades o'er the waters blue; The Night-winds sigh, the breakers roar

And shrieks the wild sea-mew. Yon Sun that sets upon the sea

We follow in his flight; Farewell awhile to him and thee,

My Native Land — Good Night!

Childe Harold moves from country to country and, worried by the fate of the European peoples, expresses a protest against poli­tical tyranny and a longing for freedom.

Yet, Freedom! yet thy banner, torn, but flying, Streams like the thunder-storm against the wind; Thy trumpet voice, though broken now and dying, The loudest still the tempest leaves behind; Thy tree hath lost its blossoms, and the rind, Chopp'd by the axe, looks rough and little worth, But the sap lasts, — and stil! the seed we find Sown deep, even in the bosom of the North; So shall a better spring less bitter fruit bring forth.

The poem established Byron as a major literary and romantic figure.

The poet was often identified with his heroes. Later he wrote many long poems in the form of poetic dramas with romantic and mysterious heroes, rebels against society. Proud and inde­pendent, they hate tyranny and injustice, but they are lonely and fight alone. The most famous of these tales, called Oriental, are "The Giaour" ['dsauaj (1813), "The Corsair" ['koisea] (1814) and "Lara" (1814). These romances made Byron's reputation not only in England alone, but throughout Europe. Soon, however, the at­titude of the public opinion changed. The bourgeois aristocratic

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society did not like his opposition to the ruling classes, and Lord Byron was forced to leave England forever. The poet wandered from one place to another. He made friends with P. B. Shelley in Switzerland and settled in Italy in 1817. There he joined the Car­bonari¹ in their struggle for independence from Austria.

In Switzerland G. G. Byron composed "The Prisoner of Chillon" ['prizna ov 7Пэп] (1816), a lyrical drama "Manfred" (1817) and a number of lyrical poems. Byron's greatness as a poet lies, how­ever, in his satires "Beppo" (1818); "The Vision of Judgement" (1822); "Don Juan" ['don 'd₃uan] (1818—1823) and the tragedy "Cain" (1821). These were written during his Italian period.

Once Byron wrote:

When a man hath no freedom to fight for at home, Let him combat for that of his neighbours.

When the Carbonari movement was suppressed, he gave all his money and effort to the Greek people's struggle against Turkey. His restless life ended there. He died of fever at the age of thirty-six. His death was. mourned by the progressive people throughout Europe. Pushkin called him a poet of freedom. Goethe spoke of him in his "Faust", Belinsky called him "a giant of poetry", etc.

The poet's heart was buried in Greece, his body was taken to England and buried near Newstead. The government did not allow him to be buried in Westminster Abbey.

"Don Juan". It was toward the end of his life that Byron turned more and more to a different kind of poetry than the romantic tales that had made him famous. These later poems reflect his criticism of life and attack folly and dullness.

His masterpiece "Don Juan" is considered to be one of the greatest long poems in English literature where humour, adven­ture and pathos are closely' linked together. Byron's Don Juan is a young Spanish nobleman. When he falls in love with a mar­ried woman his mother sends him abroad. He is shipwrecked in the Mediterranean [,medit3'reinjan]. The beautiful Haidee [hai-'di:], the pirate Lambro's ['lasmbrouz] daughter, takes care of him. When her father returns the idyll of Juan and Haidee ends. Juan is sold into slavery and bought by the Turkish sultana. Haidee dies of a broken heart. Juan escapes from Turkey and joins the Rus­sian army. He is well received by the Russian Empress Catherine the Great, who sends him on a mission to England.

Since Juan's adventures cover a considerable part of Europe his function is to give his author an opportunity to describe dif­ferent countries, to comment on politics and relations between men

a revolutionary organization in Italy in the XIX century

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and to give a satiric portrait of his contemporary society. That is why the hero is passive. He behaves in a natural way according to his impulses, but he does not so much act himself as he is acted on. Byron wanted his hero to take part in the French Revolution and die fighting for freedom, for only a revolution could renew the world. Yet Byron did not finish his work.