История литературы / 25. George Gordon Byron

25. Lord George Gordon Byron (1788-1824) When we discuss Byron’s legacy we should pay attention to his principles which were based on romanticism as a trend. He tried to find an ideal as all romantic poets, but he seemed to speak about both past and future, and about a human being who is undeserving in the present. At the beginning of his career Byron was a romantic poet, in the end – realistic poet. Byron was born when the French revolution came to an end, it experienced a complete defeat and caused the appearance of poets who tried to change the ugly reality. Byron’s father was a profligate. He married Byron’s mother for money, and after wasting his wife’s fortune he escaped. He died when George was 3 years old. His mother was left with a very small income. She was fond of her child, but at the same time she was capricious and violent in temper. The boy loved her a lot, but he couldn’t respect her. He was handsome in features but clubfoot. He was painfully sensitive of this defect. Byron went to Harrow where he made his first essays in verse. He felt in love with his cousin Mary, but she married another man (he later wrote “A Dream”). Then he went to Cambridge (2 years later published “Hours of idleness”). Critics say none of the poems show a great merit, but they may be regarded as a promise of future excellence. Byron travelled a lot (to the East – Spain, Malta, Greece, Constantinopole) and his experience found its reflections in the first two cantos of “Child Harold’s Pilgrimage”. This book was entirely different from his publications. It showed that now there was a poet no one could compete with in talent & poetic imagination. Byron found himself famous. Nothing is more remarkable in his career than the rapidity with which his mind expanded. Child Harold became a nickname, a term that describes the whole generation. The first two cantos gave birth to a new type of character – Byron’s character. These two cantos describe a man who was dissatisfied with the world & the society, bored by the life of aristocracy, who sank in misanthropy. These people despised the false democracy of the society, people who were trying hard to find some place on earth where they could feel at home. Byron invented a new type of character – a very cynical, proud man, with defiance on his brow & misery in his heart, despising his fellow-creatures, implacable of revenge, yet capable of strong & deep affection in love. Child Harold of the first two cantos & Byron’s character are transpositions of one & the same character. He tries to find some atmosphere in catastrophes he is worn out by repentance. He is unable to carry the burden of existence he can’t give love to. He wants to do good, but at the same time he is misanthropic to an extreme, he is dissatisfied with himself, falls into pessimism. The character suffers a lot because of his insufficiency & extreme individualism. At the same time the poems are poetically so beautiful, that you can’t refrain from reading them though sometimes you disagree with Byron’s attitude to humanity. The book was written in a Spenserian stanza (consisting of 9 lines, 5-foot iambic lines, followed by the iambic line of 6 feet, the rhyming scheme is abab bcbcc). It was initially invented by Spenser. This form was chosen by Byron not by chance. It helped to reflect the necessary mood and intention. The book contains splendid descriptions and noble meditations. To some extent it’s the book about the author himself. This evokes curious admiration. The character was a true human being, a noble man from aristocracy, the man who realized the futility of existence. He was far from being a profligate, wanted to serve his country, but it didn’t need the effort – he couldn’t bear hypocrisy. But of course, he was not Byron himself. After an unfortunate marriage (his wife left him – a strong blow; Byron turned against the society) Byron decided to leave England never to return again. This was his reaction to the attitude of the society that could not tame the poet. He went to Brussels – to Switzerland & there he wrote his famous drama “Manfred” (the best of all his dramas). There are lots of effective descriptions there. Manfred is a person who is stranger than any human being, closer to God than human beings & most unfortunate, because he does not know where to apply his extraordinary strength & godlike abilities. Manfred is an individualist. His violence and strength turn against him finally, his experience teaches him to love people. In the very beginning Byron describes Childe’s character finding him wanting in the better qualities of manhood. Harold is “shameless” and “given to revel and ungodly glee”; additionally, he has undertaken “evil deeds” that haunt him with the threat of justice. Then we see that Childe is bored and ready for change. The poet notes that for one young lady in particular—the only woman whom Harold truly loved, yet whom he could never have—Harold’s desire to leave England in search of change is fortunate for her maiden heart. He visits his family home to gather his belongings. The place is described as a “vast and venerable pile,” old and decrepit like the former honor of his family line. Harold feels brief pangs of remorse at the memories he leaves behind but soon shuts them off in favor of his departure. He feels unloved and lonely. Stanza 11 describes what Harold leaves behind, “His house, his home, his heritage, his lands,” and all the women and wine that had so delighted him in the past. But these pleasures have grown stale to him, and he must move on. Childe Harold sings a song of “Farewell” to his native land. This song goes for ten stanzas, interrupting the poem proper but giving Harold his strongest voice in all of Canto I. The Harold arrives to Portugal, the political situation is described; the architectural, social and human decay is also described. Then the author speaks about the character’s past. Harold’s journey continues. Byron focuses on Childe Harold’s view of the situation in Spain, particularly on the battles recently fought on Spanish soil. Then he goes to Greece. There is a brief interruption in the flow of Canto I with the introduction of the ode “To Inez.” Canto II presents Childe Harold’s travels to Greece and Albania. Again, Harold is the main character but seldom becomes involved in the actual events of the story except to reflect on them. After Albania Childe Harold again appears in Greece, focusing on Greek independence from Turkey. At the end of the Canto Byron reflects that getting older has its own curse: the longer he lives, the more people he loses. The first two cantos of “Child Harold” are followed by “Giqour”, “The bridge of Abydos”, “Corsair” “Lara”. All the characters in these poems were similar to “Child Harold” characters, it was a cumulative portrait of the romantic character of that time. This portrait feeds on violent passions. It comprises the whole universe, and is full of reminiscences. The character recollects the catastrophe of the past and feels guilty – he cannot improve anything (no matter how heroic human beings are nothing happens). This cumulative character is full of pride, revenge, he despises life, mankind and himself. "The Giaour" is a poem by Lord Byron first published in 1813. It is the first in the series of his Oriental romances. Byron was inspired to write the poem during his Grand Tour during 1810 and 1811, which he undertook with his friend John Cam Hobhouse. While in Athens, he became aware of the Turkish custom of throwing a woman found guilty of adultery into the sea wrapped in a sack. "Giaour" is the Turkish word for infidel or non-believer. The story is subtitled "A Fragment of a Turkish Tale", and is Byron's only fragmentary narrative poem. Byron designed the story with three narrators giving their individual point of view about the series of events. The main story is of Leila, a member of her master Hassan's harem, who loves the giaour and is killed by being drowned in the sea by Hassan. In revenge, the giaour kills him and then enters a monastery due to his remorse. The design of the story allows for contrast in Christian and Muslim perceptions of love, sex, death and the afterlife. The poem was written after Byron had become famous overnight after the publication of the first two cantos of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage and reflects his disenchantment with fame. The Corsair is a tale in verse by Lord Byron published in 1814. Its poetry, divided into cantos (as Dante's Divine Comedy), narrates the story of the corsair Conrad, how he was in his youth rejected by society because of his actions and his later fight against humanity (excepting women). In this tale the figure of Byronic hero is presented by the point of view of the people.