5. R. Burn’s life and literary work. Burn’s lyrics.

His father W. Burns was a hardworking farmer. He knew the value of a good education and he was determined to give his children the best schooling possible.

There were 7 children in the family and Robert was the eldest. When he was 6 his father sent him to school to Alloway.

At 13 he was out in the fields all day helping his father, and he studied nature closely and following the plough, he whistled and sang. In his songs he spoke of what he saw, of the woods, the fields, the valleys, of the deer, of the hare and the small field mouse, of the farmer's poor cottage home.

Burns began to write poetry in his l6th. His first love song "Handsome Nell" was dedicated to the girl who helped him in the harvest fields.

Life was hard for the family. His father died 1784. Young poet expressed the feelings of love in some lyrical poems and they are still remembered today (,,Coming through the rye”). 

In 1788 Burns married Jean Armour she is immortalized in many beautiful poems written

by the poet, such as " I LOVE MY JEAN ", " THY BONNIE FACE".

Robert and Jean continued meeting secretly and Robert gave Jean a paper declaring them man and wife. When Jean's father learned about it, he tore the paper up and forbade his daughter to see Robert. Jean obeyed and Robert being offended by it, swore never to see her again.

Only, when Robert obtained a job, earned money, Jean’s father agreed to have the poet as his son-in-law.

One of the finest poems widely popular in Scotland "TAH O'SHANTER' was written in 1790. 1793 saw the appearance of the "TREE OF LIBERTY" in which R. Burns greeted the French Revolution but the poem was published

only 40 years after Burn's death.

A shopkeeper whom Rurns owe a large sum of money took a proceeding against him. All that remains of him – bones and skin. Hard work had destroyed his health, but he continued the literary work. He lived in poverty, his farm was sold,. The problem of earning money raised every day. 

,,The Winter of life’’ are the saddest, most bitter and moving poems he had ever written (a few days before his death).

Robert Burns died on July 21, 1796. Thousands from all over the country followed him through the streets of Dumfries to his last resting-place. 

All of R. Burn's poetry shows him to be one of great masters of lyrical verse, warm patriot of his native country. He had always stood for liberty, equality, justice and honesty. His poetry is deeply democratic and full of criticism directed against the landlords, the government officials.

6. G.G. Byron: destiny and myth. ” Don Juan”

'I mean to show things really as they are, not as they ought to be'. wrote Byron (1788-1824) in his comic masterpiece "Don Juan", which follows the adventures of the hero across the Europe and near East which Byron knew so well, touching on the major political, cultural and social concerns of the day. 

George Gordon Byron was known as Lord Byron during his lifetime. Byron was born in 1788 and died at the early age of thirty-six in the year 1824. His handsome face, riotous living and many love affairs made Byron the most talked-of man of his day. 

His great-uncle from whom he inherited the title, was known as "wicked Lord Byron"; his father army officer, was called "mad Jack" Byron. He became wealthy .

Born with a clubfoot, he was sensitive about it all his life. When he was just three his father died, leaving the family with nearly nothing to survive on. His parents, Catherine Gordon Byron (of the old and violent line of Scottish Gordons) and John Byron had been hiding in France from their creditors, but Catherine wanted their child born in England, so John stayed in France, living in his sister?s house, and died in 1791, possibly a suicide. However, at ten was left a small inheritance along with it’s title.

His mother then proudly moved from the meager lodging in Aberdeen, Scotland to England. The boy fell in love with the ghostly halls and spacious grounds of Newstead Abbey, which had been presented to the Byron’s by Henry VIII.

While growing up in England he was sent to a private school in Nottingham.

At seventeen he entered Cambridge University. Byron became a good rider, swimmer, boxer, and marksman. He enjoyed literature but cared little for other subjects.

A neighbor of his mother encouraged Byron to publish his poems. In 1806, the book "Fugitive Pieces" appeared. 

Travels in Europe and the Middle East inspired his first long poem, Childe Harold s Pilgrimage . The first two sections were published in 1812, and he became famous almost overnight. Women sought him out, and young men copied him.

In 1815 he married Anne Milbanke. They had one daughter, but soon separated. Society and the public reacted unfavorable to Byron s often scandalous conduct. He left England for Italy.

He inherited his uncontrollable temper from both sides of the family.

Byron clearly expressed his own life in his version of Don Juan in turning the anti-hero into a hero. Much of Don Juan seems to reflect Byron s own life and interpretation of himself.

Don Juan is a satiric poem by Lord Byron, based on the legend of Don Juan, which Byron reverses, portraying Juan not as a womanizer but as someone easily seduced by women. It is a variation on the epic form. Byron himself called it an "Epic Satire". Modern critics generally consider it Byron's masterpiece, with a total of more than 16,000 lines of verse. Byron completed 16 cantos, leaving an unfinished 17th canto before his death in 1824. Byron claimed he had no ideas in his mind as to what would happen in subsequent cantos as he wrote his work. When the first two cantos were published anonymously in 1819, the poem was criticized for its 'immoral content', though it was also immensely popular.