George gordon byron

_(1788-1824)

One of the great [)Qets of England was the romantic revolu­

tionary George Gordon Byron. He was born on January 22,

1788 in London, in a poor, but old aristocratic family. The

boy spent his childhood in Scotland, with his mother At the age of ten he returned to England, as heir to the title of Lord and the family castle of Newstead Abbey. It was situated near Nottingham, close to the famous Sherwood Forest. He went to School to Harrow, then to Cambridge University When he was 21 he became a member of the House of Lords. In 1809 he travelled abroad, visiting Portu­ gal. Spain, Albania, Greece and Turkey He returned home in 1811.

In 1812 Byron delivered several speeches in the House of Lords. His first speech was in defence of the Luddites. Later he spoke in defence of the oppressed Irish people. In his speeches he championed the people's cause, and that made the reactionaries hale him. When, alter an unhappy marriage in 1815 he and his wife parted, his enemies in high places seized this opportunity and began to persec Jte him. The great poet was accused of immorality and had to leave his native country.

In May 1816 Byron went to Switzerland where he made

friends with the poet Percy B. Shelley, his great contempo­ rary Their friendship was based on the similarity of their political convictions. Both of them hated oppression and stood for the liberty of nations.

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At the end of 1816 Byron continued his travels and went to Italy, where he lived till 1823. There he became actively engaged in the C rbonari movement against Austrian rule, for the liberation of Italy The defeat of the Carbonari uprising ( 1821) was a heavy blow to the great freedom fighter

In the summer of 1823 he went off to Greece to fight for

its liberation from Turkish oppression. There, on April 19,

1824, Byron died of a fever. The Greeks, who considered the

poet a national hero, buried his heart in their country and declared national mourning for him. His body was brought to England where it was buried ncar Newstead Abbey. In

1969 the authorities finally allowed his remains to be buried in the "Poets' Corner" in Westminster Abbey.

His death was deeply mourned by all progressive man­ kind. Pushkin dedicated his beautiful poem «K MOpiO)) to his memory, for the sea had always symbolized Byron's revolutionary spirit.

Byron's creative work is usually divided into four periods.

The London Period (1812-1816). At the begin­ ning of this period the first two cantos (songs) of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage were published. During the years of the London period Byron wrote his famous lyrics Hebrew Melodies, his "oriental" poems (The Corsair, The Bride of Abydos, Lara, and others). He also began to write his political satires, the most outstanding of which is the Ode to the Framers of the Frame Bill.

The Swiss Period (1816 May-October). During these months Byron wrote the third canto of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, The Prisoner of Chilton, his philos­ ophic drama Manfred.

The Italian Period (1816-1823) is the most im­ portant and mature in his creative work. He wrote the last, fourth canto, of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Cain, Beppo. Besides many other works he writes Don Juan. This is considered to be his most important creation. It is a novel in verse, that was to contain 24 cantos, but death stopped his work and only 16 and a half cantos were written. In them he gave a great satirical panorama of the European social life of his time.

He came very close to a realistic approach here, and enriched the language of poetry with the everyday lan­ guage, spoken by the people.

The Greek Period (1823-1824). During the short

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months in Greece Byron wrote little: some lyrical poems, among them On This Day I Complete My Thirty-Sixth Year, and his Cephalonian Journal in prose.

I. What periods is Byron's creative work usually divided into?

2. Wilat are the titles ol some ol the outstanding works ol each period?

3. In which ol his works does Byron come close to a realistic approach in descrihing file?

Clf/LDE HAROLD'S PILGRIMAGE

This is a poem composed of four cantos. It is written in the Spenserian stanza -a nine-line stanza with the last line a lengthened one, or an Alexandrine. The first two cantos were published in 1812, the third- in 1817 and the fourth in 1818. It is one of the first lyrico-epic poems in European literature. The lyrico-epic poem combines nar­ rative with lyrics. The narrative and the descriptions of nature, of people, of historical facts, are presented lyrical­ ly, expressing the poet's feelings and personal views about what he describes.

The character of Childe Harold has much in common

with the author That is logical, because Harold was the product of the same epoch and of its contradictions, as Byron was.

At the beginning of the poem Childe Harold is the centre of attention; later, the author begins to address the reader directly. In the middle of lhe third canto Childe Harold appears for the last time and the author is left alone with the reader

From the first stanzas we learn some facts about Childe Harold's life. He carne from an old aristocratic family His ancestors were men of great courage and heroism. Harold's life was very different from theirs; it was full of pleasure and entertainment. But now he only felt a great weariness and discontent. He had lost his faisth in friendship and was disappointed in the world of lies in which he found himself. Hoping to find good in other countries he left England. He did not know very well what he expected to find, but he fled from evil. Similar charac­ ters will echo Childe Harold's feelings in many European literatures of the time (Pechorin, for instance). They will share Childe Harold's traits. They will be proud men, sincere in their judgment of e'.il and their praise of good. But they will, like Harold, be passive odserverc;, egoistic

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aristocrats, slightly scornrul or commoners.

Thus Childe Harold leaves his country ror Portugal and

Spain; when the ship is rar from the shores of England, he

sings Good Night to his Motherland. These stanzas have

a structure different from the whole poem: they are written