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GEORGE GORDON BYRON
(1788-1824)
"He who loves not his country, can love nothing."
"...I will teach, if possible, the stones to rise against earth's tyrants..., exclaimed Byron in his greatest work "Don Juan".
The poet was a real fighter; he struggled against despotism with both pen and sword. Freedom was the cause that he served all his life.
Like all the romantic writers of his time, Byron was disappointed with the results of the French Revolution; but unlike the Lake Poets who condemned their former beliefs and tried to escape from reality into the world of dreams and mysticism, he remained true to the ideas of liberty and equality. The lines from "Childe Harold", "Yet, Freedom! yet thy banner, torn, but flying. Streams like the thunder-storm against the wind." appealed to all freedom-loving people.
Byron hated wars and the rising power of capital. He sympathized with the oppressed people and seemed to understand their role in the future battles Sot freedom.
They fight for freedom, who were never free. ("Childe Harold").
However, definite limitations of the poet's world outlook caused deep contradictions in his works. Though Byron believed in the final triumph of good over evil and "...perceived mat revolution alone can save the earth..." ("Don Juan"), he could not foretell (he paths the class struggle would take in the future, and many of his verses are touched with disappointment and scepticism. The philosophy of "world sorrow" becomes the leading theme of his works. The poet's attention is drawn to the individual and he dwells on the valour of the. romantic hero, fighting for His own personal liberty.
Romantic individualism and a pessimistic attitude to life combine in Bvron's art with his firm belief in reason; realistic tendencies prevail in hfi works of the later period.
In spite of his pessimism, Byron's verse embodies the aspirations of the. English workers, Irish peasants, Spanish partisans, Italian Carbonari, Albanian and Greek patriots, and encouraged the struggle against the social evils of the time.
Belinsky said that these contradictions in Byron's poetry mirror the contradictory character of the English democratic movement as a whole.
Byron's flaming characters, his beautiful pictures of nature and his brilliant satirical power, coupled with his rich and melodious verse, appeal to us and, no doubt, will be admired by many generations to come. His Life and Work.
George Gordon Byron was bom in London, on January 22,1788, in an impoverished aristocratic family. His mother, Catherine Gordon, was a Scottish lady of honourable birth and (respectable fortune. After having run through his own and most of his wife's fortune, his father, an army officer, died when the future poet was only three years old.
George was very lonely from early childhood. His mother was a woman of quick feelings and strong passions. Now she kissed him, now she scolded him. In one of her fits of passion she called him "a lame brat", and the boy could not bring himself to forgive her this insult. He was lame from birth and was sensitive about it all his life, yet. thanks to his strong will and regular training, he became an excellent rider, a champion swimmer, a boxer and took part in athletic exercises.
Byron spent the first ten years of his life in Scotland, He was fond of the rocky coast and mountains of the country. His admiration of natural scenery was reflected in many of his poems. He attended .grammar school in Aberdeen (,aeba'di:nl. The boy "devoured" books of travel, especially those relating to the East. These books greatly influenced his poetical development.
In 1798 George's grand-uncle died and the boy inherited the title of baron and the family estate of the Byrons. Newstead Abbey, in Nottinghamshire. Together with his mother and nurse. May Gray, to whom he was deeply attached, the boy moved to Newstead, from where he was sent to Harrow School; at seventeen he entered Cambridge University.
George, was sixteen when he fell in love with his distant relative Mary Chaworth, and in her his youthful imagination seemed to have found the ideal of womanly perfection. She did not, however, return his affection. But the memory of his first love climg to Byron throughout his life, and coloured much of his writing. Tn the first canto ofChilde Harold's Pilgrimage" the poet sings that he (Harold) "sighed to many, though he loved but one". Mary Chaworth was the one the poet loved.
Byron's need for love and sympathy, his desire to help and protect, were evident from his boyhood. In 1805 he saved one m his friends from drowning. Later, when in Spain, he sent back to England two of his servants, giving instructions that one of them should be properly educated at .his own (Byron's) expense. Many people whom he helped never knew from whom the money came.
While a student, Byron published his first collection of poems "Hours of Idleness" (1807). It was mercilessly attacked by a well-known critic in the magazine "Edinburgh Review", The author suggested that Byron should not write any more poems in future. Wounded to the quick, Byron decided to take his revenge; A whole year was spent in preparation of a reply, which was published in 1809 under the title of "English Bards and Scotch Reviewers". In this satirical poem, which is really criticism inverse, Byron makes a wide survey of contemporary literary life.
In the spring of 1808 Byron graduated from the University and received his M. A. (Master of Arts) degree, and next year took his hereditary seat in the House of Lords.
In 1809 he left England on a long journey, which took two years. He visited Portugal, Spain, Albania, Greece, and Turkey, and during his travels wrote the first two cantos of "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage". At that time, in a letter to a friend, he wrote: "Embarrassed in my private affairs, indifferent to the public, solitary without the wish to be social, with a body affected by a succession of fevers, but a spirit, I trust, yet unbroken, I am returning home without a hope and almost without a desire." After an absence of two years the poet returned to England.
On February 27, 1812, Byron made his first speech in the House of Lords, He spoke passionately in defence of the English proletariat and blamed the government for the unbearable conditions of the life of the workers.
"I have traversed the seat of war in the Peninsula, I have been in some of the most oppressed provinces of Turkey; but never under the most despotic infidel government . did I behold such squalid wretchedness as I have seen since my return in the very heart of a Christian country [...]. The poet expressed his indignation at the bill which had been introduced into Parliament in order to sanction the death-sentence for frame-breaking:
"[...] Setting aside the palpable injustice and the certain inefficiency of the bill, are there not capital punishments sufficient in your statutes? Is there not blood enough upon your penal code, that more must be poured forth to ascend to Heaven and testify against you?
Later the poet again raised his voice in defence of the oppressed workers, encouraging them to fight for freedom in his "Song for the Luddites" (1816);
As the Liberty lads ov'r 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!
In 1812 the first two cantos of'Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" were published. They were received with a burst of enthusiasm by his contemporaries and Byron became one of the most popular men in London. Walter Scott declared that for more than a century no work had produced a greater effect. The author himself remarked: "I awoke one morning and found myself famous."
Between 1813 and 1816 Byron composed his "Oriental Tales". "The Giaour", "The Corsair", "Lara", and others. These tales embody the poet's romantic individualism. The hero of each poem is a rebel against society. He is a man of strong will and passion. Proud and independent, he rises against tyranny and injustice to gain his personal freedom and happiness. His revolt, however, is too individualistic, and therefore it is doomed to failure. These romantic poems were particularly admired by Byron's contemporaries and called forth a new mode of thought and feeling called "Byronism". They also gave rise to a new hero, a hero sol itary and gloomy, involved in a single-handed struggle against oppression.