Exercises

1. Tell the story of Byron’s life.

2. Quote lines where Byron calls forth people to struggle for freedom and independence.

3. What caused the note of grief in Byron’s poetry? Indicate lines expressive of the poet’s gloomy mood.

4. Speak on the attitude of the poet towards nature. Find lines from “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage” where Byron’s admiration of nature is expressed with great force.

5. What were the main characters of the “Oriental Tales”?

6. Why does the poet call Italy “Mother of Arts”?

7. Is Childe Harold an autobiographical character? What was Byron’s opinion on the subject?

8. Why do we consider Byron to be a real fighter for freedom?

9. How did Belinsky explain the contradictory character of Byron’s poetry?

10. Which of Byron’s lyrical poems were translated into Russian by Lermontov? Compare the translation with the original.

Percy Bysshe Shelley

(1792-1822)

“Poets are the trumpets which

sing to battle; poets are the

unacknowledged legislators of

the world.”

SHELLY

Percy Bysshe Shelley was the most progressive poet among the Revolutionary Romanticists in English literature.

Like Byron, he combines in his poetry the romantic elements typical of the period with a revolutionary protest against the growing power of capitalism.

Shelley describes the gloomy reaction of the time:

Rulers who neither see, nor feel, nor know,

…………………………………………….

A people starved and stabbed in the untilled field,

Golden* and sanguine* laws which tempt and slay;

……………………………………………

(“England in 1819”)

___________________

· golden – here mercenary.

· sanguine – bloody.

Revolt against all existing laws and customs; revolt against all forms of religion; courage and readiness to act upon what he considered the right principles; extreme generosity; all-embracing love for mankind – these are the characteristic features of the poet, and they are reflected in his works.

Shelley foretold a happy future for humanity. He believed that the day would come when the people of this world be free from their dark slavery. He was the first poet of English literature to portray the common people as the only force capable of changing the existing order of life, and to them,

‘Men of England, heirs of Glory

Heroes of unwritten story,’

the poet addresses his passionate appeal to overthrow their oppressors:

‘Rise like Lions after slumber

In unvanquishable* number,

Shake your chains to earth like dew

Which in sleep had fallen on you –

Ye are many – they are few.’

(“The Mask of Anarchy”, XXXVII, XXXVIII)

__________

· unvanquishable – unconquerable.

For his revolutionary ideas and firm belief in the happy future of humanity Frederick Engels called Shelley a prophet, and Karl Marx spoke of him as of “a socialist from top to toe”.

His Life and Work

Percy Bysshe Shelley was born on the 4^th of August, 1792, in Sussex. Like Byron, he came from an aristocratic family, and broke away from his class. His father was a baronet, and a narrow-minded man. The boy felt ill at ease in his family, and at Eton College where he was sent to in 1804. He was a shy, gentle, kind and sensitive boy by nature, but he had his own notions of justice, independence and freedom. At Eton the boy promptly rebelled against the brutal fagging* (*fag – a junior boy who has to act as servant to a senior) system, then tolerated in English public schools. The teachers disliked him for his independent thinking. He was called “Mad Shelley” or “Shelley – the atheist”.

In 1810 Shelley entered Oxford. A year later he wrote an antireligious pamphlet called “The Necessity of Atheism”, for which he was expelled from the University. The same year he was disinherited by his father.

In 1813 Shelley published his first great poem, “Queen Mab”, containing sharp criticism of human society, past and present, and expressing his ideals as to the happy future of mankind, to be brought about by peaceful means.

Almost the same idea of “bloodless revolution” is expressed in “The Revolt of Islam” (1818), a poem about the leaders of the revolt, Loan and Cythna, who sacrificed their lives for the cause of freedom. Though at that time Shelley had not yet realized the necessity of armed struggle, and advocated the bloodless dethronement of oppressors, the plot of the poem was inspired by the ideas of the French Revolution, which he supported with all his heart.

For the poems directed against “all the oppressions which are done under the sun” Shelley received the reputation of being “a dangerous man” and was ostracized by society. Life in England became unbearable and the poet left his native country, which he was destined never to see again.

In 1818 Shelley went to Italy. After wandering over the country he finally settled in Pisa, beloved of so many English poets. There he found comfort in the friendship of Byron, who admired his verses, and spoke of Shelley as the most gentle and amiable person he had ever met. The great works of art and the rich colouring of Italy gave new life to Shelley’s poetic genius. Most of his best works were written under a southern sky during the last years of his short life.

A thorough study of social and political conditions helped Shelley to realize the inconsistency of the theory of “bloodless revolution” and to understand the necessity of violence as the only means of abolishing tyranny. “The Cenci” (1819) is the first of the poet’s works where this idea is clearly expressed. Shelley’s considerable dramatic power is manifested in this tragedy, based on an Italian murder story of the 16^th century. In the preface to “The Cenci” Shelley writes:

On my arrival at Rome I found that the story of the Cenci was a subject not to be mentioned in Italian society without awakening a deep and breathless interest[…]. The story is, that an old man having spent his life in debauchery and wickedness, conceived at length an implacable hatred towards his children[…].” His daughter Beatrice “who was evidently a most gentle and amiable being, a creature formed to adorn and be admired”, driven to desperation by the monstrous cruelty and violence of her father, Count Cenci, “[…] at plotted with her mother-in-law and brother to murder their common tyrant. […] The deed was quickly discovered, and, in spite of the most earnest prayers made to the Pope by the highest persons in Rome, the criminals were put to death. The old man had during his life repeatedly bought his pardon from the Pope for capital crimes of the most enormous and unspeakable kind, at the price of a hundred thousand crowns; the death therefore of his victims can scarcely be accounted for by the love justice.”*

---------------------

* There is a portrait of Beatrice, painted by the Italian artist Guido Reni (1575-1642) during her confinement in prison, a copy of which is at the Hermitage in Leningrad.

A great lover of man and freedom, a foe of despotism, Shelley voices his sympathy with those who fought the oppressor and boldly faced death. “The Cenci” ranks among those works of the poet which burn with the fire of his genius.

Though far from England, Shelley was always interested in the affairs of his native country. The economic misery and political oppression of the English people grieved and angered the poet. In 1819 he wrote revolutionary songs which show the progress of his world outlook.

In the “Song to the Men of England” (1819) Shelley appeals to the English workers to struggle for their human rights:

SONG TO THE MEN OF ENGLAND

Men of England, wherefore plough

For the lords who lay ye low?

Wherefore weave with toil and care

The rich robes your tyrants wear?

Wherefore feed, and clothe, and save,

From the cradle to the grave,

Those ungrateful drones who would

Drain your sweat – nay, drink your blood?

Wherefore, Bees of England, forge

Many a weapon,* chain, and scourge,

That these stingless drones may spoil

The forced produce of your toil?

Have ye leisure, comfort, calm,

Shelter, food, love’s gentle balm?

Or what is it ye buy so dear

With your pain and with your fear?

The seed ye sow, another reaps;

The wealth ye find, another keeps;

The robes ye weave, another wears;

The arms ye forge, another bears.

Sow seed, - but let no tyrant reap;

Find wealth, - let no impostor heap;

Weave robes, - let not the idle wear;

Forge arms, - in your defence to bear.

Shrink to your cellars, holes, and cells;

In halls ye deck, another dwells.

Why shake the chains ye wrought? Ye see

The steel ye tempered glance on ye.

With plough and spade, and hoe and loom,

Trace your grave, and build your tomb,

And weave your winding-sheet, till fair

England be your sepulchre.

The same theme of revolt is heard in the poems: “The Mask of Anarchy” (1819), “England in 1819” (1819), “Ode to Liberty” (1820), and many others.

--------------------

· Many weapons.

THE MASK OF ANARCHY

(fragment)

XXXVII

‘Men of England, heir of Glory,

Heroes of unwritten story,

Nurslings of one mighty Mother,

Hopes of her, and one another!

XXXVIII

‘Rise like Lions after slumber,

In unvanquishable number,

Shake your chains to earth like dew,

Which in sleep had fall’n on you –

Ye are many – they are few.

XXXIX

‘What is Freedom? – ye can tell

That which Slavery is, too well –

For its very name has grown

To an echo of your own.

XL

‘Tis to work, and have such pay

As just keeps life from day to day

In your limbs, as in a cell

For the tyrants’ use to dwell:

XLI

‘So that ye for them are made

Loom, and plough, and sword, and spade;

With or without your own will, bent

To their defence and nourishment.

XLII

‘Tis to see your children weak

With their mothers pine and peak,

When the winter winds are bleak;

They are dying whilst I speak.

XLIII

‘Tis to hunger for such diet,

As the rich man in his riot

Casts to the fat dogs that lie

Surfeiting beneath his eyes.

……………………………..

XLVI

‘Tis to be a slave in soul,

And to hold no strong control

Over your own wills, but be

All that others make of ye.’

When the Chartist Movement began to develop, Shelley became one of the most popular poets of the time. During demonstrations the workers marched along the streets, singing his revolutionary songs.

One of Shelley’s best works is his lyrical drama “Prometheus Unbound” (1820). The plot is a variation on the theme of “Prometheus Bound”, a tragedy by Aeschylus (525-456 B.C.). According to Greek myths, Prometheus stole the gods’ fire from Olympus, and brought it down to mankind. For this Jove, father of the gods, chained Prometheus to a rock over a precipice, and subjected him to everlasting torture.

In Shelley’s drama Prometheus symbolizes the human mind and will. His captivity means that both the mind of man and man himself are enslaved. Shelley’s hero does not seek a reconciliation with Jove. He suffers terrible tortures but does not submit:

No change, no pause, no hope! Yet I endure.

I ask the Earth, have not the mountains felt?

I ask yon Heaven, the all-beholding Sun,

Has it not seen? The Sea, in storm or calm,

Heaven’s ever-changing Shadow, spread below,

Have its deaf waves not heard my agony?

Ah me! alas, pain, pain ever, for ever!

(Act 1)

Prometheus is helped by the innumerable forces of nature. The Spirit of the Earth, Demogorgon – the symbol of revolution, and the other good spirits cast Jove out of Olympus into oblivion. Prometheus is unbound, the human mind is free, the world of men passes from chaos to unlimited progress. The forces of nature symbolize the common people, who overthrow all forms of tyranny and become free and happy.

The poet was a revolutionary both in his political outlook and poetical style.

Shelley was also the author of many lyrical poems of rare beauty and emotional power. Though some of his verses are rather sad, the motif of “world sorrow” is alien to him. Shelley was an optimist. He regarded the world and nature as ever in development. He ends his “Ode to the West Wind” (O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn’s being,”) with the famous line:

“If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?”

The poet was inspired by love: a love not limited to mankind, but extending to every living creature, to animals and flowers, to the whole of nature; his very being is fused and blended in nature. He becomes one with the lark (“To a Skylark”), with the cloud (“The Cloud”), and the west wind (“Ode to the West Wind”).

TO A SKYLARK

(fragment)

What thou art we know not;

What is most like thee?

From rainbow clouds there flow not

Drops so bright to see

As from thy presence showers a rain of melody.

Like a Poet hidden

In the light of thought,

Singing hymns unbidden*,

Till the world is wrought

To sympathy with hopes and fears it heeded not.

_________

· unbidden (old use) – not ordered, not asked for.

THE CLOUD

(fragment)

I bring fresh showers for the thirsting flowers,

From the seas and the streams;

I bear light shade for the leaves when laid

In their noonday dreams.

From my wings are shaken the dews that waken

The sweet buds every one,

When rocked to rest on their mother’s breast,

As she dances about the sun.

I wield the flail of the lashing hail,

And whiten the green plains under,

And then again I dissolve it in rain,

And laugh as I pass in thunder.

Shelley’s rich imagination, his power of rhythmical expression, his passion for liberty make his poetry unexcelled. He brought the melody of verse to a degree of perfection unknown in English poetry before him. To Shelley poetry was a device for making immortal all that is good and beautiful in the world. He had the key to the hidden mysteries of the heart, of life itself.

Great as Shelley’s fame is now, it should be remembered that it was entirely posthumous. He received practically no encouragement during his lifetime.

On July 8, 1822, while Shelley and a friend of his were sailing in a small boat across the Bay of Spezia, near Genoa, a sudden and violent storm broke out. Ten days later their bodies were found washed ashore. They were cremated on the spot, and, according to some accounts, the poet’s wife, Mary, snatched her husband’s heart from out of the ashes. The heart was buried in the Protestant cemetery in Rome. The inscription on his tombstone reads: “Percy Bysshe Shelley, COR CORDIUM” (The Heart of Hearts).