Kabanova I.V. Foreign literature

Byron's "The Corsair" is a work written in 1814. It develops a genre such as a romantic poem. Byron's "Corsair" is written in rhymed pentameter. In this article we will describe a brief summary of the work. The poem "Corsair" consists of three songs. Each of them will be presented by us.

First song

The piece begins as follows. Pirates are feasting on the island. Their kingdom is above the endless foamy wave. Joy is a fight, a storm. They know no fear, death is boring for them, because among pirates it is quick, souls instantly break ties with the world, as their song says. Conrad is the leader of the pirates. He knows only orders and is stingy with speech. This hero's hand is strong, his eye is keen and sharp. Conrad behaves like a righteous man - he does not participate in feasts, does not eat luxurious food, is an enemy of everything sensual - simple and stern. He enjoys enormous prestige among pirates. Not one of them not only dares to challenge the orders of their commander, but does not even bother him without any particular reason.

Meet the main character

Byron's Corsair continues. Now the pirates notice a ship in the distance. It soon turns out that the brig, sailing under a blood-red flag. The arrivals brought good news. A Greek spy writes that an excellent opportunity has finally arisen to rob the rich fleet of the Turkish Pasha himself. Conrad, having read his message, decides to hit the road immediately. He orders the team to prepare for battle and check their weapons. Nobody dares argue with Conrad. The author describes this most skillful strategist, the ruler of souls, isolated from everyone by a secret. This hero was not always a pirate. The reason for his current anger at the world lies in the past. Conrad was wise, but the world thought differently and spoiled him with its training. The hero did not want to resign himself to drag out a miserable life. He was too proud for that. Nor could he humiliate himself in front of others.

Conrad's Love

Conrad is subject to only one passion - love. He loves Medora mutually and happily, while not paying attention to the numerous beautiful captives living on the pirate island. Before a dangerous journey, he is going to say goodbye to his beloved, so he goes to her castle. Near Medora's room, the hero hears a sad song. The girl sings about her love for Conrad, which knows no peace, because the lovers are forced to constantly part, and Medora lives, always fearing for the life of the pirate. The girl dreams that one day peace will bring them into a peaceful home. She wonders why her gentle lover is so cruel to people. He tells Medora that he is forced to hit the road again. She gets upset and invites her lover to at least taste the holiday meal together. The hero, however, cannot stay. It's time to go: he hears the cannon signal. Conrad leaves after kissing the girl. Medora, left alone, cries.

Start of the battle

Byron's Corsair continues. The hero returns to the ship. He does not want to lose honor because of "women's torment." Once again he turns into a decisive commander, gives orders, gives orders so that his comrades are waiting for them in three days for a victory feast. Conrad opens the nautical charts, looks at them, and suddenly notices a Turkish galley fleet. But the hero is unperturbed. He calmly calls on his comrades, saying that it is time to start the massacre.

Second canto

Let's move on to the description of the second song of the work that Byron created ("Corsair"). A summary of her events is as follows. Seyid Pasha arranged a feast in honor of his future victories. He wants to defeat the pirates, capture these sea robbers, and then divide the rich booty among his people. Many Muslims gathered under his banner. A dervish who escaped from a pirate ship is brought to Seyid Pasha. It turns out to be Conrad in disguise. Seid Pasha begins to interrogate him. But it’s as if the dervish is stalling for time. He says that he is a worthless spy, since his gaze is fixed only on escape. Pirates, according to the dervish, are careless and stupid. The guards slept through his flight, and therefore the pasha’s fleet also slept through. The latter orders to feed the disguised Conrad, but he does not eat anything, explaining that this is his vow. After all, if he begins to taste the pleasures of life, the Prophet will block his way to Mecca. But it seems from the outside that for someone sentenced to work and fasting, he behaves strangely, as Byron notes (“The Corsair”). At this time, the pirate heroes attack the Turks, putting them to flight, taking them by surprise.

Victory and defeat

Conrad tears off the dervish's robes and reveals himself as a demon of evil. This pirate fights heroically, the pasha himself retreats before him, forgetting about the harem. Conrad forbids offending women, saying that pirates are born to die and kill, but the gentle sex must always be spared. He himself takes away Gulnar, the decoration of the harem. Seid Pasha sees how few pirates there are. He becomes ashamed that such a detachment managed to defeat him, and he orders an attack. There are many more Muslims, and therefore almost the entire detachment of pirates is soon killed, only a few manage to escape. Conrad is captured.

Lyubov Gulnar

This pirate hid Gulnar in a safe place. She thinks that this robber in blood seems more tender to her than Seid in love. The girl understands that the latter was only saving himself, and Conrad primarily cared about women. Seid Pasha decides to execute this pirate with a painful execution. He thinks of impaling him and imprisoning him until the morning. Conrad is alone and defeated, but his will managed to breathe courage into his chest. The prisoner, shackled, behaves with dignity.

Byron (“Corsair”) continues to talk about further events. Their summary is as follows. Gulnar sneaks up to Konrad at night. The girl thanks the pirate for saving her. Unable to respond in kind, she promises to influence Seid Pasha with the help of her feminine charms, thereby delaying the execution for at least a day. Conrad tells Gulnar about Medora, their mutual love, says that he is not afraid of death, but does not want to cause grief to his beloved. He asks the girl if she loves her master. She says that she is indifferent to him.

Third canto

George Gordon Byron admires the sunset over the islands of Greece. His heart was given forever to Athens.

"Corsair" continues as follows. Miraculously, the surviving pirates come to Medora and tell her that Conrad was captured. She accepts the blow of fate with restraint, without screams or tears. Having learned the details, Medora loses consciousness. The pirate's friends take care of her, and then tell Anselmo, who remained in Conrad's place, about what happened. He wants to go to rescue the pirate from captivity, and if he has already died, then to avenge his death.

Gulnar wants to soften the pasha, convince him that he will only benefit if he does not execute this pirate. After all, he will find out where the untold riches are and will be able to take possession of them. But the pasha is adamant. He is not interested in treasures. Pasha agrees to postpone the execution for a day, but only in order to have more time and come up with a new execution, even more sophisticated. He humiliates Gulnar, suspecting that she stands up for Conrad for a reason, and reminds her that her life is in his power.

Assassination of Seyid Pasha

Gulnar realizes that she is only a thing in the hands of Seyid Pasha. At midnight, the girl comes to the Corsair, bribing the guard, persuades the pirate to kill the master (brings a knife for this) and escape together. Conrad again refuses: the sword is his weapon, not a knife, and he does not want to attack from around the corner at night. The pirate understands that he deserves to be executed because he has sinned a lot. He calls on the girl to leave him, to be happy, and not to darken her life with murder. Gulnar says that her well-being with the pasha is illusory - at any moment he can get tired of her. The girl decides to kill Seid, and if she cannot do this, then die on the scaffold along with Conrad. Gulnar leaves.

Conrad discovers that the door to his dungeon is unlocked. He walks through the palace at night, picking up the shackles, and sees Gulnar. She turns around, and the pirate notices the mark of murder on her forehead. It seems to him that beauty has gone with him. Gulnar reports that she has gathered people and that a ship is waiting for him. She takes him to the shore through a secret passage. While swimming, Gulnar notices that his icy, empty gaze is like a sentence. She cries, but Conrad does not blame her, but rather reproaches himself, which Byron notes (“The Corsair”). The author conducts a rather in-depth analysis of the characters’ internal motives. The ship of Anselmo and his comrades, who were going to free him, is moving towards them. Everyone happily heads back. Gulnar did not say that it was she who saved Conrad. Conrad knows that Heaven will punish her, but he takes pity on the girl. He hugs and kisses her, knowing that Medora would forgive this kiss.

Death of Medora

A ship is approaching the island. Conrad does not see the light in Medora's window. He goes up to her and sees that the girl is dead. The pirate understands that this is punishment for sins. Medora will go to heaven, but the road there is closed to Conrad, and they will never see each other again. He's sobbing.

Anselmo enters the girl's room in the morning. But the leader disappeared. No one knows since then whether he is alive or not. The glory of this pirate lives on for centuries, just like the glory that George Gordon Byron earned for his work.

Conrad, the hero of the poem “The Corsair,” belongs to the gallery of “Byronic heroes.” Conrad is a sea robber, and this defines him as an exile and renegade. His way of life is a direct challenge not only to the prevailing norms of morality, but also to the system of prevailing state laws, the violation of which turns Conrad into a “professional” criminal. The key to understanding the image of Conrad in the poem is the image of the sea, which appears in a kind of prologue - the song of the pirates. Conrad’s soul is also reminiscent of the sea – the “free element” – stormy, indomitable, free, concealing within itself both good and evil, generosity and cruelty. Conrad's passions are unbridled, he is equally capable of cruelty and heroic self-sacrifice (during the fire of the seraglio belonging to his enemy, Pasha Seid, Conrad saves the pasha's wives). The duality of his appearance is emphasized by the images of two women in love with him, each of whom, as it were, represents one of the hypostases of his personality. Tender and meek Medora is the only real thing

Conrad's love, personifies his craving for goodness and purity. The ardent, proud Gulnar is the second rebellious “I” of Byron’s hero. Following him, she commits a crime: her love for Conrad pushes her to kill her husband. Conrad's tragedy lies precisely in the fact that his passions bring death to everyone associated with him: Medora also dies because of concern for his life. Conrad tries to justify his criminal acts by the fact that he is criminal to the same extent “as everyone else around him.” And yet his way of life, as if imposed on him by a hostile world, weighs on him, since he was not destined by fate for “dark deeds”:

He was created for good, but evil attracted him to himself, distorting him.

Everyone mocked and everyone betrayed:

Like the feeling of fallen dew Under the arch of a grotto; and like this grotto,

It turned to stone at the time

Having gone through my earthly bondage...

In the past, Conrad was pure-hearted, open and loving. The author explains that Conrad took the criminal path as a result of persecution from a soulless and evil society, capable of corrupting the purest soul. The author simultaneously blames society for Conrad's tragedy and poetizes his actions as the actions of a person free from society.

Glossary:

- characterization of Conrad from the poem Corsair

- the image of Conrad in the poem Corsair

– byron corsair analysis

– characteristics of the Corsair

– Conrad characterization

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3. CHILDE HAROLD The image of Childe Harold is a representative of the vast literary type, defined by the term “Byronic hero”. Comparing Childe Harold with other characters in Byron's works: the Giaour, the Corsair, Cain,...

Main objectives of the lesson:

"MK - BYRON George Noel Gordon"

BYRON George Noel Gordon

He was, O sea, your singer,

How you can't be tamed by anything.

A.S. Pushkin

pessimistic;

rejecting society, disappointed in people;

freedom-loving;

a rebel protesting against poverty, slavery of peoples, against the tyranny of governments;

experiencing volcanic emotions;

contradictory;

"mysterious and forever lonely."

accusatory;

historical;

Gospel;

space;

"eastern"

“On Napoleon’s flight from the island of Elba”, “Napoleon’s Farewell”;

“Stanzas to Augusta”, “Sorry”;

"Manfred", "Cain", "Earth and Heaven";

“The Giaour”, “The Bride of Abydos”, “Corsair”, “Lara”

Poem "Corsair"

None of Lord Byron's works

did not make such a strong impression in England,

like his poem “Corsair”...

A.S. Pushkin

What character traits can be seen in Byron's hero?

Conclusion.

Created in 1813–14 The triptych of “oriental” poems cemented the idea of ​​the Byronic hero as a true exponent of the social psychology of his age. “Tosca’s caustic force” encourages this character to rebellion, attempts to radically change his own spiritual essence, but the feeling of his uselessness on earth remains unresolved. Byron's poems, constructed as a lyrical confession of a character combining the features extraordinary personality and type, testifying to the beliefs and diseases of the era, became a literary event. Similarities, and often disputes with these poems, are recognized in the works of many of Byron’s contemporaries (in “The Gypsies” by A. S. Pushkin, in “A Hero of Our Time” by M. Yu. Lermontov).

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"MK - Romanticism in Byron's poem"

Romanticism. Romantic hero in Western European literature

George Gordon Lord Byron(1788–1824) was the “ruler of thoughts” in the first quarter of the 19th century, the living personification of romanticism. He, like no one else, embodied the romantic ideal of the complete merging of biography and creativity, when the artist lives by the same laws by which his heroes live, and the events of his life immediately turn into the material of his works. The "Byronic Legend" is still alive today, and it is important to separate myth from fact.

Byron was born into an aristocratic family, at the age of ten inherited the title of lord and family estate in the north of England, and was educated at privileged educational institutions - at Harrow School and the University of Cambridge. He was preparing for a career as a statesman and for a long time did not regard poetry as the main work of his life. Despite belonging to the ruling elite, he was a rebel by nature, and his whole life was a challenge to the conventions accepted in society. He considered English society inert and hypocritical, did not want to make any concessions to public opinion, and after a short period of fame in his homeland (1812–1816), he left England forever, settling in Italy. His life ended in Greece, where he took part in the national liberation struggle of the Greeks against the Turks.

Byron's poetic heritage is great and varied. Recognition came to him with the publication of the poem "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" (1812), where he created the first romantic hero in English literature and created the genre of romantic lyric-epic poem. Its forms were developed in the cycle of “Eastern Poems” (1813–1816), where romanticism reaches classical forms. With the move to Italy, his work is enriched in terms of genre (the drama “Manfred”, the mystery “Cain”, the poems “Beppo”, “Mazeppa”). Main work recent years Byron's life remained unfinished - this is the novel in verse "Don Juan".

An example of Byron's romanticism is the poem "The Corsair" (1814) from the cycle "Oriental Poems". In all six poems of the cycle, Byron draws on impressions of his southern journey, which he undertook through the Mediterranean countries in 1809–1811. For the first time, he presented pictures of southern nature to the reader in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, and this was one of the components of the success of this poem; the public expected new exotic landscapes from the young poet, and in “The Corsair” Byron develops the Orientalist motifs so characteristic of romanticism in general. The East in romantic art is contrasted European civilization as a world of free, natural passions playing out against the backdrop of beautiful, fertile nature. But for Byron, the East is more than a conventional romantic background: the action in “The Corsair” takes place on the islands of the Greek archipelago and in coastal Greece, which is under the rule of the Turks (Seyid Pasha in the poem), and the routes of the pirate raids of the protagonist Conrad are topographically accurate, maybe be traced on the map, and in the descriptions of Greece at the beginning of the third song of the poem, Byron directly relies on his own impressions four years ago. Thus, for romantic landscape the poems reveal pictures of nature and morals taken from life; Byron often gave an accurate reproduction of the historical and ethnographic environment in his poems.

At the heart of "The Corsair", as in all other "Eastern poems", is the conflict of the hero with the world; The plot is reduced to one dramatic situation - the struggle for love.

The hero of "Corsair" is the leader of the pirates Conrad, his beloved is the meek Medora. The action in the poem begins with the receipt of some news on the pirate island, which forces Conrad to say goodbye to Medora and give the order to urgently raise the sails. Where the pirates are going and what Conrad's plan is becomes clear from the second song of the poem. The leader of the pirates decides to forestall the blow of his longtime enemy Seid Pasha and, in the guise of a dervish pilgrim, makes his way to a feast in the Pasha's palace. He must strike the enemy in his house, while his pirates set fire to Seid Pasha's fleet on the eve of going to sea, but the fire in the bay begins earlier than agreed, a hot battle breaks out, in which Conrad rescues Seid's beloved wife from the burning seraglio. Pasha, Gulnar. But military fortune is fickle, and now the pirates are fleeing, and Conrad is captured and thrown into prison. In the third song of the poem, Seyid Pasha delays the execution of Conrad, inventing the most painful death for him. Meanwhile, Gulnar, grateful to Conrad and falling in love with him, offers to arrange his escape. At first, Conrad rejects her proposal: he does not want to owe his freedom to a woman whose love he cannot respond to, because he loves only Medora. But when Gulnar sneaks into his dungeon again, he sees a bloody stain on her forehead - she herself killed Seyid Pasha, and together they board a ship heading to the pirate island. Upon his return, Conrad learns of Medora's death. The beloved could not bear the news of his captivity, and, having lost the meaning of life with her, Conrad disappears:

Everything is in vain - day after day rolls by,

Conrad is gone, and there is no news of him,

And there is no trace of his fate anywhere:

Did he die or disappeared forever?

The pirates cried for him alone...

They built a stone for Medora.

The monument to Conrad was not erected:

Who knows, maybe he didn't die -

Corsair, whose name resurrects again

Darkness of crimes and one love.

As in all "Eastern Poems", Conrad is a lone rebel, professing extreme individualism. Byron does not show his past, the poem only says that his innate virtues were so high that the world was jealous of him and slandered him:

Was pure until he started his

There are battles with people and the Almighty;

He was wise, but the world considered him stupid

And he spoiled it with his training;

I was too proud to drag out my life, humbled,

And too strong to fall into the mud before the strong.

Inspiring fear, slandered from a young age,

I became a friend of Malice, but not of Humility,

The call of wrath was considered the call of the Divine

To take revenge on the majority for the machinations of the minority.

Conrad is a strong, courageous nature, he rules the pirates with an iron fist, everyone respects and fears him for his unparalleled courage and success in business:

Around, on all the seas,

The name alone sows fear in souls;

He is stingy in speech - he only knows the order,

The hand is strong, the eye is sharp and keen;

He doesn't give their feasts any fun,

But beyond reproaches, happiness is a favorite.

Conrad's first appearance in the poem is typical of a romantic hero. He stands on the top of a cliff, leaning on his sword, looking at the waves, and his very position in space at this moment - he is higher than the others, pirates are rising up to him with a report - this spatial solution the scene emphasizes the exclusivity of the hero. The same idea of ​​exclusivity is carried out in the portrait of Conrad (ninth stanza of the first canto). This is a detailed portrait based on a combination of opposites, where each external feature becomes an expression of the character properties of the hero. Byron creates such a vivid portrait of a romantic hero that some of his features will forever become part of the characteristic appearance of a romantic literary character:

Tanned cheek, white forehead,

A wave of curls is like a crow's wing;

The curl of the lip involuntarily reveals

Arrogant thoughts are a secret passage;

There is something in him that he would like to hide.

Faces seeing sharp features,

You will be both captivated and confused.

As if in it, in the soul, where the darkness froze,

The work of terrible, vague forces is in full swing.

Contempt for people, cruelty, and the habit of violence did not completely dry out Conrad’s soul. For the first time in the history of world literature, when creating his romantic hero, Byron justifies in him actions and feelings that are far from the Christian ideal, and a substitution of moral values ​​occurs - the author endows the criminal Conrad, who without hesitation sheds human blood, with irresistible charm. The only feeling connecting the hero with humanity, the last living string in his soul, which he therefore values ​​so much, is love.

In love, the character of the romantic hero is most fully revealed; love in romanticism is an uncompromising passion, the highest value of life, therefore the romantic hero fights for love against any hostile forces. The plot in all “Eastern Poems” is based on that episode in the hero’s life where he enters into the last, fatal battle for love. Only death separates the hero of "Eastern Poems" from his beloved, like Conrad and Medora. Both female images of the poem - the meek Medora, who is all devotion and adoration, and the ardent Gulnar, capable of committing a crime for the sake of love - are contrasted with each other.

As in other Byronian poems, the main way to create the character of the hero is through action. Conrad is an active nature, his ideal is anarchic personal freedom, and the plot of the poem is characterized by increased drama. The reader is presented with a series of motley, spectacular scenes, contrasted with each other on the principle of contrast: the pirates’ song glorifying the sea space and freedom opens the poem; the opposite is the sad song of the lonely Medora; the picture of a feast in the luxurious palace of Seyid Pasha is replaced by a picture of a bloody battle; the despondency of Conrad in prison during a night visit to Gulnar and the cheerful freshness of the sea during their flight. The poem amazes with its richness of moods and colors.

The words of V.G. are quite applicable to Conrad and other heroes of “Eastern Poems”. Belinsky, what he said about the poet himself: “This is a human personality, indignant against the common and, in its proud rebellion, relying on itself.” A.S. also speaks about the same extreme individualism of Byron’s heroes. Pushkin:

Lord Byron by a lucky whim

Cloaked in sad romanticism

And hopeless selfishness...

And although" Prisoner of the Caucasus“Pushkin contains many elements directly borrowed from Byron; Pushkin does not exalt, but condemns the individualism of the romantic hero.

Thus, “The Corsair” is a lyric-epic poem in which the lyrical principle in the depiction of the central character and the epic, narrative principle are fused together, which manifests itself in the richness and variety of action. Conrad is a hero who represents the purest example of a romantic worldview in all of Byron's work, and the poetics of "The Corsair" is the most characteristic example of the construction of a romantic poem. The plot is based on the culminating episode from the hero’s life, which decides his fate; neither his past nor further development his life is not described, and in this sense the poem is fragmentary. In addition, the plot is built as a chain of bright paintings-fragments, the cause-and-effect relationships between which are not always clearly stated in the poem, and fragmentation becomes the structure-forming principle of a romantic poem. The hero is taken at the moment of the highest tension of vital forces, in circumstances that are exceptional even for his life as a robber. At such moments, a person’s character is revealed to the end, and the demonic, gloomy, majestic character of Conrad is created in the poem with the help of various artistic means: a portrait, the author’s characteristics, the attitude of the women who love him towards him, but mainly through a description of his actions. One of the leitmotif images of the poem is the image of the sea, so characteristic of all of Byron’s poetry; The free sea element becomes a symbol of freedom for him. The pirate song that opens the poem contains these words:

Amidst the jubilation of dark blue waters

Boundless thought, free flight of souls

Above the foamy, endless wave -

This is our kingdom, this is our home!

The lyrical element that permeates the poem is most clearly revealed in the end-to-end image of the sea.

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“RM - Summary of the poem”

J. Byron Corsair 1813

Reading time: ~8 min.

IN original- 30−40 min.

Full of picturesque contrasts, the coloring of “Gyaur” is distinguished by next piece Byron's "eastern" cycle - a more extensive poem "The Corsair", written in heroic couplets. In a short prose introduction to the poem, dedicated to the author’s fellow writer and like-minded person Thomas Moore, the author warns against what he considers a characteristic vice modern criticism- the unlawful identification of the main characters - be it Giaour or anyone else - with the creator of the works, which has haunted him since the time of Childe Harold. At the same time, the epigraph to the new poem - a line from Tasso's "Jerusalem Liberated" - emphasizes the internal duality of the hero as the most important emotional leitmotif of the narrative.

The action of “Corsair” takes place in the south of the Peloponnesian Peninsula, in the port of Koroni and the Pirate Island, lost in the vastness of the Mediterranean. The time of action is not precisely indicated, but it is easy to conclude that the reader is facing the same era of the enslavement of Greece by the Ottoman Empire, which entered a phase of crisis. The figurative speech means characterizing the characters and what is happening are close to those familiar from “Gyaur”, however, the new poem is more compact in composition, its plot is more detailed (especially with regard to the adventurous “background”), and the development of events and their sequence - more orderly.

The first song opens with a passionate speech, depicting the romance of the pirate lot, filled with risk and anxiety. Bonded by a sense of military camaraderie, the filibusters idolize their fearless chieftain, Conrad. And now the fast brig is terrifying the entire area pirate flag brought encouraging news: the Greek gunner reported that in the coming days a raid on the city and the palace of the Turkish governor Seid could be carried out. Accustomed to the oddities of the commander’s character, the pirates become timid when they find him immersed in deep thought. Several stanzas follow with a detailed description of Conrad (“Mysterious and forever alone, / It seemed that he could not smile”), inspiring admiration for heroism and fear - the unpredictable impulsiveness of someone who had withdrawn into himself, who had lost faith in illusions (“He is among people the most difficult of schools - / The Path disappointment - passed") - in a word, carrying in itself most typical features a romantic rebel-individualist, whose heart is warmed by one indomitable passion - love for Medora.

Conrad's beloved reciprocates his feelings; and one of the most heartfelt pages in the poem is Medora’s love song and the scene of the heroes’ farewell before the campaign. Left alone, she finds no place for herself, as always worried about his life, and he on the deck of the brig gives out instructions to the crew, fully prepared to carry out a daring attack - and win.

The second song takes us to the banquet hall in Seid's palace. The Turks, for their part, have long been planning to finally clear the sea surroundings of pirates and are dividing up the rich booty in advance. The pasha's attention is attracted by a mysterious dervish in rags, who appears from nowhere at the feast. He says that he was captured by infidels and managed to escape from his captors, but he flatly refuses to taste the luxurious dishes, citing the vow made to the prophet. Suspecting him as a spy, Seid orders to seize him, and then the stranger instantly transforms: under the humble guise of a wanderer was hiding a warrior in armor and with a sword that strikes on the spot. The hall and the approaches to it are instantly filled with Conrad’s comrades; a furious battle begins: “The palace is on fire, the minaret is burning.”

Having crushed the resistance of the Turks, the merciless pirate, however, shows genuine chivalry when the flames that engulfed the palace spread to the female half. He forbids his brothers in arms to resort to violence against the Pasha’s slaves and he himself carries the most beautiful of them, the black-eyed Gulnar, out of the fire in his arms. Meanwhile, Seid, who escaped from the pirate blade in the confusion of the battle, organizes his numerous Guards in a counterattack, and Konrad has to entrust Gulnar and her friends in misfortune to the care of a simple Turkish house, and he himself has to enter into an unequal confrontation. Around him, one after another, his slain comrades fall; He, having cut down countless enemies, is captured barely alive.

Having decided to subject Conrad to torture and a terrible execution, the bloodthirsty Seid orders him to be placed in a cramped dungeon. The hero is not afraid of future trials; in the face of death, only one thought worries him: “How will Medora meet the news, the evil news?” He falls asleep on a stone bed, and when he wakes up, he discovers the black-eyed Gulnar secretly sneaking into the prison in his prison, completely captivated by his courage and nobility. Promising to persuade the pasha to delay the impending execution, she offers to help the corsair escape. He hesitates: running cowardly from the enemy is not in his habits. But Medora... After listening to his passionate confession, Gulnar sighs: “Alas! Love is only given to the free!”

The third song opens with the author's poetic declaration of love for Greece (“Beautiful city of Athens! Whoever saw the sunset / Your wondrous one will come back...”), followed by a picture of the Pirate Island, where Medora is waiting in vain for Conrad. A boat with the remnants of his detachment approaches the shore, bringing terrible news: their leader is wounded and captured, the filibusters unanimously decide to rescue Conrad from captivity at any cost.

Meanwhile, Gulnar’s persuasion to delay the painful execution of “Gyaur” has an unexpected effect on Seid: he suspects that his beloved slave is not indifferent to the captive and is plotting treason. Showering the girl with threats, he kicks her out of her chambers.

Three days later, Gulnar once again enters the dungeon where Conrad is languishing. Insulted by the tyrant, she offers the prisoner freedom and revenge: he must stab the pasha in the silence of the night. The pirate recoils; follows the woman’s excited confession: “Don’t call revenge on a despot a crime! / Your despicable enemy must fall in blood! / Did you flinch? Yes, I want to become different: / Pushed away, insulted - I take revenge! / I am undeservedly accused: / Although I was a slave, I was faithful!”

“A sword - but not a secret knife!” - this is Conrad's counter-argument. Gulnar disappears to appear at dawn: she herself took revenge on the tyrant and bribed the guards; a boat and a boatman are waiting for them at the coast to take them to the treasured island.

The hero is confused: there is an irreconcilable conflict in his soul. By the will of circumstances, he owes his life to a woman in love with him, and he himself still loves Medora. Gulnar is also depressed: in Conrad’s silence she reads condemnation of the atrocity she has committed. Only a fleeting hug and a friendly kiss from the prisoner she saved brings her to her senses.

On the island, the pirates joyfully welcome their leader who has returned to them. But the price set by providence for the hero’s miraculous deliverance is incredible: in the castle tower only one window does not light up - Medora’s window. Tormented by a terrible premonition, he climbs the stairs... Medora is dead.

Conrad's grief is inescapable. In solitude, he mourns his girlfriend, and then disappears without a trace: “[...] A series of days pass, / There is no Conrad, he disappeared forever, / And not a single hint announced, / Where he suffered, where he buried the flour! / He was mourned only by his gang; / His girlfriend was received by the mausoleum... / He will live in the traditions of families / With one love, with a thousand atrocities.” The ending of “The Corsair,” like “The Giaour,” leaves the reader alone with the feeling of an incompletely solved mystery surrounding the entire existence of the protagonist.

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“Grade 8 Lesson No. 39”

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"RM - Brainstorming"

Brainstorming (work in groups)

Define Byronism using the cue card.

Leading language

1) Byronism is a type of behavior (worldview; philosophy of life; way of life; character traits).

2) Characteristic signs(select the most important): protest against the existing world order; arrogant and contemptuous attitude towards others; uncompromising behavior; sublimity of ideals; ability for heroic deeds; refinement of nature; pessimism; skepticism; depth of feelings; selfishness; tragic disappointment; alienation.

Brainstorming (work in groups)

Define Byronism using the cue card.

Leading language

1) Byronism is a type of behavior (worldview; philosophy of life; way of life; character traits).

2) Characteristic features (select the most important): protest against the existing world order; arrogant and contemptuous attitude towards others; uncompromising behavior; sublimity of ideals; ability for heroic deeds; refinement of nature; pessimism; skepticism; depth of feelings; selfishness; tragic disappointment; alienation.

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“RM - Working with statements”

WORKING WITH TEXTS OF STATEMENTS

What is the theme of these statements?

Is it possible to give a definite answer from these statements about Byron's reputation as a GENIUS or a VILLAIN?

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"RM -Analytical reading"

Analytical reading. Poem "Corsair"

None of Lord Byron's works were made in England

such a strong impression as his poem “The Corsair”...

A.S. Pushkin

Questions and tasks for group work:

What is unique about the main character of Byron's poem?

Discussion card

What character traits can be seen in Byron's hero? Can he be considered a Byronic hero?

What could be the further fate of the Corsair? Give reasons for your assumptions.

Analytical reading. Poem "Corsair"

None of Lord Byron's works were made in England

such a strong impression as his poem “The Corsair”...

A.S. Pushkin

Questions and tasks for group work:

What is unique about the main character of Byron's poem?

Discussion card

What character traits can be seen in Byron's hero? Can he be considered a Byronic hero?

What could be the further fate of the Corsair? Give reasons for your assumptions.

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"George Gordon Byron"

George Gordon Byron

• Presentation on literature
• 9th grade

• Prepared by Pikaleva Irina Germanovna
• Teacher of Russian language and literature
• MBOU "Secondary school No. 143 with in-depth study of individual subjects"
• Republic of Tatarstan, Kazan

• 2012

George Gordon Byron

“Byron is a genius: the ruler of our thoughts, the sound of a wonderful new lyre...”

A. S. Pushkin

Scotland

Trinity College

Newstead estate

Spain

• In 1806, Byron published a collection of poems, Poems for Various Occasions, concealing his authorship. In 1807, the second collection, “Leisure Hours,” was published; with its publication, Byron no longer hid his name. The reaction to this collection varied: from rave reviews to furious criticism.

Portugal

Greece

island Malta

• In 1809, Byron went on a trip to Spain, Portugal, Greece, and the island of Malta; the poet visited Asia Minor and Turkey. During his travels, Byron begins work on the poem "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage."

Türkiye

Small Asia

Upon returning to England, Byron led an active political life and was fruitfully engaged in literature. In 1813 he published the poems "The Giaour" and "The Bride of Abydos", in 1814 the poems "Lara" and "Corsair" were published, in 1816 Byron published "The Siege of Corinth" and "Parisina".

England

Switzerland

• In 1816, Byron left England again and first stopped in Switzerland, where he completed work on the poem “The Prisoner of Chillon.” Two years later, Byron moved to Italy, wrote the poem "Tasso's Complaint", and began work on the novel in verse "Don Juan".

Italy

carbonari

• In Italy, Byron became an active participant in the organization of the Carbonari, who fought for the liberation of Italy from Austria-Hungary, and in 1823 he went to Greece, taking part in the liberation struggle of the Greeks from Turkish rule.
• Byron's poems such as " Last words about Greece", "Song to the Souliots", "From a diary in Cephalonia".

liberation

fight Greeks

Siege of Missolonghi

• Byron becomes the head of a partisan detachment. In December 1823, during the siege, the poet fell ill with a fever.
• On April 19, 1824, Byron died. Byron's lungs were buried in Greece (at the request of his Greek comrades), and his body was taken to England.

The significance of D.G.’s creativity Byron

The name of Byron, a poet, in the words of Pushkin, “mourned by freedom,” is always close and dear to those for whom the high and wonderful feelings people, their noble struggle against arbitrariness and tyranny.

Byron's work was innovative, it contained ideas that excited both his contemporaries and subsequent generations. Unsaid, misunderstood by Byron

was proved or gave birth to new ones

controversy, but his work was always disturbing

minds, awakened imagination. And the poet, as it were

anticipating this, he said:

• ...I didn’t live in vain!

Byronic hero

The poem revealed the first example

Byronic hero. The idea of ​​Byronic

the hero carries many of the following

various characteristics:

The hero must have a high level of intelligence and perception, and also be able to easily adapt to new situations and use cunning for his own benefit. Thus, Childe Harold is well-educated, well-mannered and intelligent, and also endowed with visual attractiveness, style and tact. Besides the obvious charm this automatically creates, he struggles with his honest integrity, being prone to mood swings or bipolar tendencies .

In general, the hero is characterized by irreverence

to any

authorities - thus

is being created

image of Byronic

hero as an exile or outcast.

The hero also has a tendency to be

arrogant and cynical,

indulging in self-destructive behavior that is combined with the need to seduce women.

The mystery of the hero is certainly an enhancing factor of his sexual

attractiveness, however

even more provocative

his frequent clashes with those

or other problems.

• http://www.philology.ru/literature3/usmanov-81.htm
• http://aphorism-list.com/biography.php?page=bayron
• http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9F%D0%B0%D0%BB%D0%BE%D0%BC%D0%BD%D0%B8%D1%87%D0%B5%D1 %81%D1%82%D0%B2%D0%BE_%D0%A7%D0%B0%D0%B9%D0%BB%D1%8C%D0%B4-%D0%93%D0%B0%D1% 80%D0%BE%D0%BB%D1%8C%D0%B4%D0%B0
• Childe+Harold& hl=ru&newwindow=1&sa=X&biw=1204&bih=805&tbm=isch&prmd=imvns&tbnid=rhzCdg
• http://wap.fictionbook.ru/author/viktor_nikolaevich_eremin/100_velikih_literaturniyh_geroev/read_online.html?page=9
• http://www.google.ru/imgres?q= Childe+Harold& hl=ru&newwindow=1&sa=X&biw=1204&bih=805&tbm=isch&prmd=imvns&tbnid=KiInM_PIi
• http://www.rudata.ru/wiki/%D0%91%D0%B0%D0%B9%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%BD,_%D0%94%D0%B6%D0%BE %D1%80%D0%B4%D0%B6_%D0%9D%D0%BE%D1%8D%D0%BB%D1%8C_%D0%93%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%B4%D0 %BE%D0%BD
• http://fotki.yandex.ru/users/arminas-k/view/168430/?page=2
• http://cynicat.diary.ru/p170398678.htm?oam
• http://skygid.ru/shotlandiya/
• http://www.stragtur.com/country.php?id=9
• http://www.intergid.ru/country/16/

“Corsair” - sea robber Conrad, an outcast and renegade. The guiding thread to the main idea of ​​the poem is given by symbolic image the sea in the song of the pirates, which precedes the narrative in the form of a kind of prologue. This appeal to the sea is one of the constant lyrical motifs of Byron’s work. A. S. Pushkin, who called Byron “the singer of the sea,” likens the English poet to this “free element”:

Make noise, get excited by bad weather:
He was, O sea, your singer!
Your image was marked on it,
He was created by your spirit:
How powerful, deep and gloomy you are,
Like you, indomitable by nothing.
"To sea"

The entire content of the poem is nothing more than the development and justification of its metaphorical opening. The soul of Conrad, a pirate sailing the sea, is also the sea. Stormy, indomitable, free, resisting any attempts to enslave, it does not fit into any reasonable formulas. Good and evil, generosity and cruelty, rebellious impulses and longing for harmony exist in her in indissoluble unity. A man of powerful unbridled passions, Conrad is equally capable of murder and heroic self-sacrifice (during the fire of the seraglio belonging to his enemy, Pasha Seid, he saves the latter’s wives).

Byron. The last lifetime portrait (1824). Artist T. Phillips

The duality of his appearance is shaded by the images of two women in love with him; each of which seems to represent one of the hypostases of his personality. If the gentle, meek Medora, the object of the Corsair’s only true love, personifies his craving for goodness and purity, then the ardent, proud Gulnar is the second, rebellious “I” of the Byronic hero. Following him, she follows the path of crime: love for Conrad pushes her to kill her husband.

Conrad's tragedy is that his fatal passions bring death not only to him, but to everyone associated with him. (The sinless, immaculate Medora also dies because of her gloomy lover: she is killed by anxiety for his life.) Marked by the seal of an ominous fate, Conrad sows death and destruction around himself. Conrad tries to find an excuse for himself: “Yes, I’m a criminal, like everyone else around me. About whom will I say otherwise, about whom?” The lifestyle imposed by a hostile world weighs heavily on him. After all, this freedom-loving rebel-individualist is by no means intended by nature for “dark deeds”:

He was created for good, but evil
It attracted him to himself, distorting him.
Everyone mocked and everyone betrayed;
Like the feeling of fallen dew
Under the arch of the grotto; and like this grotto,
It petrified in its turn,
Having gone through my earthly bondage...
Per. Yu. Petrova

Like other heroes of “oriental poems,” Conrad in the distant past was pure, trusting and loving. Slightly lifting the veil of mystery that shrouds the backstory of his hero, the poet reveals that the gloomy lot he has chosen is the result of persecution by a soulless and evil society. In Byron's worldview there still remains something of the Rousseauian belief that “everything comes out pure from the hands of the creator, everything spoils in the hands of man.” Blaming the Corsair's cruelty on a corrupt and insignificant society, Byron poeticizes his personality. Like a true romantic, the author of “The Corsair” was in a confused consciousness, in chaotic impulses human heart finds a special “demonic” beauty. Its source, like that of Milton's Satan, is a proud thirst for freedom.

A. Mitskevich together with some other critics of Byron, he saw in The Corsair a certain resemblance to Napoleon. Individualistic pride, glorified by the author of the “Eastern poems,” was a characteristic feature of the consciousness of that era. This is precisely what explains the significant influence that Byron’s “oriental poems” had on contemporary and subsequent literature.

"The Giaour", "Corsair", "Manfred", "Cain" by J. Byron. The evolution of the romantic rebel hero. Features of romantic imagery. Creativity D.G. Byron reflected the complex and turning point era in the history of Europe that came after the French Revolution. As a son of his age, Byron as a person absorbed the contradictory aspirations of the post-revolutionary era, characterized by unstable social relations. Much in the poet’s personality is explained not so much by the natural innate qualities inherited from his aristocratic ancestors, but by his high position English peer, as much as social cataclysms, not the perfection of bourgeois relations being established throughout Europe.

Poems "Gyaur", 1813; “The Corsair”, 1814 – the cycle “Oriental Poems”, as well as “Manfred” and “Cain” are united by the presence in them of a rebel-individualist who rejects all the legal orders of a proprietary society. This is a typical romantic hero, he is characterized by the exclusivity of his personal destiny, strong passions, unbending will, tragic love. Individualistic and anarchic freedom is his ideal. These heroes are best characterized by the words Belinsky said about Byron himself: “This is a human personality, indignant against the general and, in his proud rebellion, leaning on himself.” The praise of individualistic rebellion was an expression of Byron's spiritual drama, the reason for which should be sought in the very era that gave rise to the cult of individualism.

“The Corsair” is Byron’s lyric-epic poem, which fuses together the lyrical principle in the depiction of the central character and the epic, narrative principle, which manifests itself in the richness and variety of action. Conrad is a hero who represents the purest example of a romantic worldview in all of Byron’s work, and the poetics of “The Corsair” is the most characteristic example of the construction of a romantic poem. The plot is based on the culminating episode from the hero’s life, which decides his fate; neither his past nor the further development of his life are described, and in this sense the poem is fragmentary. In addition, the plot is built as a chain of bright paintings-fragments, the cause-and-effect relationships between which are not always clearly stated in the poem, and fragmentation becomes the structure-forming principle of a romantic poem. The hero is taken at the moment of the highest tension of vital forces, in circumstances that are exceptional even for his life as a robber. At such moments, a person’s character is revealed to the end, and Conrad’s demonic, gloomy, majestic character is created in the poem using a variety of artistic means: a portrait, author’s characteristics, the attitude of the women who love him towards him, but mainly through the description of his actions. One of the leitmotif images of the poem is the image of the sea, so characteristic of all of Byron’s poetry; The free sea element becomes a symbol of freedom for him. The plot of the poem “The Giaur” (1813) boils down to the following: The Giaur confesses to a monk on his deathbed. His incoherent story is the ravings of a dying man, some scraps of phrases. It is only with great difficulty that one can grasp the train of his thoughts. Gyaur passionately loved Leila, she reciprocated his feelings and the lovers were happy. But Leila’s jealous and treacherous husband Hassan tracked her down and villainously killed her. The giaur took revenge on the tyrant and executioner of Leila. The giaur is tormented by the thought that his “rich feelings” have been wasted. His monologue sounds like an accusation against society, which humiliated him and made him an unfortunate renegade. The hero of the poem "Corsair" is the leader of the pirates - fearless people who reject the despotic laws of the society in which they are forced to live and to which they prefer a free life for desert island. The corsair, their brave leader, is as much a rebel as the Giaur. On the island of pirates, everyone obeys him and fears him. He is harsh and domineering. Enemies tremble at the mere mention of his name. But he is lonely, he has no friends, a fatal secret hangs over him, no one knows anything about his past. Only from two or three hints thrown in passing, one can conclude that Conrad in his youth, like other heroes of “oriental poems,” passionately “longed to do good”:

He was created for good, but evil

It was drawn towards itself, distorting it... (Translated by Yu. Petrov)

As in the fate of Gyaur, love plays a fatal role in Conrad’s life. Having fallen in love with Medora, he forever remains faithful to her alone. With the death of Medora, the meaning of life for Conrad is lost, he mysteriously disappears. The hero of “The Corsair” is always immersed in his inner world, he admires his suffering, his pride and jealously guards his loneliness. This reflects the individualism of the hero, as if standing above other people whom he despises for their insignificance and weakness of spirit. Thus, he is unable to appreciate the sacrificial love of the beautiful Gulnara, who saved him from prison at the risk of his life. The image of Gulnara is also shrouded in gloomy romance.

Having learned true love, she can no longer put up with the hateful life of a concubine and slave Seid; her rebellion is active; she kills her tyrant Seid and forever abandons her homeland, where she can no longer return. The poem "Corsair" is a masterpiece English poetry. The passionate power of a romantic dream is combined with comparative simplicity artistic development of the theme; the heroic energy of the verse in “The Corsair” is combined with its subtlest musicality; the poetry of the landscapes - with depth in depicting the psychology of the hero. In these poems, Byron continued to develop the genre of romantic poem. Having used English rhymed pentameter for most of his poems, Byron imbued it with new stylistic techniques that allowed him to achieve the greatest expressiveness for depicting action, the hero’s moods, descriptions of nature, and shades of people’s emotional experiences. He freely addresses the reader with questions and widely uses exclamation sentences, builds his plots not in a strict logical order (as was customary among the classic poets), but in accordance with the character and mood of the hero. It should also be noted the evolution of Byron's hero: if Childe Harold - the first romantic character of the English poet - does not go beyond a passive protest against the world of injustice and evil, then for the rebels of his poems the whole meaning of life lies in action, in struggle. They respond to the injustices committed by the “lawless law” of a “civilized” society with fearless confrontation, but the futility of their lonely struggle gives rise to their “proud and furious despair.”

The artistic originality of the lyrics (“My soul is gloomy”, “ Jewish melody", "Prometheus"). In the formation of Byron's artistic method, "oriental poems" along with "Childe Harold" played a decisive role. Perceived by contemporaries as a great poetic discovery, they laid the foundations of Byronism in all its genre varieties, primarily the purely lyrical. Of course, the rich area of ​​Byron's lyrics is chronologically connected not with individual periods of the poet's activity, but with his entire creative path. However, its basic artistic principles were developed in parallel with the poems of 1812-1815, and their internal connection is undeniable. Despite the fact that, by the nature of its immediate content, Byron's lyrical legacy can be divided into two groups: intimate-psychological and heroically rebellious, in essence it represents a single whole. Its different thematic aspects are connected by the commonality of the lyrical “I”. Although the lyrical hero of Byron's poetry evolved along with his author, the main features of his spiritual appearance: world sorrow, rebellious intransigence, fiery passions and freedom-loving aspirations remained unchanged. The richness and diversity of these psychological shades determines the sonority of the resonance that was caused by Byron's lyrics and did not cease throughout the 19th century, causing responses in world poetry. Each of Byron's European poets-fans and successors found in him motives that were in tune with his own thoughts and feelings, and, using Byron's poems as a form of self-expression, simultaneously reproduced both the English poet and himself. Thus, Russian readers are given a vivid idea of ​​the nature of Byron’s psychological lyricism by his poem “My Soul Is Gloomy...”, which became the property of Russian poetry thanks to the translation by M. Yu. Lermontov, whose perception is especially close to the sentiments embodied in this example of the English poet’s lyrical creativity. Inspired by biblical story(King Saul, overcome by madness, calls upon the young singer David to dispel the melancholy of his master), this poem with enormous tragic power reproduces the state of a deep, gloomy, harsh soul, tormented by some mysterious sorrow. The impression of the bottomless depth of this soul and the unbearable weight of the sadness that oppresses it is enhanced by the poetic structure of the poem. Its main theme, set already in the first line (“My soul is gloomy”), is revealed according to the principle of increasing drama, which reaches its culmination in the last two stanzas:

Let your song be wild. Like my crown

The sounds of fun are painful to me!

Or your chest will burst from pain.

She was full of suffering,

She languished for a long time and silently;

Like a cup of death, full of poison.

The confessional, deeply personal nature of this unique lyrical monologue, only formally connected with the Bible (the only word “crown”, going back to the biblical source, belongs to M. Yu. Lermontov and is absent in the original), is also inherent in Byron’s political lyrics. Her distinctive feature is the merging of intimate, personal emotions with civic feelings poet.

"My soul is gloomy."

My soul is gloomy. Hurry, singer, hurry!

Here is a golden harp:

Let your fingers, rushing along it,

The sounds of paradise will awaken in the strings.

And if fate did not take away hope forever,

They will wake up in my chest,

And if there is a drop of tears in the frozen eyes -

They will melt and spill.

Let your song be wild. - Like my crown,

The sounds of fun are painful to me!

I tell you: I want tears, singer,

Or your chest will burst from pain.

She was full of suffering,

She languished for a long time and silently;

And the terrible hour has come - now it is full,

Like a cup of death, full of poison.

"My soul is dark."

My soul is dark-Oh! quickly string

The harp I yet can brook to hear;

And let your gentle fingers fling

Its melting murmurs o"er mine ear.-

If in this heart a hope be dear,

That sound shall charm it forth again-

If in these eyes there lurk a tear,

"Twill flow-and cease to burn my brain-

But bid the strain be wild and deep,

Nor let thy notes of joy be first-

I tell thee-Minstrel! I must weep

Or else this heavy heart will burst-

For it hated by sorrow nurst,

And ached in sleepless silence long-

And now "tis doom"d to know the worst,

And break at once-or yield to song.

"Prometheus".

Titanium! To our earthly destiny,

To our sorrowful vale,

For human pain

You looked without contempt;

But what did you get as a reward?

Suffering, stress

Yes kite, that without end

The proud man's liver is tormented,

Rock, chains sad sound,

A suffocating burden of torment

Yes, a groan that is buried in the heart,

Depressed by you, I became quiet,

So that about your sorrows

He couldn't tell the gods.

Titanium! You knew what fighting meant

Courage with torment... you are strong,

You are not afraid of torture,

But shackled by a furious fate.

Almighty Rock is a deaf tyrant,

Overwhelmed by universal malice,

Creating for the joy of heaven

What he himself can destroy,

Delivered you from death

He bestowed the gift of immortality.

You accepted the bitter gift as an honor,

And the Thunderer from you

All I could achieve was a threat;

This is how the proud god was punished!

Having loved your suffering,

You didn't want to read it to him

His fate is but a sentence

Your proud gaze opened to him.

And he comprehended your silence,

And the arrows of lightning trembled...

You are kind - that is your heavenly sin

Or crime: you wanted

There is a limit to misfortunes,

So that reason makes everyone happy!

Rock destroyed your dreams,

But the fact is that you have not resigned yourself, -

An example for all human hearts;

What was your freedom,

Hidden example of greatness

For the human race!

You are a symbol of strength, demigod,

You have illuminated the path for mortals, -

Human life is a bright current,

Running, sweeping away the path,

Partly a person can

Anticipate the running of your watch:

Aimless existence

Resistance, vegetation...

But the soul will not change,

Breathing with immortal firmness,

And the feeling that he can suddenly

In the depths of the most bitter torment

To gain your own reward,

Celebrate and despise

And turn Death into Victory.

Titan! to whose immortal eyes

The sufferings of mortality,

Seen in their sad reality,

Were not as things that gods despise;

What was your pity's recompense?

A silent suffering, and intense;

The rock, the vulture, and the chain,

All that the proud can feel of pain,

The agony they do not show,

The suffocating sense of woe,

Which speaks but in its loneliness,

And then is jealous lest the sky

Should have a listener, nor will sigh

Until its voice is echoless.

Titan! to thee the strife was given

Between the suffering and the will,

Which torture where they cannot kill;

And the inexorable Heaven,

And the deaf tyranny of Fate,

The ruling principle of Hate,

Which for its pleasure doth create

The things it may annihilate,

Refus"d they even the boon to die:

The wretched gift Eternity

Was thine-and thou hast borne it well.

All that the Thunderer wrung from thee

Was but the menace which flung back

On him the torments of your rack;

The fate thou didst so well foresee,

But would not to appease him tell;

And in thy Silence was his Sentence,

And in his Soul a vain repentance,

And evil dread so ill dissembled,

That in his hand the lightnings trembled.

Thy Godlike crime was to be kind,

To render with your precepts less

The sum of human wretchedness,

And strengthen Man with his own mind;

But baffled as thou wert from high,

Still in your patient energy,

In the endurance, and repulse

Of thin impenetrable Spirit,

Which Earth and Heaven could not convulse,

A mighty lesson we inherit:

Thou art a symbol and a sign

To Mortals of their fate and force;

Like thee, Man is in part divine,

A troubled stream from a pure source;

And Man in portions can foresee

His own funereal destiny;

His wretchedness, and his resistance,

And his sad unallied existence:

To which his Spirit may oppose

Itself-and equal to all woes,

And a firm will, and a deep sense,

Which even in torture can descry

Its own concenter"d recompense,

Triumphant where it dares defy,