George Gordon Byron (Lord Byron, 1788.1824)
Lord Byron’s ideals and his motives for writing poetry
On This Day I complete my thirty-sixth year
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aus: www.englishhistory.net/byron/images/by1814.jpg |
Lord Byron, English poet, "who was one of the most important and versatile writers of the romantic movement". |
- 1788 Byron was born in London. He was educated at Harrow School and the University of Cambridge.
- 1798 He inherited the title and the estates of his granduncle William (5th Lord Byron of Rockdale) in Nottinghamshire.
- 1807 During his study at the University of Cambridge he published the collection of poems "Hours of idleness", which was criticized in a very negative way by the "Edinburgh Review".
- 1809 Thereupon Byron drafted a satirical reply in heroic couplets, which was called "English Bards and Scotch Reviewers" and which made him quite popular. Besides he took a seat in the House of Lords and began two years of travel in Portugal, Spain and Greece. He regarded Greece as a place of frankness and absolute freedom.
- 1812 Byron published the first two
cantos of "Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage". The hero of this poem
personifies
melancholy as well as the urge for action and was a young man of stormy
emotions. Some people suspected Byron of being himself this mysterious hero
of his own poem.
- 1815 Byron published more of his poems, for example "The Giaour", "The Corsair", "Lara..."
- He married Anna Isabella Milbank, who left him shortly after the birth of their daughter Augusta Ada, Byron’s only legitimate child.
- 1816 After the separation from his wife he left England and traveled through Switzerland and Italy.
- 1818- 1820 Byron began to draft his most famous work "Don Juan". In Ravenna he became acquainted with Teresa, duke of Guiccioli, and got in touch with her relations, who took part in revolutionary circles.
- 1823 By means of the London Greek Committee he went to Greece, because he wanted to bring material and financial help for the war of liberation against Turkey.
- 1824 In Mesolongien Byron died as a consequence of a serious fever.
Lord Byron’s ideals and his motives for writing poetry:
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Lord Byron, born in
London in 1788 was one of the most famous English Romantic poets, together
with Percy Shelley and John Keats. His life was influenced by a "disinterested
patriotism", a love for travelling and wild love
stories, often also homosexual relationships. His first bisexual
relationships were early, at school he often had sexual contact to one of
his much younger friends.
He was inspired by his love and feelings, but also by his idea of heroism. He wanted to die a hero’s death, one of the leading motives for his poetry and that of other Romantic poets.
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But he also loved travelling and enjoyed other countries and cultures, especially southern European countries. Lord Byron was one of the few poets of his time that were involved in politics. He was pretty critical and once published an anonymous, sarcastic work that criticizes the political system as it was at his time. Byron often wrote about his dream and ideal of being a hero. That is one of his main motives, as in "Don Juan", where a heroic figure reflects Byron’s personality.
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George Gordon Byron (Lord Byron), On This Day I complete my thirty-sixth year
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‘Tis time this heart should be unmoved, Since others it hath ceased to move: Yet, though I cannot be beloved, Still let me love!
My days are in the yellow leaf; The flowers and fruits of love are gone; The worm, the canker, and the grief Are mine alone!
The fire that on my bosom preys Is lone as some volcanic isle; No torch is kindled at its blaze – A funeral pile.
The hope, the fear, the jealous care, The exalted portion of the pain And power of love, I cannot share, But wear the chain.
But ‘tis not thus – and ‘tis not here – Such thoughts should shake my soul, nor now, Where glory decks the hero’s bier, Or binds his brow.
The sword, the banner, and the field, Glory and Greece, around me seel The Spartan, borne upon his shield, Was not more free.
Awake! (not Greece – she is awake!) Awake, my spirit! Think through whom Thy life-blood tracks its parent lake, And then strike home!
Tread those reviving passions down, Unworthy manhood! – unto thee Indifferent should the smile or frown Of beauty be.
If thou regret’st thy youth, why live? The land of honourable death Is here: - up to the field, and give Away thy breath!
Seek out – less often sought than found – A soldier’s grave, for thee the best; Then look around, and choose thy ground, And take thy rest.
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Es ist Zeit, dass dieses Herz unbewegt bleiben sollte, Da, wie andere, es aufgehört hat, sich zu bewegen: Auch dann wenn ich nicht geliebt werden kann, Lass mich doch wenigstens lieben!
Meine Tage sind in gelben Blättern; Die Blumen und Früchte der Liebe sind verschwunden; Der Wurm, das Krebsgeschwür, und das Leiden Sind mein alleine!
Das Feuer, das an meiner Brust nagt Ist alleine wie eine vulkanische Insel; Keine Fackel wird sich entzünden an seiner Flamme – Ein Scheiterhaufen.
Die Hoffnung, die Furcht, die neidvolle Sorge, Die erhöhte Portion Schmerz Und Kraft der Liebe kann ich nicht teilen, Doch die Kette tragen.
Aber es ist nicht so – und es ist nicht hier – wo Solche Gedanken meine Seele erschüttern sollten, noch jetzt, Wo Ruhm des Helden Totenbahre bedeckt, Oder seine Augen verbindet.
Das Schwert, das Banner, und das Feld, Die Ehre und Griechenland verschließen sich um mich Der Spartaner, getragen auf seinem Schild, War nicht viel freier.
Wach auf! (nicht Griechenland – es ist schon wach!) Wach auf, meine Seele! Denk daran durch wen Dein Lebensblut verfolgt deiner Eltern See, Und dann geh nach Hause.
Trete die wiedererwachenden Leidenschaften nieder, Unwürdige Männlichkeit! – auf dir gleichgültig Sollte das Lächeln oder das Stirnrunzeln Von Schönheit sein.
Wenn du deine Jugend bereust, warum noch leben? Das Land des ehrevollen Todes Ist hier: - auf zum Feld, und gib Weg deinen Atem!
Suche – seltener gesucht als gefunden – Das Grab eines Soldaten, für dich das Beste; Dann schau dich um, und wähle deinen Flecken Erde Und nimm dir deine Ruhe. |
Interpretation
| The poem "On This Day I complete My Thirty-Sixth Year" from Lord Byron, written on the poet’s birthday, on January 22nd, 1824, 28 days before his death of fever, has a very sexual background. Byron was a person who had lots of affairs and incestuous relationships with, for example, his half-sister and two cousins, who did not dislike sexual contact with both sexes and who had a very turbulent and not very constant love-life. Towards the end of his short life he got a more realistic view and was pursued by guilt about his affairs. In this period of his life he wrote this poem. |
aus: www.englishhistory.net/byron/life.html |
As the title says, the poem was written on his thirty-sixth birthday and could be understood as his desire for his thirty-seventh year.
The poem has ten stanzas with four verses each. It is written in cross rhyme with differently long verses.
The main aspect of the poem and leitmotif is death. Byron already was pretty ill and was to die soon, but he is also talking about the death of his love. He is not happy with the number of the relationships he has had in his life.
In the first stanza he talks about his heart. He does not want it to be moved by the passions of love. He is in Greece at the time he writes the poem and supports Greece, fighting a war of independence against Turkey and he regrets that he is not able anymore to move other people to fight for their freedom. But he writes that his heart still loves, for he still loves people and his ideals.
In the second stanza he writes about his love. He says that he is too old to love passionately, he is in "the yellow leaf", he still loves but not as before.
The third stanza is about Byron’s – Byron is the lyrical speaker – homosexual needs. The fire is his homosexual love, but it cannot kindle other torches, other hearts, other men. It is the only love left in him, it is isolated.
Byron continues in the fourth stanza by saying that he can not love anymore and that he suffers from that. He is full of hope, fear, jealousy and other negative feelings, but he cannot enjoy the good feelings such as love anymore.
The fifth stanza describes his wish that all the feelings should leave his soul. He wants to die a hero’s death and not like a weak man that has all these bad feelings.
In the sixth stanza he describes how he wants to replace the feelings. Glory and Greece – Byron was known for his love for Greece – should "seal around" him, he wants the hero’s death.
In the seventh stanza he remembers his family, his parents. In his family freedom has always been very important and because of that he is meant to keep the tradition and fight for the freedom of Greece. That is what his relatives want him to do!
The eighth stanza reflects his wish that his feelings should stop. His feelings do not fit his ideal of manhood ("unworthy manhood") and should be ignored.
The ninth and tenth stanzas are about his wish to die a hero's death. He wants to be remembered and to die honourably.
The poem is a poem on his wish and need for freedom and the last love and desire for loving romantically. Byron uses two of his main motives in this poems. He talks of his dream of being a hero but also about love. It is a typical poem of the later Romantic period in England.
Literatur:
http://gutenberg.aol.de/autoren/byron.htm, [Opened on: 24.4.001]
http://mural.uv.es/cepepe/byron.htm, [Opened on: 24.4.001]
http://www.englishhistory.net/byron/life.html, [Opened on 24.4.01] http://www.geocities.com/Paris/LeftBank/3040/life.htm, [Opened on: 24.4.001]
http://www.walrus.com/~gibralto/acorn/germ/GGByron.html, [Opened on: 24.4.001]
http://www.weltchronik.de/bio/cethegus/blbyron.html, [Opened on: 24.4.001]
Benton, William (Publisher): Encyclopaedia Britannica. Chicago, 1971
Springer, Otto (HRSG): Langenscheidts Enzyklopädisches Wörterbuch der Englischen und Deutschen Sprache. Berlin, 1963
Wright, David: The Penguin Book of English Romantic Verse. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, 1972.
Verfasser: Gregor Betz