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George Gordon Byron

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Leave battles to the Turkish hordes, And shed the blood of Scio s vine! ... Our virgins dance beneath the shade I see their glorious black eyes shine; ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: George Gordon Byron


1
George Gordon Byron (1788-1824)
2
Lecture Outline
  • General survey Byrons main works
  • Poem appreciation The Isles of Greece
  • Analysis Byronic hero
  • Poem Appreciation She Walks in Beauty
  • Byrons personal life and his literary career
  • Byrons position in Romanticism

3
Byrons main works
  • Childe Harolds Pilgrimage (1809)
  • Oriented Tales (oriental settings and heroic
    heroes)
  • Don Juan----his masterpiece

I awoke one morning to find myself famous
Don Juan
4
Don Juan
  • 1) a long but great epic epic satire, a
    satire on abuses of the present state of
    society.
  • 2) original characterization a Spanish youth of
    noble birth a great lover and seducer of women.
  • 3) invests in Juan the moral positives like
    courage, generosity and frankness. (from immoral
    to moral)
  • 4) presents a panoramic view of different types
    of society.

5
Poem Appreciation
  • The Isles of Greece

6
The Isles of Greece
  • The isles of Greece! the isles of Greece!  
  • Where burning Sappho loved and sung,
  • Where grew the arts of war and peace,  
  • Where Delos rose, and Phoebus sprung!
  • Eternal summer gilds them yet,
  • But all, except their sun, is set.
  • (Sappho Greek lyric poet
  • Delos a name of island Phoebus Appollo)

7
Question 1
  • What does Greece mean to Europeans?
  • Greek civilization is the fountainhead of the
    European culture.

8
Question 2
  • Allusions are frequently used in this poem. Try
    to interpret the function of allusions in the
    stanza.
  • burning Sappho
  • the arts of war and peace
  • Phoebus
  • to set a sharp contrast between the past and
    the present of Greece.
  • but all, except the sun, is set

9
  • 2
  • The Scian and the Teian muse,
  • The hero's harp, the lover's lute,
  • Have found the fame your shores refuse
  • Their place of birth alone is mute
  • To sounds which echo further west
  • Than your sires' "Islands of the Blest.
  • (Scian of Scio, birthplace of Homer Teian of
    Teos, birthplace of Anacreon)

10
Analysis of the stanza 2
  • allusion The Scian and the Teian muse
  • synecdoche The hero's harp, the lover's lute
  • glorious in the past while refusing the fame and
    being mute to the sounds at present.

11
Stanza 3
  • The mountains look on Marathon --
  • And Marathon looks on the sea
  • And musing there an hour alone,
  • I dream'd that Greece might yet be free
  • For, standing on the Persians' grave,
  • I could not deem myself a slave.

12
Question 2
  • Whats significance of Marathon in this stanza?
  • allusion war of Marathon, Greeks won victory
    over Persian troops
  • by now, on Persians grave, Greeks turn into
    slave and were chained.

13
Stanza 4
  • A king sate on the rocky brow  
  • Which looks oer sea-born Salamis
  • And ships, by thousands, lay below,  
  • And men in nationsall were his!
  • He counted them at break of day
  • And when the sun set, where were they?
  • King Persian king
  • Allusion martial war at Salamis to indicate the
    past glorious time

14
Stanza 5
  • And where are they? and where art thou,  
  • My country? On thy voiceless shore
  • The heroic lay is tuneless now  
  • The heroic bosom beats no more!
  • And must thy lyre, so long divine,
  • Degenerate into hands like mine?
  • Encouragement and advocacy to point out the
    degeneration of the country

15
Stanza 6
  • Tis something in the dearth of fame,  
  • Though linkd among a fetterd race,
  • To feel at least a patriots shame,  
  • Even as I sing, suffuse my face
  • For what is left the poet here?
  • For Greeks a blushfor Greece a tear.
  • (dearth be lack of) 

16
Stanza 7
  • Must we but weep oer days more blest?  
  • Must we but blush?Our fathers bled.
  • Earth! render back from out thy breast
      
  • A remnant of our Spartan dead!
  • Of the three hundred grant but three,
  • To make a new Thermopyloe!
  • (render present)

17
Question 3-4
  • Whats special effect in the line of must we but
    blush?Our fathers bled?
  • Whats connotation of allusion of Thermopyloe?

18
Stanza 8
  • What, silent still? and silent all?  
  • Ah! nothe voices of the dead
  • Sound like a distant torrents fall,  
  • And answer, Let one living head,
  • But one, arise,we come, we come!
  • Tis but the living who are dumb.

19
Question 5-6
  • What are the main methods does the poet utilize
    to awaken contemporary Greek?
  • abundant allusions
  • sharp contrasts
  • Do the methods work? How do you know?
  • move on to the stanza 9

20
Stanza 9
  • In vainin vain strike other chords
  • Fill high the cup with Samian wine!
  • Leave battles to the Turkish hordes,  
  • And shed the blood of Scios vine!
  • Hark! rising to the ignoble call
  • How answers each bold Bacchanal!
  • (chords tunes)  
  • (ignoble call call for drinking wine)

21
Question 7-8-9
  • Why dose the poet want to strike another chords?
  • the previous methods are in vain
  • What kind of chord does he choose from the 9th
    stanza?
  • fill high the cup and drink wine
  • How does the poet self-evaluate his method in
    this stanza?
  • ignoble call

22
Stanza 10
  • You have the Pyrrhic dance as yet
  • Where is the Pyrrhic phalanx gone?
  • Of two such lessons, why forget  
  • The nobler and the manlier one?
  • You have the letters Cadmus gave
  • Think ye he meant them for a slave?
  • (Pyrrhic dance a kind of dance during wartime)  
  • (Pyrrhic phalanx ????)

23
Stanza 11
  • Fill high the bowl with Samian wine!  
  • We will not think of themes like these!
  • It made Anacreons song divine  
  • He servedbut served Polycrates
  • A tyrant but our masters then
  • Were still, at least, our countrymen.
  • (themes topics)

24
Stanza 12
  • The tyrant of the Chersonese  
  • Was freedoms best and bravest friend
  • That tyrant was Miltiades!  
  • O that the present hour would lend
  • Another despot of the kind!
  • Such chains as his were sure to bind.
  • (to bind to control)

25
Question 11
  • What does the poet hope in the stanza 12?
  • to have a powerful national king with high
    hand to re-unity the country.

26
Stanza 13
  • Fill high the bowl with Samian wine!  
  • On Sulis rock, and Pargas shore,
  • Exists the remnant of a line  
  • Such as the Doric mothers bore
  • And there, perhaps, some seed is sown,
  • The Heracleidan blood might own.
  • (Dorians built Sparta)
  • (Heracleidan of Hercules)

27
Stanza 14
  • Trust not for freedom to the Franks
  • They have a king who buys and sells
  • In native swords and native ranks  
  • The only hope of courage dwells
  • But Turkish force and Latin fraud
    Would break your shield, however broad.
  • (Franks the Europeans)  
  • (Latin fraud refers to Europeans)

28
Stanza 15
  • Fill high the bowl with Samian wine!  
  • Our virgins dance beneath the shade
  • I see their glorious black eyes shine  
  • But gazing on each glowing maid,
  • My own the burning tear-drop laves,
  • To think such breasts must suckle slaves.
  • (lave wash)

29
Stanza 16
  • Place me on Suniums marbled steep,  
  • Where nothing, save the waves and I,
  • May hear our mutual murmurs sweep  
  • There, swan-like, let me sing and die
  • A land of slaves shall neer be mine
  • Dash down yon cup of Samian wine!
  • (the Swan of Avon Shakespeare)
  • (samian of Samos)

30
Question 12
  • What kind of tone is conveyed in the last stanza?
  • sad, melancholy

31
Question 13
  • Whats the theme of the poem?
  • calling for freedom and independence
  • calling for revolts against tyranny

32
Question 14
  • What is Byronic hero?
  • Byrons chief contribution to English poetry.
    Such a hero is a proud, rebellious figure of
    noble origin. Passionate and powerful, he is to
    right all the wrongs in a corrupt society, and he
    would fight single-handedly against all the
    misdoings. Thus this figure is a rebellious
    individual against outworn social systems and
    conventions.

33
Byronic heroes heroic of noble birth
passionaterebelliousindividual
34
  • Byron at his death bed

35
Question 15
  • What is ottava rima?
  • a form of verse stanza consisting of eight
    lines rhyming abababcc, usually employed for
    narrative verse but sometimes used in lyric
    poems.
  • Originally it was pioneered by Boccaccio in
    the 14th century and was introduced into English
    by Thomas Wyatt in the 16th century.

36
  • Reflections and summary writing
  • Compare Byron with Wordsworth and then state the
    differences between the elder and younger
    generation of British Romanticists.

37
Poem Appreciation

She walks in beauty
38
1 She walks in beauty, like
the night Of cloudless climes and starry
skies And all thats best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes Thus mellowed
to that tender light Which heaven to gaudy
day denies.
????????,?????, ????,????, ?????????,
??????????, ?????????, ??????????????
39
2
One shade the more, one ray the less, Had
half impaired the nameless grace. Which waves in
every raven tress, Or softly lightens oer
her face Where thoughts serenely sweet express
How pure, how dear their dwelling place.
?????,?????, ???????????, ???????????,
??????????, ???????????, ?,????????????
40
3
And on that cheek, and oer that brow, So
soft, so calm, yet eloquent The smiles that win,
the tints that glow, But tell of the days
in goodness spent, A mind at peace with all
below, A heart whose love is innocent!
???,???, ??,??,???????, ??????,??????,
?????????????, ????????????, ??????????????
41
It was written in 1814, collected in the
book Hebrew Melodies. It was inspired by Mrs.
Wilmot, Byrons cousin, when he saw her wearing a
spangled dress. ??????????????????, ???
???,?????,????? One shade the more, one
ray the less, ??????????,?????????? ???????
????????????,?????? ?,????,?????
42
When we two parted ?????
When we two parted ??????, In silence and tears,
?????? Half broken-hearted ?????, To sever for
years, ?????? Pale grew thy cheek and cold,
?????, Colder thy kiss, ????? Truly that hour
foretold ?????, Sorrow to this! ??????
43
The dew of the morning ?????, Sunk chill or my
brow ????? It felt like the warning ?????
Of what I feel now. ?????? Thy vows are all
broken, ?????? And light is thy fame ?????! I
hear thy name spoken, ?????, And share in its
shame. ??????
44
They name thee before me, ?????, A knell to mine
ear ?????? A shudder comes o'er me ?????
Why wert thou so dear? ?????? Thy know not I
knew thee ?????, who knew thee too well ??????
Long,Long shall I rue thee ?????, Too deeply to
tell. ??????
45
In secret we met ?????, In silence I grieve
?????? That thy heart could forget, ?????, Thy
spirit deceive. ?????? If I should meet thee
?????, After long years, ?????, How should I
greet thee ? ?????? With silence and tears.
??????
46
Questions for next lecture
  • Questions for Shelley
  • In what way is the West Wind both a destroyer
    and a preserver?
  • What is the relationship between the West Wind
    and the poet?
  • As "the trumpet of the prophecy", what does the
    West Wind predict in physical reality? How do you
    understand it symbolically?
  • What is the literary significance of Shelley's
    poem "Ode to the West Wind"?

47
On Keats and his Ode to Grecian Urn
  • Two students presentations and answer the
    following questions
  • Describe in your own words, the scenes on the
    Grecian urn. Who are they in these pictures?
  • Who is the speaker of the last two lines in the
    ode?
  • Comment on the epigram beauty is truth, truth
    beauty.
  • What are the similarities and differences among
    Byron, Shelley and Keats?
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