George Gordon Noel Byron
Thomas Phillips, 1813
Romanje grofiča Harolda
epsko-lirska pesnitev
• 4 spevi (1812–1818)
• prvoosebna verzificirana pripoved o vtisih s
popotovanja po Sredozemlju in Balkanu
• lirsko podoživljanje misli in čustev
glavni temi
• Byronovo zavračanje sodobne plemiškomeščanske družbe (vzvišen prezir, tujstvo,
samota)
• narava kot nasprotje prazni in zlagani civilizaciji
odlomek
Samota
2. spev
25. in 26. kitica
(berilo, stran 29)
Odlomek povzemite v angleškem
jeziku.
V pomoč:
Odlomek je v slovenskem prevodu znan
pod naslovom Samota. Utemeljite naslov.
Prisluhnimo posnetku v angleškem jeziku.
George N. G. Byron
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage
canto the second
XXV.
To sit on rocks, to muse o'er flood and fell,
To slowly trace the forest's shady scene,
Where things that own not man's dominion dwell,
And mortal foot hath ne'er or rarely been;
To climb the trackless mountain all unseen,
With the wild flock that never needs a fold;
Alone o'er steeps and foaming falls to lean:
This is not solitude; 'tis but to hold
Converse with Nature's charms, and view her stores
unrolled.
XXVI.
But midst the crowd, the hum, the shock of men,
To hear, to see, to feel, and to possess,
And roam along, the world's tired denizen,
With none who bless us, none whom we can bless;
Minions of splendour shrinking from distress!
None that, with kindred consciousness endued,
If we were not, would seem to smile the less
Of all that flattered, followed, sought, and sued:
This is to be alone; this, this is solitude!
The character
1. Describe what the character or the hero is
like. How does he see himself?
2. There is a motif and theme controversy
between both verses. Can we say this is
romantic? Why (not)?
The Byronic hero
- Continues the message
of Goethe’s Werther–
the first example of a
young world-weary
The hero talks about his adventures –
hero
reflections
of his travels to Portugal, Spain,
Malta, Albania, Greece ,Turkey; expression
of thoughts and emotions)
Phoniness of the world, confronting the
world, isolation from the world and
society, arrogance, (materialism,
dishonesty, disrespect)
Ideal reality, human values
/…/ promises that hold, hopes, thoughts,
happiness /…/
• Gives the qualities of
something dark,
rebellious, demonic, even
satanic
• Childe Harold – a typical
Romantic mood
• split between reality and
ideal
• Creates an example of a
Byronic hero
The Byronic hero
• Escapes from society (alienation, resignation,
rebellion)
• In nature only he finds a cure for his superior
sorrow; in its phenomena he finds higher
truth and beauty, which he can identify with
Byronism
•
•
•
•
•
Special emotions
Poet’s disillusionment over people and life itself
Loneliness/ solitude
misunderstanding
Alienation - the consequence of poet’s realisation
that his political, moral, social and aesthetic views
don’t correspond to the generally valid norms and
laws
• scorn and contempt of the world
• Slovenian expression “svetobolje” – worldweariness
Rhyme
• rhyme pattern : a b a b b c c
Verse
• Spenserian stanza – 8 iambic pentameter
lines followed by one alexadrine (a twelve
syllable iambic line)
Lord Byron’s biography
1788 - born in London
1798 - succeeded to the title, Lord Byron, Sixth Baron
1805 – 1808 - attended Trinity College, Cambridge
1807 - first collection of poems, Hours of Idleness
March 1809 - took his seat in the House of Lords
1809 - publication of his satire, English Bards and Scotch Reviewers
1809 - set on his grand tour to Spain, Malta, Albania and Greece
1812- 1818 – result of his poetical account of this grand tour, Childe Harold's
Pilgrimage
1815 - married Anne Isabella Milbanke, divorce a year after
1816 – published Parisina - a verse tale
1819 – 1822 - Don Juan (not finished) a poem spanning 17 cantos, one of the most
important long poems
1822 - travelled to Italy where he published the political journal, The Liberal
April 1824 - died of marsh fever in Greece
življenje in delo
• http://www.ssers.mb.edus.si/gradiva/w3/slo/003_romanje
_grofica_harolda/07_avtor.html
Write a letter to your friend with the title
• Among people, yet alone
• My illusions scattered
• If I were Byron’s Harold
or
or