【正文】 1 IV. Gee G. Byron (拜倫 1788~1824 ) 1. Points of view (1) Byron has a strong passion for liberty and an intense hatred for all tyrants. He shows his sympathy for the oppressed Portuguese under French occupation, he gives his strong support to the Spanish people fighting for their national independence. He laments over the fallen Greece, expressing his ardent wish that the suppressed Greek people should win their freedom. He glorifies the French Revolution and condemns the despotic Napoleon period. At the news of the Greek revolt against the Turks, Byron not only gave the insurgent Greeks financial help but also plunged himself into the struggle for the national independence of that country. (2) Byron continued in the tradition of classicism that had been advocated by the writers of the Enlightenment in the 18th century. He eulogized the 18thcentury Enlighteners and attacked the conservative schools of contemporary poetry, showing his contempt for what he considered the monplace and vulgarity of the Lake Poets . 2. Major works (1) Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage( 《恰爾德 ?哈羅德 游記》 ) Byron?s heroes are more or less surrogates of himself. Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage is such an example. The poem is about a gloomy, passionate young wanderer who escaped from the society he disliked and traveled around the continent, questing for freedom. It teems with all kinds of recognizable features of Romantic poetry—the medieval, the outcast figure, love of nature, hatred of tyranny, preoccupation with the remote and savage. It also contains many vivid and exotic descriptive passages on mountains, rivers and seas. (2) Don Juan( 《唐 ?璜》 ) Don Juan is Byron?s masterpiece, a great ic epic of the early 19th century. It is a poem based on a traditional Spanish legend of a great lover and seducer of women. In the conventional sense, Juan is immoral, yet Byron takes this poem as the most moral. And Byron invests in Juan the moral positives like courage, generosity and frankness, which, according to Byron, are virtues neglected by the modern society. The unifying principle in Don Juan is the basic ironic theme of appearance and reality, . what things seem to be and what they actually are. Byron?s satire on the English society in the later part of the poem can be pared with Pope?s。 and his satire is much less personal that that of Pope?s, for Byron is here attacking not a personal enemy but the whole hypocritical society. And the diverse materials and the clash of emotions gathered in the poem are harmonized by Byron?s insight into the difference between life?s appearance and its actuality. 3. Artistic features (1) As a leading Romanticist, Byron?s chief contribution is his creation of the “Byronic hero,” a proud, mysterious rebel figure of noble origin. With immense superiority in his passions and powers, this Byronic hero would carry on his shoulders the burden of righting all the wrongs in a corrupt society, and would rise singlehandedly against any kind of tyrannical rules either in government, in religion, or in moral principles with unconquerable wills and inexhaustible energies. (2) Byron?s poetry, though much criticized by some critics on moral grounds, was immensely popular at home and also abroad, where it exerted great influence on the Romantic movement. This popularity it owed to the author?s persistent attacks on “cant political, religious, and moral,” to the novelty of his oriental scenery, to the romantic character of the Byronic hero, and to the easy, fluent, and natural beauty of his verse. 2 (3) Byron?s diction, though unequal and frequently faulty, has on the whole a freedom, copiousness and vigor. His descriptions are simple and fresh, and often bring vivid objects before the reader. (4) Byron employed the Ottva Rima (Octave Stanza 八行詩體 ) from Italian mockheroic poetry. 4. Selected readings (1) Song for the Luddites (路德分子之歌 ) 《路德分子之歌》是拜倫反映現(xiàn)實(shí)階級(jí)斗爭的詩作。十九世紀(jì)初期的英國 , 階級(jí)矛盾十分尖銳 , 工人階級(jí) (首先是紡織工人 )憤于資本家的殘酷剝削 , 起而搗毀機(jī)器。當(dāng)時(shí) , 路德是這個(gè)運(yùn)動(dòng)的領(lǐng)袖 , 因而稱為路德運(yùn)動(dòng)。拜倫在詩中號(hào)召英國產(chǎn)業(yè)工人以美國革命為榜樣 , 在路德的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)下 , 拿起武器奮起反抗統(tǒng)治者的剝削與壓迫。詩歌大量使用單音節(jié) 詞匯 , 韻律多變 , 腳韻強(qiáng)健 , 讀來鏗鏘有力 , 表達(dá)詩人無比憤怒的激情。 This is one of the two poems written by Byron to show his support of the Luddites, who destroyed the machines in their protest against unemployment. The poet?s great sympathy for the workers in their struggle against the capitalists is clearly shown. It is written in anapest(抑抑揚(yáng)格 ), the rhyme scheme for each stanza is abaab. (2) The Isles of Greece( from Don Juan, III, 《希臘島》第三詩章 ) 全詩共 16 個(gè)詩節(jié) , 可分為三層意思。 在前 4 個(gè)詩節(jié)中詩人列舉了古希臘燦爛文明與反抗侵略的英勇史實(shí)來說明希臘光輝燦爛的過去。在接下來的 4 個(gè)詩節(jié)里 , 詩人回到現(xiàn)在 , 給我們描述了一個(gè)遭 受侵略卻又懦弱無能的當(dāng)代希臘 , 與過去的輝煌形成強(qiáng)烈的對(duì)照。接下來的 8 個(gè)詩節(jié)中 , 每兩個(gè)詩節(jié)形成一組 , 每組都以 “Fill high the cup with Samian wine!”開始 , 一反一正 , 循循善誘 , 希望以此來喚醒希臘人民起來反抗侵略。全詩以 “不自由 , 毋寧死 ( A land of slaves shall ne?er be mine/Dash down yon cup of Samian wine!)”的英雄氣概而結(jié)束。 Don Juan is a long satirical poem. Its hero Juan is an aristocratic libertine, amiable and charming to ladies. He first falls in love with a married woman Julia. The affair is soon discovered and Juan is sent abroad. There happens a shipwreck。 Juan is tossed into the sea and finally cast on the seashore of a Greek island. He is saved by Haidee, the pure and beautiful daughter of a pirate. They fall in love, but soon Haidee?s father returns and forcefully separates them. Haidee dies of a broken heart, while Juan is sold as a slave to Constantinople( 今土耳其的君士坦丁堡 ) where a Sultana takes fancy to him. Juan managed to escape and joined the Russian Army which is besieging the town Ismail. After the victory, he sent news to St. Petersburg and is favored by Empress Catherine who sent him back to England on a political mission. The last part satirizes the political and social conditions of England. The Isles of Greece is sung by a Greek singer at the wedding of Don Juan and Haidee. In the early 19th c