Canto the Second

LXXIII

Fair Greece! sad relic of departed worth! Immortal, though no more; though fallen, great! 1 Who now shall lead thy scatter'd children forth, j And long accustom'd bondage uncreate? Not such thy sons who whilome did await, The hopeless warriors of a willing doom, In bleak Thermopylx's sepulchral strait — Oh, who that gallant spirit shall resume, Leap from Eurotas' banks, and call thee from

the tomb?

Cantos the Third and the Fourth are connected with Switzerland and Italy.

The Third Canto was written during Byron's sec- i ond literary period in 1816 when he had to escape \ to Switzerland. The grief at being separated from his

baby daughter is shown in the beautiful lyrical ad­dress that opens the Third Canto:

Is the face like my mother's, my fair child! Ada! sole daughter of my house and heart? When last I saw thy young blue eyes, they smiled, And, then we parted...

Childe Harold continues his journey up the river Rhine, and on his approach to Switzerland he appears in the poem for the last time.

The Fourth Canto is devoted to Italy and its people. The poet worries about the fate of the Italian people. He calls for human liberty. The noble and glorious past of Italy is contrasted to the ignoble present.

XLII

Italia! О Italia! thou who hast

The fatal gift of beauty, which became

A funeral dower of present woes and past,

On thy sweet brow is sorrow plough'd by shame,

And annals graved in characters of flame.

О God! that thou wert in thy nakedness

Less lovely or more powerful, and couldst claim

Thy right, and awe the robbers back, who press

To shed thy blood, and drink the tears of

thy distress...

Byron's romanticism was coloured with grief at the sight of the corrupting influence of absolute power — and hopes for faithful future.

George Gordon Byron was a progressive romanticist who hated every type of oppression and social injustice. He created lyric and epic poems, tales, political satires and dramas.

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Percy Bysshe

Shelley (1792-1822)

Percy Bysshe Shelley was born on-August 4, 1792. His grandfather, the founder of the family fortune, was a powerful old man, fond of arguing. Shelley's father, Sir Timothy, was a country landowner. Both Shelley'J grandfather and father were radical Whigs in politics. Sir Timothy sup-l ported the extremely radical Whig Lord, the Duke of] Norfolk, who had secured a baronetcy for the family.! Shelley's mother belonged to an old and more aristo-j cratic family than her husband did. Shelley wrote about his mother that she was rational.

Thus born at the country seat of a wealthy and aris­tocratic family, Shelley was educated at Eton and Ox-1 ford. But he was extremely unhappy at school. He was nicknamed "a mad Shelley" because of his lack of inter-est both in games and in studies. From his earliest childhood Shelley had been a rebel against cruelty and tyranny — whether that of school, father, priest or king. In his dedication to the "Revolt of Islam'" (1817)! Shelley says:

I do remember well the hour which burst

My spirit's sleep. A fresh May day it was.

When I walked forth upon the glittering grass,

And wept, I knew not why;

Until there rose

From the near school-room voices that, alas!

Were but one echo from a world of woes —

The harsh and grating strife of tyrants and of foes.

So, without shame I spoke:

— "I will be wise,

And just, and free, and mild, if in me lies

Such power, for I grow weary to behold.

The selfish and the strong still tyrannize

Without reproach or check."

I then controlled my tears, my heart grew calm,

And I was meek and bold.

\

Christchurch College, Oxford

Shelley graduated from Eton in 1810 and entered Oxford. The range of his interests was broad enough to include philosophy, science, history, politics and liter­ature. Shelley was extremely interested in the radical Whig's stand for Irish Freedom and discussed the cur­rent events in Ireland with his friend Hogg. Shelley and Hogg were bold enough to put their signatures in de­fence of an Irish journalist, Peter Fin-nerty, imprisoned for his revolutionary writings. More than that, Shelley pub­lished a book of po­ems in which he cursed war, praised heroes of the French Revolution and glo­rified freedom:

Monarchs of earth! thine is the baleful deed, Thine are the crimes for which thy subjects bleed. Ah! When will come the sacred fated time When man unsullied by his leaders' crime Despiting wealth, ambition, pomp and pride Will stretch him fearless by his foeman's side.

Shelley asked the Duke of Norfolk to lend him £100] for the trip to Ireland. On January 20, 1812, Shelley; wrote to his friend Elizabeth Hichener that he was writing an "Address" to the poor Irish Catholics. Ha- i tred between the Protestants and the Catholics was inevitable. Although there were more Catholics than Protestants in Ireland, they became oppressed citizens in their own country. They couldn't become members of the Dublin Parliament, couldn't vote in the elections. No Catholic could become a lawyer, go to university or accept any public post,

Shelley delivered his speech to a very large meeting! in February, 1812 that was published in the "Dublin Evening Post". The main idea of his speech centred around the crimes committed by his nation in Ireland. Shelley "couldn't but blush for his countrymen".

Percy Bysle Shelley was Byron's friend. His poetic style is symbolical and often metaphori-cal, it is rather complex for the common readers to understand.

Like Byron, Shelley was persecuted on account on both his revolutionary views and his behaviour. During this time Shelley wrote the main part of his first impor­tant poem "Queen Mab" — a long allegorical piece about the past, present and future state of the world. It was published by the radical publishers and quoted by the working class.

In 1814 he left his wife for Mary, the daughter of the radical philosopher William Godwin. Shelley lived for

some time in Switzerland where he became close to Byron.

His elegy "Adonais" was dedicated to John Keats (1795-1821); Shelley praised Keats, though he had not been his close friend. They had common political views, they both were the bright representatives of the Age of Romanticism. The loss was great:

I weep for Adonais — he is dead.

O, weep for Adonais, though our tears

Thaw not the frost which finds so dear a head!

And, thou, sad Hour, selected from all years.

To mourn our loss, rouse thy obscure compeers

And teach them thine own sorrow, say: with me

Dided Adonais; till the Future dares

Forget the past, his fate and fame shall be

An echo and a light into eternity!

By that time Shelley had also written two important prose works: an essay "In Defence of Poetry" where he attacked the point of view that poetry is only an ornament of life; the second essay was written on "A Philosophic View of Reforms". Both works were un­published during Shelley's life.

In 1822 Shelley wrote his last major poem "Hellas", dedicated to the Greek Prince Mavrocordato who was soon to enlist Byron in the war for Independence start­ed in Greece in October 1822.

Choric Songs from "Hellas"

Life may change,, but it may fly not; Hope may vanish, but can die not; Truth be veiled, but still it burneth; Love repulsed, — but it returneth!

Yet were life a charnel where Hope lay coffined with Despair; Yet were truth a sacred lie, Love were lust — If Liberty

Lent not life its soul of light, Hope its iris of delight, Truth its prophet's robe to wear, Love its power to give and bear.

The end of his life Shelley spent in Italy. He was greatly impressed by its nature, art, history and litera-j ture. On 8th of July, 1823, he set off in his little sailboat for the voyage. There was a great storm; and ten days later Shelley's body was cast up on shore. In one of the pockets there was a volume of Keats's poems.

The famous English journals accepted his death with joy: "Now he knows whether there is a God or not."

Shelley remained unknown till 1840. Only radical press quoted him. Professor Newman Ivy White said that "the most characteristic and at the same time the most appealing qualities of Shelley's poetry is its unique sense of Loneliness, and its superb faith in human destiny. The intensity combined with Shelley's music makes him one of the most hypnotic of English poets."

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