Republic of uzbekistan ministry of higher and secondary special

Chapter ll. Ukrainian and Oriental motifs in his work
2.1. Oriental poems by Byron (1813 - 1816)
The result of Byron's journey was his poems. Beginning in 1813, romantic poems came out one after another from Byron's pen, later called "oriental". The following poems belong to this cycle: "Gyaur" (1813), " Bride of Abydos " (1813), "Corsair" (1814), "Lara" (1814), "The Siege of Corinth" (1816) and " Parisina " (1816) . This definition in full, if we mean color, applies only to the first three; in Lara, as the poet himself pointed out, the name is Spanish, and the country and time of the event are not specifically indicated; in The Siege of Corinth, Byron takes us to Greece, and in Parisin , to Italy. There is a well-known logic in the desire to combine these poems into one cycle, prompted by common features characteristic of all the named poems. In them, Byron creates that romantic personality, which subsequently, mainly in the 19th century, began to be called "Byronic"

The hero of Byron's "Eastern poems" is usually a rebellious renegade who rejects all the legal orders of a proprietary society. This is a typical romantic hero; it is characterized by the exclusivity of personal destiny, extraordinary passions, unbending will, tragic love, fatal hatred. Individualist and anarchist freedom is his ideal. These heroes are best characterized by the words of Belinsky, which he said about Byron himself: “This is a human personality, indignant against the general and, in its proud rebellion, leaning on itself” [ ] . The glorification of individualistic rebellion was an expression of Byron's spiritual drama, the cause of which must be sought in the death of the emancipatory ideals of the revolution and the establishment of a gloomy Tory reaction. This Byronian individualism was subsequently very negatively assessed by the progressive contemporaries of the English poet.

However, by the time the “oriental poems” appeared, their contradiction was not so sharply evident. Much more important then (1813 - 1816) was something else: a passionate call to action, to struggle, which Byron, through the mouths of his frantic heroes, proclaimed the main meaning of being. The most remarkable feature of the “Eastern poems” is the spirit of action, struggle, daring, contempt for any apathy, the thirst for battle, which woke up the disbelieving people from their cowardly hibernation, raised the tired, ignited hearts for a feat, embodied in them. Contemporaries were deeply disturbed by the thoughts scattered throughout the "Eastern poems" about the destruction of the treasures of human strength and talents in the conditions of bourgeois civilization; Thus, one of the heroes of the "Eastern poems" is sad about his "untapped gigantic powers", and another hero, Konrad, was born with a heart capable of "great good", but he was not given this good to do. Selim is tormented by inaction; Lara in her youth dreamed of "good", etc.

The triumph of reaction gave rise to moods of cowardice and renegade. The reactionary romantics sang of "submission to providence", shamelessly glorified the bloody war, threatened "punishment from heaven" to those who grumble at their fate; motifs of lack of will, apathy, and mysticism sounded more and more strongly in their work. The mood of depression infected many of the best people of the era. Byron contrasted the weak-willed, faceless heroes of the reactionary romantics with powerful passions, the gigantic characters of his heroes, who strive to subjugate circumstances, and if they fail, they proudly die in an unequal struggle, but do not compromise with conscience, do not do anything. the slightest concession to the hated world of executioners and tyrants. Their lonely protest is futile, and this from the very beginning imposes a tragic shade on their entire appearance. But, on the other hand, their incessant desire for action, for struggle, gives them an irresistible charm, captivates and excites. “The whole world,” Belinsky wrote, “listened with hidden excitement to the thunderous peals of Byron’s gloomy lyre. In Paris it was translated and printed even faster than in England itself .