Poltava -Lord Byron -'Mezappa'

    Poetry relating to the Battle of Poltava 1709

Charles XII of Sweden and Ivan Mazepa after The Battle of Poltav- Gustav Cederstrom

Courtesy of Wikipedia Commons 

       

This is the first post about poetry connected to the Battle of Poltava 1709,

starting with Byron’s 1819 poem ‘Mazeppa’ (sic)  , named after the

Ukrainian Cossack leader Ivan Mazepa ( 1639- 1709 ).

               “Twas after dread Poltova’s day

                When fortune left the Royal Swede,

                Around a slaughter’d army lay

                No more to combat and to bleed

                The power and the glory of the war

                 Faithless as their vain votaries men

                 Had pass’d to the triumphant Czar

                 And Moscow’s walls were safe again. “

In 1700 Peter the Great declared war on Sweden. Czar Peter

was rather keen to get his 'window on The Baltic, to build a
European styled city, commission a navy, to have ports that
weren't going to be ice bound for large parts of the year. He
was set on a collision course the Swedish empire, and its
young king Charles XII. Swedish owned Baltic territory
included Finland, Karelia, Ingria, Estonia, and so blocked
Russian expansion. The conflict began badly for Russian with
a defeat at Narva in 1700, even though their forces outnumbered
the Swedes 4:1.

On 1st January 1708 Charles XII invaded Russia, Czar Peter left the

Swedish army and it allies go deeper and deeper into Russia, adopting
a scorched earth policy, cutting supply lines, attacking stragglers. The
Swedish forces began to run low on provisions and ammunition. Finally
on 27th June 1709, the Russians defeated the Swedes at Poltava in the
Ukraine, the worst military defeat in Sweden's history. As Robert Massie
stated in his esteemed biography, 'Peter the Great'
"The Battle of Poltava terminated the Swedish invasion of Russia and
permanently shifted the political axis of Europe."

The retreating forces soon became trapped, unable to cross the river Dnieper.

Swedes and Saxons surrendered, though Charles XII and some of his inner

circle managed to cross the river and eventually fled into Ottoman territory

The consequences for the Ukraine are sometimes  overlooked by historians

and it is most significant that Lord Byron wrote a poem about  Ivan Mazepa ,

Hetman of the Zaporozhian Host originally loyal to Peter, but had

begun to waver. Russian scorched earth policy led Charles XII to aim

for the rich and fertile region of the Ukraine . Czar Peter was bound

to want to fight the Swedes there. Mazepa had to make a choice and

he defected with 3,000 men  to join Charles and the Swedish army

in October 1708.

Pro-Russian forces led by Aleksander Menshikov destroyed the

city of Baturyn, Mezapa’s former capital.  The Swedes were to

get no supplies or reinforcements from the city- civilians were

slaughtered as a warning to other Ukrainians not to defect

to the Swedes. Czar. Peter offered a reward to loyal

Cossacks who could capture Swedish army  stragglers

dead or alive. The Russian Orthodox Church excommunicated
Mezepa-an anathema that is still in force today.

Lord Byron’s poem depicted Charles XII and Mazepa resting  

in a forest after Poltava the Swedish defeat described as

“A greater wreck ,a deeper fall

A shock to one- a thunderbolt to all.”

Mazepa recounts a tale of how he as a page served in the Polish court

of John II Casimir, starts an illicit affair with one Theresa, the younger

wife of Count Palatine. Their affair was certainly passionate.

“All love, half langour and half fire

Like saints that at the stake expire

And lift their raptured looks on high

As though it were a joy to die.”

 They are caught having sexual  intercourse. As punishment

Mazepa is , tied naked  to the back of an untamed horse,

who had had only been captured the day before

.

                  “ Who look’d as though the speed of thought

                    Were in his limbs; but he was wild

                    Wild as wild deer, and untaught,

                    With spur and bridle and undefiled”

                      The horse charges day and night through

forests, At one point chased by wolves, birds of prey, wild

horses,The descriptions are magnificent.

                    “The skies spun like a mighty wheel

                     I saw the trees like drunkards reel

                    And a slight flash sprang o’er my eyes,

                     Which saw no farther, he who dies

                    Can die no more than I died.

                    O’ertortured by that ghastly ride,

                    I felt the blackness come and go,

                    And strove to wake; but could not make

                    My sense climb up from below.”

Mazepa falls  unconscious , but revived when the horse decides

to plunge into a river. Eventually Mazepa is rescued by Cossaks

living in the wild. By the time that Mazepa has finished his tale, Charles

XII has already  been asleep for an hour.

There are strange overtones to the poem. As well as having a strong

sexual undercurrent, the Romantic motif of being somehow helpless

and thrown to the wilder impulses of nature are prominent. There is

also strange tension, knowing that if Mazepa or any of his

Cosacks fell into Russian hands ,execution  would follow brutal torment.

Moving into the 21st century …..to Ukrainian nationalists, Mazepa

is a hero who sided with the Swedes in a bid to get at least some

independence from Russia. His head  even appears on currency.

Ukrainian historians praise him as a patron of the arts, and for

commissioning baroque churches. However, to many Russians

over the last 300 hundred years, Mazepa has been despised

as a traitor and collaborator with an invading army.

Lord Byron read about Mazepa’s life from Voltaire’s biography

of Charles XII. His poem ‘Mazeppa’ inspired a Liszt prelude.

Pushkin wrote a poem 'Poltava', and Tchaikovsky also

wrote an opera ‘Mazeppa’ , inspired by Pushkin.

To be continued

Links

 Full text of   Mazeppa by Lord George Byron  on line.

The companion blog to 'A Burnt Ship ' is
Worldwar2poetry.blogspot.co.uk


UPDATE 2024 

The Lord Byron Statue Appeal (London) covered here 

Bleak Chesney Wold blog