When We Two Parted; Maid of Athens; and She Walks in Beauty. 1. These three lyrics are personal. "When We Two Parted" was probably inspired by a love affair when Byron was only fifteen. He wrote it five years later. "Maid of Athens" arose from his short acquaintance with a girl under fifteen on his first visit to Athens. "She Walks in Beauty" he wrote on returning from a ballroom where he had seen the wife of a cousin. She wore black, as she was in mourning, but had many spangles on her dress.

2. Which of these three lyrics seems to you the most genuine in sentiment? The most musical?

3. The meter of each of these poems is very irregular. Your only guide must be your ear. Does this irregularity interfere with the rhythm? Point out lines that illustrate your answer. Does the rhythm fit the emotion closely? Again illustrate.

4. In connection with these, read "The Dream," "The Glory That Was Greece," "The Destruction of Sennacherib," "On this Day I Complete My Thirty-sixth Year." What new notion of Byron do you derive from them?

Lake Leman. 1. This selection is taken from Childe Harold, Canto III, stanzas 68-75. Review what was said about this poem on page 403 ff. 2. Why does Byron dislike crowds and men? What attracts him in nature? Compare his feeling with Wordsworth's in "Lines Written a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey." To which of the stages in Wordsworth's feeling for nature does Byron's feeling correspond? Quote the similar passages from the two poets.

Night. 1. This selection also comes from Childe Harold, Canto III, stanzas 86-92.

2. What is the mood of lines 1-54? What passages bring out this mood most clearly? What is the mood of lines 55-63?

3. Which of these two passages reveals the more of Byron? Which contains the more stirring descriptions of nature? Quote to illustrate.

Childe Harold, Canto IV (stanzas 134-145). 1. In lines 1-36 what is the sentiment? Where is it most fierce or intense? Most proud or arrogant? Can you learn from a biography of the poet whether he is justified in this bitterness?

2. What feeling does the Coliseum arouse in Byron? In describing the gladiator, does he give his own feelings or those of the gladiator? What is the most eloquent part of the description of this statue?

3. According to Hobhouse, "when one gladiator wounded another, he shouted, 'Hoc habet' or 'Habet,' 'He has it. The wounded com

batant dropped his weapon, and, advancing to the edge of the arena [the "here" of line 73], supplicated the spectators [on the tiers of seats, the "there" of line 74]. If he had fought well, the people saved him; if otherwise, or as they happened to be inclined, they turned down their thumbs and he was slain." What two striking contrasts does Byron draw in lines 64-81?

4. Which of the lines (82-108) descriptive of the ruin are most impressive? Most characteristic of Byron?

REVIEW

1. Do you like Byron better as a descriptive or a lyric poet? Are his finest descriptions of nature or of art? Quote the best poems or passages of each kind. Where does he express a desire to escape from civilization? Is he more or less self-centered than Burns? Than Wordsworth? Compared with each, is he more or less vigorous in expression? Beautifully suggestive? Sincere and penetrating?

2. Childe Harold is written in the Spenserian stanza. Read over some of the stanzas of The Faerie Queene (pages 114 ff.). Which poet is the more musical? The more dream-like? The more forceful? In more direct contact with facts? With human nature?

Further Reading

I. FOR CLASS REPORTS

Reports should be brought in on other of Byron's poems in the Cambridge or some other complete edition: "The Prisoner of Chillon" (printed in Book Two of this series, page 20); Childe Harold, Canto III, stanzas xvii-xlv; Canto IV, stanzas clxxvclxxxvi; "Mazeppa," stanzas ix-xx; Don Juan, Canto II, stanzas xxix-li. Do you discover any new sides to Byron in any of these passages? What further illustration of aspects already studied?

II. BIOGRAPHIES

Encyclopedia Britannica: The article here is an excellent brief account. Jeaffreson, J. C.: The Real Lord Byron. This is an interesting volume. It contains much detail about Byron and his surroundings. Nichol, John: Byron (in the English Men of Letters Series).

Noel, Roden: Lord Byron (in the Great Writers Series).

Trelawney, E. J.: Records of Byron, Shelley, and the Author. This volume is very entertaining reading.