Lines Inscribed Upon a Cup formed from the skull -Lord Byron

Question 1

What was the inspiration for the poem?

Answer 1

-Used a skull found by his gardener at Newstead abbey as a drinking vessel

Question 2

What did Byron do with the skull when he received it?

Answer 2

-Got it highly polished and of a tortoiseshell colour

Question 3

What did Byron see the skull as?

Answer 3

-A Memento mon > believes death as inevitable so therefore may as well use it

Question 4

Were Byron’s view of death in line with societal views of the time?

Answer 4

-No > against moral conventions of death and of society

Question 5

What did Byron drink out of the skull?

Answer 5

Wine

Question 6

What could Byron be trying to justify through the poem?

Answer 6

Hedonism

Question 7

What is the form of the poem?

Answer 7

-ABAB Quatrains > alternate rhyme scheme
-Iambic tetrameter

Question 8

What could the cyclical nature of the poem reflect?

Answer 8

-each stanza is a separate thought and completes each other

Question 9

What do the indentations on each line do?

Answer 9

-reinforces the unsettled energy > Byron does not care for normality

Question 10

How is a strong personal voice of the skull created?

Answer 10

-Use of of hyphenated instructions to the reader

Question 11

How is death presented in the poem?

Answer 11

-Fixation on death
-Downplaying the significance of death

Question 12

What contradictions are in the poem?

Answer 12

-New/Old
-Life/Death
-Purpose/futility
-Humorous tone/Graphic imagery

Question 13

What type of metaphor is used for the skull?

Answer 13

extended

Question 14

What are the main ideas in the poem?

Answer 14

-Lack of Christian imagery > irreverence to death
-Act of transforming the skull of a dead person into a drinking cup > disrespectful act/ intervening with natures path
-Transcience of life

Question 15

What was Lord Byron seen as by others?

Answer 15

“mad bad and dangerous to know”

Question 16

How could the strong voice of the skull be seen as Byron trying to justify his life actions?

Answer 16

-Embracing his hedonism
-trying to downplay death and his actions

Question 17

How is life affirmation portrayed in “I lived, I loved, I quaff’d like thee”?

Answer 17

-His enjoyments in life > embracing this
-By using the pronoun “thee” tries to make a relation to the reader
-What Byron believes is worth living for

Question 18

How is “whatever flows is never dull” life affirming?

Answer 18

-Giving life a new purpose after death
-Wine as this focus of interest

Question 19

How is “Our heads such sad effects produce ; redeem’d from worms and wasting day” death seeking?

Answer 19

-Human lives transience makes it worth nothing
-brains aren’t full of knowledge
-Pathetic nature of man

Question 20

How is “I lived, I loved, I quaff’d like thee” death seeking?

Answer 20

-Only thing in his life with living for
-Sad that his only hope for life is drinking from a skull
-Drinking from the skull connects him with death
-Asyndetic triple > drunk as important

Question 21

How is humour portrayed in “what nobler substitute than wine?” ?

Answer 21

-Wine as the drink of the kings
-Rhetorical question
-Jokes that wine is more important than having a brain > perhaps wanting to escape his thoughts and past

Question 22

How is humour presented in “The drink or gods, than reptiles food”?

Answer 22

-Downfall of life as amusing
-Oxymoronic language

Question 23

How is humour presented in “The worm hath fouler lips than thine”?

Answer 23

-Mocking tone
-Amusement and humour of the skulls fate > disrupting nature

Question 24

How is horror presented in “Then nurse the earth-worm’s slimy brood”?

Answer 24

-Body as just a vessel > no view of an afterlife > lack of Christianity
-Maternalistic image of the worm

Question 25

How is horror presented in “Then reptiles food”?

Answer 25

-Subversion of the great chain of being
-human as this lowly creature

Question 26

What is significant about “my spirit fled”?

Answer 26

-Dual meaning
-His human spirit
-The alcohol

Question 27

What is the significance of the caesura in “I died: Let earth my bones resign”?

Answer 27

-Inevitability of death

Question 28

How does Byron mock christianity?

Answer 28

-Biblical allusion of the clay
-man was made with clay but now they are buried in it
-

Question 29

Why does Byron describe “life’s little day” and “earths embrace”?

Answer 29

-No references to the afterlife > against traditional conventions
-Idea that life is transient
-tries to emphasise through this to seize the day

Question 30

What did Byron gain notoriety for?

Answer 30

His scandalous private life> Sexual relationship with his sister> illegitimate children > drugs and alcohol

Question 31

When did Byron first leave for a two year trip of the mediterranean?

Answer 31

1809

Question 32

When did Byrons large debts force him to leave England?

Answer 32

1816

Question 33

When was Byron born?

Answer 33

1788

Question 34

When was the poem written 1808