Lines Inscribed Upon a Cup formed from the skull -Lord Byron Flashcards
What was the inspiration for the poem?
-Used a skull found by his gardener at Newstead abbey as a drinking vessel
What did Byron do with the skull when he received it?
-Got it highly polished and of a tortoiseshell colour
What did Byron see the skull as?
-A Memento mon > believes death as inevitable so therefore may as well use it
Were Byron’s view of death in line with societal views of the time?
-No > against moral conventions of death and of society
What did Byron drink out of the skull?
Wine
What could Byron be trying to justify through the poem?
Hedonism
What is the form of the poem?
-ABAB Quatrains > alternate rhyme scheme
-Iambic tetrameter
What could the cyclical nature of the poem reflect?
-each stanza is a separate thought and completes each other
What do the indentations on each line do?
-reinforces the unsettled energy > Byron does not care for normality
How is a strong personal voice of the skull created?
-Use of of hyphenated instructions to the reader
How is death presented in the poem?
-Fixation on death
-Downplaying the significance of death
What contradictions are in the poem?
-New/Old
-Life/Death
-Purpose/futility
-Humorous tone/Graphic imagery
What type of metaphor is used for the skull?
extended
What are the main ideas in the poem?
-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
What was Lord Byron seen as by others?
“mad bad and dangerous to know”
How could the strong voice of the skull be seen as Byron trying to justify his life actions?
-Embracing his hedonism
-trying to downplay death and his actions
How is life affirmation portrayed in “I lived, I loved, I quaff’d like thee”?
-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
How is “whatever flows is never dull” life affirming?
-Giving life a new purpose after death
-Wine as this focus of interest
How is “Our heads such sad effects produce ; redeem’d from worms and wasting day” death seeking?
-Human lives transience makes it worth nothing
-brains aren’t full of knowledge
-Pathetic nature of man
How is “I lived, I loved, I quaff’d like thee” death seeking?
-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
How is humour portrayed in “what nobler substitute than wine?” ?
-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
How is humour presented in “The drink or gods, than reptiles food”?
-Downfall of life as amusing
-Oxymoronic language
How is humour presented in “The worm hath fouler lips than thine”?
-Mocking tone
-Amusement and humour of the skulls fate > disrupting nature
How is horror presented in “Then nurse the earth-worm’s slimy brood”?
-Body as just a vessel > no view of an afterlife > lack of Christianity
-Maternalistic image of the worm
How is horror presented in “Then reptiles food”?
-Subversion of the great chain of being
-human as this lowly creature
What is significant about “my spirit fled”?
-Dual meaning
-His human spirit
-The alcohol
What is the significance of the caesura in “I died: Let earth my bones resign”?
-Inevitability of death
How does Byron mock christianity?
-Biblical allusion of the clay
-man was made with clay but now they are buried in it
-
Why does Byron describe “life’s little day” and “earths embrace”?
-No references to the afterlife > against traditional conventions
-Idea that life is transient
-tries to emphasise through this to seize the day
What did Byron gain notoriety for?
His scandalous private life> Sexual relationship with his sister> illegitimate children > drugs and alcohol
When did Byron first leave for a two year trip of the mediterranean?
1809
When did Byrons large debts force him to leave England?
1816
When was Byron born?
1788
When was the poem written 1808
