On This Day I Complete My 36th Year - Byron Flashcards
“since others it hath ceased to move”
Byron is unable to have love
“Still let me love!”
Byron yearns for love
- loneliness
- rejection from Loukas (Greek page boy)
When was Byron’s last written entry?
22nd January 1824
What is the significance of Byron turning 36?
Innumerable lovers
Spectacular failure of marriage
Fame and notoriety
Rejected by Loukas (Greek page boy)
Lonely and didn’t want to die alone
What is the structure of On This Day I Complete My 36th Year?
Series of 10 quatrains
Each stanza is end-stopped
- contained
Alternating rhyme scheme: ABAB
3 lines of iambic tetrameter + final line of 2 spondees
- decision has been made/anguished plea
What is the effect of exclamatives in On This Day I Complete My 36th Year?
…
What is significant of the nature imagery in stanza 2 of On This Day I Complete My 36th Year?
“yellow leaf”
- vibrancy is fading like an autumn leaf
“flowers and fruits of love are gone”
- seasons of youth are ending and progression of age is represented
“canker”
- reference to a disease of fruit trees
What is the significance of “fire” in stanza 3 of On This Day I Complete My 36th Year?
Byron is alone but still has passion from previous relationships
What is the significance of “the hope, the fear, the jealous care” in On This Day I Complete My 36th Year?
Asyndetic list
- adding emphasis to all the emotions building up upon one another
What does “the flowers and fruits of love are gone” in On This Day I Complete My 36th Year allude to?
Act 5 Macbeth
- speaking on the change in his way of life and the loss of love, honour, and friendship
What does “the Spartan, borne upon his shield, was not more free” allude to in On This Day I Complete My 36th Year?
Ancient Spartan ritual where dead or injured Spartan warriors were honoured by being carried off the battlefield
- referring to himself as the Spartan and describing his life as a battlefield
What does Byron compare “thy life-blood tracks its parent lake, and then strike home” to in On This Day I Complete My 36th Year?
Abstractly compares Macbeth’s ancestors to his own as both are descendants of Scottish kings
What is Byron’s message/desire in the final 2 stanzas of On This Day I Complete My 36th Year?
Death as the only option for someone who has lived unworthily
His destiny to repent for the way he’s lived up until now
