Lord Byron's Poems Lesson Plan

What sense do you get from these poems of Byron's relationships?

The poems read for Day 5 trace some of the relationships had over the course of his life. The grief in "To Thyrza" over the death of John Edleston, one of Byron's early loves, is one that recurs in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Students might reflect on the intensity of feeling when Byron wishes to also die. Students can also discuss the need in "To Thyrza" to conceal Edleston's gender and the ways in which this kind of clandestine writing might also apply "Epistle to Augusta." With regards to the latter, students can consider the extent to which the poem might be read as an expression of familial attachment or...