Letter to Lord Byron (Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: W. H. Auden
- First Published: 1937
- Type of Work: Epistle/letter in verse
- Genres: Poetry, Epistolary literature
- Subjects: Traveling or travelers, Voyages, Europe or Europeans, World War II, Poetry or poets, 1930’s, England or English people, War, Iceland or Icelanders
The Poem
“Letter to Lord Byron” was written during and after a trip to Iceland. W. H. Auden and fellow poet Louis MacNeice had approached Faber, the British publishing firm, and proposed a travel book. Faber accepted and gave the poets the money to finance the trip. Auden, not being a travel writer, had no real idea what to write on for the book, but he had brought a copy of Lord Byron’s Don Juan (1819-1824) along to read. He decided to write a verse letter to Byron, informing the poet, who died in 1824, what was happening in the Europe of the 1930’s. As such,...
[The entire page is 1980 words long]
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