W. H. Auden, Letter to Lord Byron

Chris Baldick (Goldsmiths College, University of London)

Ed. by Chris Baldick, Goldsmiths College, University of London
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.08: English Writing and Culture of the early Twentieth Century , 1900-1945.
Vol. editors: Chris Baldick (Goldsmiths College, University of London), Peter Childs (Birmingham Newman University), Louise McDonald (Birmingham Newman University), Andrew Radford (University of Glasgow)

Dates

First circulation or publication Aug 1937

Places

England (Country of Origin; Publication/ performance)

Genres and Modes

Poem

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“Letter to Lord Byron” (1937; revised 1966) is a long humorous poem by W. H. Auden, written between July and October 1936 and first published in his and Louis MacNeice’s co-authored travel book

Letters from Iceland

(1937). It is Auden’s most extended exercise in “light verse”, a literary mode that he explicitly defends and celebrates within the poem. As its title suggests, it is a verse epistle addressed to the ghost of Lord Byron, as a tribute to the style and tone of the latter’s incomplete comical verse epic

Don Juan

(1819-24), which Auden had been reading on his voyage from Hull to Reykjavik in June 1936. Unlike

Don Juan

, this poem does not attempt to tell a fictional story, but emulates instead Byron’s digressively opinionated passages and literary in-jokes. Auden…

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1858 words

Citation: Baldick, Chris. "Letter to Lord Byron". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 18 October 2016 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=35830, accessed 21 November 2024.]

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W. H. Auden, Letter to Lord Byron

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