In many ways Byron has always been a bit of an enigma to me.  His poems, radically different from those of Wordsworth and Coleridge - the truest emphasis, to me, has always been in his glorious words.  Over the years, my students loved his poetry.  Perhaps it was his very "modern" lifestyle that earned him the reputation as "mad, bad, and dangerous to know"; but I think it was the modernity of his writing.  His emphasis (at least in the poems we look at) on romantic love, heartbreak, and grief.  The first three poems we look at "She Walks in Beauty", "So We'll Go no More a Roving" and "When We Two Parted" can be put together (by us - not him) and seen as a sad, powerful story - that all of the students can identify with.  Furthermore, his later poems about freedom - ring true in the ears of our very politically aware pupils.  The last poem we will briefly cover, "Darkness" will also pop its enigmatic head again when we get to Tom Stoppard's Arcadia - where the poem plays a significant role.  In many ways - these Byron lessons are an exercise in recognition.

 I never did (even when we had more time) these two poems, "Don Juan" and "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" in the same year.  I used to do "Childe Harold" and then in later  years switched to "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage".  Both are excerpts from much longer poems - both are beautiful and two of the most image rich verse that our students studied all year.  For both poems, the students have NOT read the text for homework - and they will read it(either by themselves - "Childe Harold" or as a group "Don Juan" and do the Group/Partner Work, as they go through the poem.  For "Don Juan" the process resembles like what we did earlier in the year with some of the Macbeth and Twelfth Night scenes.  For "Childe Harold" the students will look at the first three stanzas on their own - before finding a partner to go through the rest together. Both poems are incredible - and if you have time (I never did) you should by all means, do them both.

Every year, I struggled with the order of these last Romantic Poets (Keats, Shelley).  I believe that I finally (after some 25 years) came to what I think was the best order for getting the most out of these incredible poems - and ensuring that they have the impact that they deserved.  First we do three poems by Keats - then we read about those by Shelley - and finally we end our Unit on The Romantic Poets, by going back to John Keats - and the students act out - then we discuss one of greatest poems every written in English: "Ode on a Grecian Urn".  For this lesson - we first read aloud and discuss "When I Have Fears", and then the students will plan and act out the very dramatic, "La Belle Dam sans Merci".  Finally, we will quickly (there won't be much time - read "Ode to a Nightingale" aloud - stopping and discussing as we go through it.  This may take more than one period unless you are the dreaded block scheduling.  

This lesson begins with one of the most effective oral readings of a poem that ever happened in my classroom.  We do a choral reading of Shelley's "Ozymandias" - the entire class (and me) begins the poem, reading it aloud.  And then I move past each respective row - and as I do that row drops out.  By the time that we get to the final three lines - I am speaking alone - and read it in a loud whisper.  It gave me (and many of my students) goosebumps, each and every time that I did it over some 30 years.  I then show a scene from the TV series, "Breaking Bad" whose episode is named "Ozymandias" for very good reason - and let the students make the connection to the poem, but also give them a chance to see how this poetry can still speak to us, some 200 years later.    

The majority of the classtime, however, is given over to the students reading (either to themselves or in a small group) Shelley's "To a Skylark".  I usually gave them the choice of whether to work in a group or not - but in case, they can't finish the assignment in class - and the rest was to be completed on their own time.  The Group/Solo work makes connections to Keats, Byron, Wordsworth, and of course the other skylarks that we've encountered this year in our class together.  The Handout includes the poems "Ozymandias", "To a Skylark", "My Soul is Dark" by Bryon, and "To the Skylark" by Wordsworth (all of these referenced in the Group / Solo Work).  There is also a Power Point which includes the background information on Shelley - as well as a way to read and discuss "To a Skylark" together, as a class.

Percy Shelley's "Ode to the West Wind" is one of the most hopeful and powerful poems ever written in the English Laguage.  It was one of the cornerstones of my class - and during the Pandemic - and during the protests against racial inequality - its voice grew even louder.  I can't believe that I once did this poem as a Group Work.  It belongs in a discussion or in a guided lecture.  While it's true that what follows - my lesson - is not strictly a lecture - I do have students read; I do ask questions; I do actively "bring" the students along - it is as close to a lecture as I ever got in my class.  And I don't think that's a bad thing.  There is a LOT here - and the only way to convey it (in my mind) is to actively show the students the students the pain, the power, and the longing that are found in Shelley's verse -while relating it to their own experience as well to so much else that we've done in our class, especially as we approach the end of our time together.

This lesson begins with a little background - the Peterloo Massacre, Shelley's personal tragedy, his distance from his homeland, and his definition of what a poet should be (an unacknowledged legislator of the world).  We then look at the poem - line by line, putting the pieces together as we go.  Towards the end we incorporate the efforts of a student at our school to bring plants to patients in Children's Hospitals in order to help give them hope and a sense of the future. Finally, we end with the tale of his tragic early death - and the seeds of his words continue to travel and propagate - giving us all hope that, indeed, Spring cannot be far behind.