Hello everyone, my name's Ms. Keller, and welcome to today's lesson.

During this session, we're going to be reading and understanding Lord Byron's poem, "When We Two Parted." So by the end of today's lesson, we will be able to explain how Byron presents a painful reflection upon a past relationship.

So let's start by looking at today's keywords.

We have illicit, extramarital, mournful, bitter, and autobiographical.

So what do these words mean? Illicit is something that is illegal or morally unacceptable.

Extramarital means activities or relationships outside the bounds of marriage, or a committed partnership.

Mournful is a feeling of sadness or grief after losing someone or something.

Bitter is a feeling of intense resentment or hostility towards someone or something.

And last of all, autobiographical is writing about your own life and memories.

So how is today's lesson going to look? We are going to start by first exploring the wider context of the poem.

Then we are going to read the poem together, and discuss what happens.

And then last of all, we are going to think about Byron's use of a cyclical structure.

Now don't worry if you don't know what a cyclical structure is at this point.

We will cover it later on.

So let's start by exploring the wider context.

This poem is rumoured to be an autobiographical poem about an illicit affair that Byron had with a married aristocrat, whose name was Lady Frances Webster.

And it's important to consider that she was an aristocrat because that means she was a person of very high status, since an aristocrat usually has royal connections within their family.

It is also important to bear in mind that Byron achieved celebrity status almost overnight.

And he garnered lots of public attention.

And if we think about these two ideas together, we can suddenly see that this extramarital affair that took place between them would have been one, that if it became public, would have caused quite a scandal, as both people involved were two very high status individuals.

It's also important to note that Byron had multiple affairs with married women during his life.

And in fact, one affair in particular caused quite a lot of public scandal.

And lastly, Byron claim to have written this poem in 1808.

But he's believed that he actually wrote it in 1816.

And he only claimed it was 1808 to protect the identity of his ex-partner.

So by claiming to have written it eight years before this alleged affair took place, he was almost trying to imply that this poem couldn't possibly have been about Lady Frances Webster, perhaps to avoid this public scandal that we were discussing earlier.

So I'd like to pause here for a moment and discuss.

How likely do you think it is that Byron's poem will be an honest and reliable account of this affair? So take into account this contextual knowledge, and have a discussion with the people around you.

Or if you're working on your own, that's okay.

Make a few notes on your paper or in your exercise book.

Pause the video for a few moments while you have your discussion and then when you're ready to continue, click play.

Okay, welcome back.

Lots of fantastic discussions taking place there.

I would like to just unpick a few ideas from our Oak students.

So let's start with Aisha, who said, "Byron kept the woman's identity a secret.

So this suggests he will approach the topic respectfully." And this is quite an important idea.

She was picking up on that last piece of contextual knowledge that we discussed there.

By going to those lengths to protect the identity of the person that this poem might be about, Aisha has inferred that Byron perhaps has respect for this person and respect for that relationship and wants to avoid that public scandal and what it might do to either of their reputations.

And she goes on to say, the title of this poem sounds mournful, which may imply that Byron really cared about his partner.

So again, Aisha's picking up on that word "parted," "When We Two Parted." The fact that Byron's entire poem is framed around this idea of this relationship ending and the loss that the speaker experiences, Aisha has inferred that that might suggest he's mourning for that partner and therefore that perhaps Byron, if this is an autobiographical poem, is mourning for the loss of his partner.

So now let's have a look at Andeep's answer.

So he said, "However," starting off using that great debating language, perhaps he doesn't quite agree with Aisha.

"However, this autobiographical account is one-sided, since it only includes the speaker's side of the story," which is a really important point to make here.

If this is an autobiographical poem, then we're only getting Byron's view of the affair, and we're not hearing about it from the person that he had the affair with.

And then Andeep continues to say, "Also, Georgian society was very patriarchal, which meant that women were objectified." And he uses that great word there, "patriarchal," which is a male-dominated society.

So he's picking up on that idea that Georgian society, where Byron was writing, was a very male-dominated society.

So the fact that we are only hearing one side of the story is what we might expect from this patriarchal society.

So it's important to note here that people often interpret poetry in different ways.

And actually, Aisha and Andeep's answers could both be valid, as long as they support these ideas with evidence and inferences from the text.

So because we can't know for certain, it's really important that we use tentative language.

And if we have a look at Aisha's responses, we can see this tentative language.

She said it suggests that he will approach the topic respectfully.

And it may imply that Byron cared about his partner.

So I'd like to pause again, and I'd like you to think about how could Andeep rephrase his answer so that he's also using tentative language? So take a few moments to read through Andeep's response, make a few changes to perhaps the way he has phrased his answer.

And then when you are ready to click play, we'll continue, and we'll feed back your responses.

Okay, welcome back.

It's really good to see people starting to get to grips with this idea that not only is the content of your answer really important, but also how you phrase it.

That's a really key aspect of English as a subject.

It's one of the few subjects that you'll study, where the content of your answer is equally as important as how you say it or write it.

So do bear that in mind.

So let's have a look then at how Andeep could have included tentative language.

Well, he could have said, "However, it's likely that this is an autobiographical account," rather than saying "it is." Because we can infer that from what we know about the wider context, but we don't know for certain.

And then that wonderful adverbial there, "arguably." "Arguably, it's one-sided." Now this idea that it's one-sided is Andeep's opinion, which is what it is.

It's not a fact.

And then that second part of his answer.

So, "Also, Georgian society was very patriarchal, which meant that women were often objectified." So the first part of his answer, that Georgian society was very patriarchal, we can prove that.

We have lots of evidence to prove that Georgian society was patriarchal.

However, he can't be quite sure that in this particular instance, a woman was objectified.

So he can just raise this idea that women were often objectified, so therefore it's likely that it may have occurred in this case as well.

Okay, let's stop here, and check our understanding of the wider context.

It's likely that this poem is autobiographical.

True or false? So pause the video while you have a think, and then when you're ready to reveal the answer, click play.

Okay, welcome back.

Well done to those of you that said true, this poem is likely to be autobiographical.

So now I would like you to have a look at these two reasons that you could use to justify it.

So have a read through of the reasons, pause the video again and perhaps discuss it with the people around you if you need to, or make a few notes on your paper.

And then when you're ready to click play, we'll reveal the answer.

Okay, welcome back again.

Well done to those of you who said A.

It is likely to be autobiographical because it is believed to be about Byron's illicit affair with Lady Webster.

So now it's time to practise our knowledge of the wider context.

So what I would like you to do is use the fragments in the box below to create a summary of the wider context of "When We Two Parted." And I'd like you to use an embedded clause.

So in order to do that, you will need three commas, five capital letters, and a full stop.

So pause the video here, take as long as you need, and then when you're ready to feed back your responses, click play and we'll continue.

Okay, welcome back.

Let's see what you could have written.

It is widely believed that Byron, who was often the subject of scandal due to his many illicit affairs, and notice we've got that relative pronoun "who," which indicates that that fragment needed to go next to another fragment that included reference to a person, drew influence for this poem from his extramarital relationship with the aristocrat.

And we know the name of the aristocrat, Lady Frances Webster.

So that is the correct order of that sentence.

And if you see, we've now been able to create an embedded clause using that relative pronoun.

An embedded clause is almost an interruption, because if we look at the fragments of the sentence that go either side of that, we could actually remove that embedded clause and it would still make sense.

We could say, "It is widely believed that Byron drew influence for this poem from his extramarital affair with the aristocrat, Lady Frances Webster." So now let's just double check that we've got those commas, capital letters and a full stop in the correct place.

So obviously we need a capital letter and a full stop at the end.

And then the rest of our capital letters are going on the proper nouns, Byron and Lady Frances Webster.

And then we've got our commas surrounding that embedded clause, and then also another one at the end there because Lady Frances Webster's name is an extra piece of information that links to that word, that "aristocrat." Let's move on then to the second part of the lesson, where we're going to be thinking about what happens in the poem.

So let's start by reading "When We Two Parted," together.

And as we're reading, I would like you to underline any references to feelings or emotions, which is what we're going to be discussing in the next section.

"When we two parted, In silence and tears, Half broken-hearted, To sever for years, Pale grew thy cheek and cold, Colder thy kiss; Truly that hour foretold Sorrow to this.

The dew of the morning Sunk chill on my brow - It felt like the warning Of what I feel now.

Thy vows are all broken, And light is thy fame; I hear thy name spoken, And share in its shame.

They name thee before me, A knell to mine ear; A shudder comes o'er me - Why wert thou so dear? They know not I knew thee, Who knew thee too well - Long, long shall I rue thee, Too deeply to tell.

In secret we met - In silence I grieve, That thy heart could forget, Thy spirit deceive.

If I should meet thee After long years, How should I greet thee? - With silence and tears." So in this poem, the speaker reflect on their memories of a secret affair, and how it ended and they were forced to grieve in secret, because obviously the secretive nature of the affair and both of them not being able to tell anybody around them meant that when the relationship ended and the speaker felt perhaps sad about that, they couldn't confide in the people around them because nobody knew that they were in that relationship.

Okay, I would like to pause for a discussion here.

And what I'd like you to do is to summarise what happens in the poem in 15 words or less.

And a really helpful way to do that would be to review the emotional words that you've underlined while reading, and thinking about how they suggest that the speaker feels about the relationship by the end of the poem.

So pause the video here while you have a discussion with the people around you, or make some notes on your paper if you're working on your own.

And then press play when you're ready to continue and feedback your responses.

Okay, welcome back.

I could hear lots of fantastic answers, with people thinking really carefully about the way that the speaker's feelings change across the course of the poem.

I could also hear lots of people referring to those keywords in the lesson.

So lots of people describing the relationship as an illicit extramarital affair, or perhaps saying that at the beginning of the poem, the speaker feels mournful about the end of the relationship.

Okay, so I would like to have a look at these words linked to feelings or emotions in a bit more detail.

And I would like to think specifically about what they tell us about the speaker's feelings about this illicit affair.

So let's have a look at some key quotations.

On line three there, we've got "half broken-hearted, sorrow, a chill on my brow.

It felt like a warning of what I feel now." And then as the poem progresses in the middle, we've got a shift to this idea of "shame" and "shudder." And "rue thee." The speaker describes how they "rue thee." And rue is another word for regret.

And then at the end of the poem, "in silence I grieve." So arguably the speaker does mourn the loss of the relationship.

'Cause at the beginning there, we are seeing lots of words that link to the idea of sadness.

But as we can infer when the poem progresses, they also regret entering into it in the first place.

So let's break down some of these quotes and look at Byron's use of language in a bit more detail and see what different meanings we can interpret from the words that he's chosen.

So let's start with this "half broken-hearted" there on line three.

So we've got this idea that he's only half broken-hearted, he's only somewhat upset by it.

He's not completely broken-hearted.

So even though there is this link to sorrow and sadness at the beginning of the poem, we have got the idea that he's not completely consumed by it and there might also be some other feelings at play.

And then on line eight, he does reference "sorrow." So he does feel sad about the relationship ending.

And then if we look at these next three together, we have got this idea that over time, the speaker's sadness turns to shame.

So what started out as this broken-heartedness and this sorrow has shifted into feelings of shame, and they shudder when they think about their partner now.

And then if we move towards the end of the poem, we have this line that they "rue thee." They bitterly regret this affair.

And in fact, if we put that into the context of the line, the speaker actually says "rue thee too deeply to tell." So in fact, the speaker can't actually put into words, how much they bitterly regret entering into this affair.

And then last of all there, in the last stanza, the speaker says, "in silence I grieve." And we do get back to this idea that they are grieving, they do feel some sorrow and they miss their partner privately.

In silence they grieve.

They cannot confide in the people they know about the grief they feel about the end of this relationship.

So let's pause here for a moment and check our understanding of what happens in the poem.

So true or false? The speaker feels nothing but regret about their illicit affair.

So pause the video while you have a think, and then click play when you're ready to continue and I'll reveal the answer.

Well done to those of you who said it was false.

So let's have a look at two reasons that you might use to justify this answer.

And what I'd like you to do is select the one that you think is best.

So again, pause the video while you have a read-through of these statements.

And then when you think you've chosen the most appropriate one, click play, and I'll reveal the answer.

Okay, well done to those of you who said B.

Byron's description of the speaker's sorrow and shame implies that they're sad, but they also have regrets.

Okay, so let's move on to our second practise task of the lesson.

Sofia and Sam, our Oak students, are having a debate about the message of the poem.

So Sam says, "I believe the speaker of the poem regrets the relationship and feels guilty for having an illicit affair." Whereas Sofia says, "I think the speaker mostly regrets having an illicit relationship with this particular partner." So if we see that they're having a debate about the cause, or the root of that feeling, of those feelings of shame and regret.

So what I would like you to do for this practise task is to annotate both opinions with supporting evidence from the poem.

And then I would like you to think about who you most agree with and write an explanation for why you agree with that person, giving reasons to justify your ideas.

So pause the video for as long as you need to.

Have a read through of the poem again in order to select your evidence.

And then when you're ready to feedback responses, click play and we'll continue.

Okay, welcome back.

So let's have a look then at some examples of supporting evidence that you could have chosen.

So starting off with Sam's opinion there, remember she says, "I believe the speaker of the poem regrets the relationship and feels guilty for having an illicit affair." So we're thinking really carefully about how the speaker is reflecting on the shame they feel about the affair itself.

So we could have started off with this quote on line 13.

"Thy vows are all broken." Because we have this idea that vows, another word for promises are broken.

So in some way, promises have been broken, and there has been a betrayal of sorts.

And we could have a link here to the idea of the partner's marriage vows.

By having the illicit affair, the partner has broken their marriage vows, and has betrayed their partner, their husband.

And we also have the lines here on 17 to 20.

"They know not I knew thee, Who knew thee too well." So we've got this adverb "too, too well," which suggests that the relationship was inappropriate.

The speaker knew this married person a bit too closely.

They were too close, given that she was married to somebody else.

So now let's have a think about Sofia's opinion.

And she says, "I think the speaker mostly regrets having an illicit relationship with this particular partner." So this time we'll be looking for quotations that show the speaker regrets the choice of person that they had this affair with.

So we could have chosen this quotation on lines 15 and 16.

"I hear thy name spoken and share in its shame." So this pronoun "I hear thy," I hear your name spoken.

The partner's name itself is what is causing the speaker's shame.

It's not necessarily when somebody mentions the relationship, but when they mention that person, that those feelings of shame start to surface within our speaker.

And we also could have chosen these quote on lines 23 to 24.

"I rue thee, too deeply to tell." So again, this pronoun "I rue thee." The regret, the thing they're rueing is the person, not the relationship.

So well done.

We are well over halfway through this lesson.

And I'm really impressed with how hard everybody has been working so far.

So in this final section, we are going to consider Byron's use of a cyclical structure.

So Byron uses this idea of a cyclical structure.

And this means that there are repeated ideas at both the beginning and the end of the poem.

So in that way, it has that circular shape.

Where we begin, the idea that we begin with, we go full circle and that is where we end up at the end of the poem.

So I'd like to pause for a moment to give you a chance to discuss this.

So have another read-through of the poem and with the people around you, or if you're working on your own, just make a few notes onto your poem or onto your paper.

But what I would like you to do, is to find those repeated words in the first and the last stanza.

So pause the video while you have a look and when you think you found it, click play, and we'll discuss it.

Okay, welcome back.

I definitely overheard lots of people zooming in on the line that I was thinking about there.

So I've just brought up the first and the last stanza.

So which line can we see in both of these stanzas? Well, we've got the idea of "silence and tears." So what can we read into Byron's use of repetition here to create this cyclical structure? Well, we could infer that because this idea of silence and tears is repeated at the beginning and the end, throughout the poem, the speaker does not necessarily show any sort of emotional progression.

And by the end of the poem, he still feels that secret sadness that he referred to at the beginning.

So we're not seeing any signs necessarily that our speaker is moving on, or perhaps starting to heal from the negative feelings that the end of this affair caused.

However, if we have a look at the lines that come before this idea of "silence and tears," we perhaps can read into it slightly differently.

Because we have the contrast of when and if, which gives us this idea of certainty versus uncertainty.

When we parted is a definite end at the beginning there.

It's happened.

But this idea at the end of "if." If is a word that suggests uncertainty.

If this happens, there's a possibility that it might.

And that suggests that perhaps the speaker feels that there's still hope, that maybe they'll meet again.

"If I should meet thee." They've not completely ruled out this idea that they might see their partner again.

One way of reading into it is that this speaker still has hope.

However, this repeated idea of silence and tears, these negative feelings, could also suggest that the speaker might be referring to, if I see you again, my feelings for you won't necessarily have changed.

So we have got lots of different ways that we could interpret Byron's use of a cyclical structure here.

So I'd like to pause and check our understanding.

Which of these quotes is repeated in both the first and the last stanza of the poem? Pause the video where you make your mind up, and then click play and I'll reveal the answer.

Well done to those of you who said C, "silence and tears." So we are on to the final practise task of the lesson.

And what I would like you to do for this practise task is to write two paragraphs answering the question below.

How does Byron present the speaker's feelings about his illicit affair? And in order to do that, I would like you to use the essay plan and the vocabulary bank to help you.

So take as long as you need to give this a really good go.

And then when you think you've written your two paragraphs, click play and we'll feedback some responses.

Welcome back, fantastic effort there from lots of you.

I could see some really great paragraphs coming together with people using that structure to identify the writer's methods and also getting in lots of that fantastic vocabulary from the vocabulary bank.

So let's have a look at how you could have approached the task.

And while we're reading through this model answer, I'd like you to have a think about how it compares to what you've written.

"Byron suggests the speaker feels mournful about the end of the relationship.

He uses a cyclical structure, seen in the repetition of 'silence and tears' in both the first and last stanzas.

This implies that the speaker's sadness, symbolised by his 'tears,' is something he will continue to suffer in secret or 'silence,' even now the illicit affair has ended.

It has been suggested that this poem is autobiographical, and was influenced by an affair Byron had with a married aristocrat, Lady Frances Webster.

Arguably, Byron uses this text to highlight the grief he felt following the end of the affair.

And in particular the way that the nature of the relationship required him to grieve for it in secret in order to protect his partner's identity." So does it begin with an inference? Well, yes it does.

The speaker feels mournful about the end of the relationship, with drawing out one of those key ideas in the text there.

Is there supporting evidence? Yes.

Does the response identify the writer's methods? We've got lots of fantastic terminology in there.

Is there a justification of the initial idea? Yes, they do, in this sentence here.

And finally, are there any links to wider context? Yes.

So over to you then.

I'd like to have a read through of this second paragraph about the language.

And I'd like you to identify where it includes inference, evidence, methods, a justification and context.

So pause the video while you have a read, and make your decisions.

And then when you think you're ready to discuss it, click play, and we'll go through it together.

Okay, welcome back.

So let's look at this second paragraph together.

"Furthermore, he implies the speaker is bitter about the relationship and regrets entering into it.

The speaker uses emotive language when he describes hearing his ex-partner's name, a 'shudder comes o'er him,' and 'he shares in its shame,' signifying that he feels bitter resentment towards her and a deep regret for their affair.

Byron was considered somewhat of a celebrity during the Georgian era, and rose to fame almost overnight.

It could be argued that his newfound status caused this regret, something he perhaps alludes to in the lines, 'Thy vows are all broken / And light is thy fame.

' He's aware of his ex-partner's high status, 'thy fame,' and could be concerned about the repercussions for both of them." So there, in that first line, we've got some inference.

The speaker is bitter about the relationship and regrets entering into it.

And we've also got this inference later on.

His newfound status perhaps caused this regret.

Evidence then we have got two key quotations there at the top.

'Shudder comes o'er him,' and 'shares in its shame.

' And we've also got another one there down at the bottom, 'Thy vows are all broken / And light is thy fame.

' So lots of supporting evidence.

Methods.

So we have got emotive language.

And we've also got the word 'eludes,' at the bottom there.

Justification then.

We've got 'signifying that he feels bitter resentment toward her and a deep regret for their affair.

' And then we've also got context.

Byron was considered somewhat of a celebrity during the Georgia era, and rose to fame almost overnight.

So what I'd like you to do is compare this response to your own answer and think really carefully, have you included everything that we have just looked at? So have you included inference, evidence, identification of methods, justification, and a link to context? If you haven't, don't worry, it's your first attempt at doing this.

But what I'd like you to do is set yourself a target for next time.

So thinking really carefully about what went well, what you did really well, and then an even better if.

What could you do next time to make your response even more effective? So pause the video here, while you read through your answer, and set yourself a target.

And then when you're ready to continue, click play.

Okay, fantastic.

Well, we have made it to the end of the lesson.

And I'm so pleased with the efforts that you've all put in today.

So let's just summarise what we've covered today.

Byron reminisces on a past illicit love affair, in "When We Two Parted." He feels somewhat mournful about the end of the relationship and how he had to grieve for it in secret.

He also feels bitter, and somewhat regrets having the affair in the first place.

Byron was a celebrated Georgian poet who found fame almost overnight.

And lastly, the poem is autobiographical, rumoured to be influenced by Byron's affair with the married aristocrat, Lady Frances Webster.

So thanks again for joining me.

I hope you enjoyed today's lesson, and I really hope to see you again soon.

Have a great day.