When We Two Parted

Poem by George Gordon (Lord) Byron

Of the three poems, I was most drawn to this poem. I think it is because the emotions are really well displayed such that the reader can empathize with the author. After some research, I discovered George Gordon Byron was a British poet who was prodominant in the Romantic Period, thus I was already assuming that this poem would be a romantic poem.

The title was clear and stated what the poem would be about. This poem would be about two people parting, and more particularly the author parting with another, shown by the use of "we". The past tense of "parted" means that this poem is written in the past tense; the author reflecting back on when he and the other person parted.

Looking at the obvious, each stanza has eight lines and there are four stanzas. A clear (and true)rhyming scheme is apparent: ABABCDCD, EFEFGHGH, IJIJKLKL, MNMNOPOP.

The first stanza describes the sad parting of these two people who were "half broken-hearted" that were to "sever for years". It also gives the reader a warning; "truly that hour foretold sorrow to this", so the reader can suspect that this parting will not end happily. The second stanza flashes to the day which the author hears the bad news and describes how already the chill of the dew that morning felt like a warning of something bad to come that day. Perhaps this insight shows that the author deep down knew that it was unlikely these two people would keep their commitment to each other over the distance and time. In this stanza "vows" are mentioned which could be interpreted either as wedding vows or just a word promise to each other. The third stanza describes how he found out, through other's gossip who didn't even know that he knew the other at all. He describes how the truth hurts his ears and how deep the hurt towards her is. In the fourth stanza he admits how he kept their relationship a secret to this third party and decides to grieve silently the fact that the other's heart was able to forget him when his heart could not. Finally, he considers what it would be like to meet this other person in the future and decides it would be similarly; just silence and tears.

From the piece I feel that the speaker is a male most likely speaking of his female lover. This is likely due to the fact that the author is a man; however I could also understand if the poem was meant to depict a woman speaking of a man. The attitude of the poem is of broken-heartedness and deep hurt, as the author recalls a situation where a vow of some sort was disregarding when the lover is unfaithful. It is even arguable that the tone is a little desperate because it feels as if the author is almost saying "why? why did you do this to me?" sort of thing.