1stindividual

WHEN WE TWO PARTED
by: George Gordon (Lord) Byron (1788-1824)

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:
Lond, long shall I rue thee,
Too deeply to tell.

I secret we met--
I 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.

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   First of all (and as an introduction) I would like to explain what my paper is going to be about. I am going to analyse one poem of Lord Byron, who is one of the romantic poets that we have studied in class.

   Secondly, according to the title of the poem “When we two parted”, we find it is easy to know what the poem is talking about, I mean, the break up of a relationship. In my opinion, this is an emotional poem for all the people who have suffered it. Although that fact is related with nice words, it is not an experience that everybody wants to have, but these words can help people that need expressing their feelings since these words reflect this universal feeling.

   Thirdly, the poem (written in 1808) is divided into four stanzas, each one with eight lines, (although it is like every two lines are one). The rhyme is A-B-A-B-C-D-C-D. On one hand, Lord Byron uses past tenses to describe the facts that happened in the past in one moment of his time. But on the other hand he uses the present simple tense because he is telling us that the sadness he felt is the same that he still feels nowadays.
   There is one element in this poem that I would like to comment as well, and that is the use of the “dew of the morning” in the second stanza of the poem. On one hand it is an antiromantic element as others like the lack of Romantic´s ideals of equality, freedom and progress that Byron uses. And on the other hand it is symbolically associated with the “tears” in the first stanza.
   Reading the poem, we do not know who the poem is addressed to, and if it is a woman or a man, but I think that it is a woman.

•   The first stanza:
   Byron starts describing the separation between him and his romantic partner. He says that his fact was bitter for him. She was becoming cold, and this made him suffer and at the same time, with this, he could predict the grief that he had now.
•   The second stanza:
   The author describes how his environment, specifically a cold morning, symbolizes for him at the same time a cold feeling, I mean, a sad feeling, and one day started like this, predicting the sorrow he feels now.
   The vows she made him were broken now, and he feels embarrassment only hearing her name.
•   The third stanza:
   He says that when somebody says her name he shudders and feels melancholic, and he wonders how he could love her so much.
   “They know not I knew thee”: is like anybody knows that they had a relationship, or like they met in secret, without the knowledge of nobody.
   He thinks now that he must regret about everything that happened, and furthermore all this is too hard to express.
•   Final stanza:
   It begins saying what I hope in the last stanza, I mean, that it was really that they met in secret. Byron, at the same time compares it with what he feels now is in secret too, and we can see as he suffers alone because her heart changed while he loved her, so this was very hard for him.
   But looking for better times in the future, he thinks that if we were to meet her again, “he would greet her with silence and tears”.

   In conclusion, I am going to explain what this poem means to me. I think Byron used his skill to put his hurt feelings in writing. This is a very hard thing to do, because sometimes people have no words to express half of the things they can feel or think.
   Lord Byron lived sadness in this moment and maybe he wanted to write it to help other people in the same situation.
   I am sure everybody can understand his words, and I think if everybody could read this poem they had a help with these words.
   When we are young people we fall in love so easily and so intensely, and this is my reason to think that all people had suffered a break up of a relation. It would be very estrange (and nice, as well) to share the life with the same person you fell in love the first time, but unfortunately, it is rarely possible. People change, and with this changes their interests, liking, pleasures too, so what they look for themselves when they are young is not the same what they look for when they are adults. This is understandable, but it does not mean that it does not implicate suffering and grief. Obviously if you are the person who breaks the relationship you do not feel the same as if you were who wants to continue it, and this last person feels exactly what Byron is describing here. Both of them can have a bad time at this moment, but when you are who want to continue with this relationship and it ends you feel an anguish very hard to explain. Maybe with Byron´s words you can understand it better, or do not feel alone, because this is a thing that happens to all the people.