When We Two Parted - Lord Byron

• themes of the poem

  • love and loss
  • regret
  • absence
  • death
  • nature
  • secrecy
• rhyme scheme of the poem


  ABAB CDCD

  • shows the regularity of the speakers sadness
  • not perfect rhymes as the speaker + his lover are not unified anymore
• context for AO3

  • romantic poets are lyrical -> irregular line lengths creates conversational tone + continued rhyme scheme
  • byronic hero -> shows qualities of this archetype of character created in byrons works (e.g. self destruction and being an outsider)
• stanza1

  'when we two parted / in silence and tears / half broken hearted'

  • alliterated w + h -> repetition makes it hard to express
  • sibilance -> sounds uncomfortable

  'pale grew thy cheek and cold / colder thy kiss'

  • death like connotations -> imagery of coldness show speaker mourning their dead relationship
  • thy -> speaker blames lover for the loss rather than their actions or emotions
• stanza 2

  'the dew of the morning ... it felt like the warning of what i feel now'

  • morning -> shows speakers constant sadness
  • dew -> foreshadows speakers tears

  'sunk chill on my brow'

  • cold imagery -> speaker experiences a lack of warmth
  • sunk -> the speaker is heavy and burdened by his lack of love

  'vows are all broken'

  • loss -> significant relationship as vows were made as done similarly in weddings

  'share in its shame'

  • sibilance -> emphasises shame experienced after public breakdown of the relationship
• stanza 3

  'a knell in my ear ; a shudder comes o'er me'

  • death -> knell sound sounds like mourning
  • synaesthesia -> reference to shudder shows the nature of senses mirrors the all consuming nature of the relationship

  'why wert thou so dear'

  • rhetorical question -> alludes to his solitude + unanswered questions about why the relationship failed

  'who knew thee too well'

  • euphemistic -> reference to sexual intercourse where eh earned intimate knowledge of her

  'long long shall i rue thee'

  • emphatic repetition -> shows speakers sense of hopelessness
• stanza 4

  'in secret we met'

  • collective pronouns used rarely -> proves they are no longer united
  • past 'met' -> they used to enjoy each others company but now prefer seperation

  'after long years'

  • optimistic -> hopeful they could reunite
  • repetition-> emphasises pain of moving on and how it still haunts him

  'how should i greet thee? / with silence and tears.'

  • rhetorical question -> uncertainty with someone he was once so intimate with
  • emphatic ending with .-> shows silence and tears are all thats left
  • responds to his own rhetorical questions -> echoes despair as he may never know he answer
• structure of poem

  4x 8 line stanzas

  • shows consistent nature of sadness and separation through even no. of stanzas + lines