Analysis of `When we Two Parted

Lord Byron wrote many poems throughout his life. When we Two Parted was written in 1808
with a collection of poems named The Poetical Works of Lord Byron. Byrons poetry stands out
for its strenght and power of its words, which reflect perfectly the feeling of which the poem is
talking about in an extremist way. This is seen in poem below, where past love and coldness
dominate the feelings of the poet.
The theme of this poem is a mixture of past love and passion which a man felt for a woman
converted into coldness and a sense of deception for being fooled, though is not clear the reasons
of the separation of the lovers.
In the first stanza, Byron describes the feelings of the man as being destroyed emotionally for
the separation; In silence and tears, Half broken-hearted To server for years , but, at the same
time, it describes the cold attitude of the woman Pale grew thy cheek and cold, Colder thy
kiss. This first part of the poem, describes how each one felt or the attitude they adopted when
they saw each other for the last time, at the moment of the separation. In the second stanza, it
seems that time has past, The dew of the morning, and sorrow and grieve invades the man and
the dew is described as the premonition of what is feeling now The dew of the morning Sank
chill on my brow It felt like the warning, Of what I feel now. The second part of the 2nd stanza
gives a sense of spite and resentment as it says Thy vows are all broken And light is thy fame:I
hear thy name spoken, And share in its shame.. The man reproaches the woman being treasoned
and fooled by her, breaking the promises she made to him. Apparently, he feels ashamed of her
or of the relation he had with her as it says he shares shame when he hears her name.
The third stanza continues expressing what he feels when people mention her name, A knell in
mine ear; A shudder come oer me - the words knell and shudder give a sense of death and
discomfort at the hearing of her name. On the last lines of this stanza, it emphasizes the fact that
they were secret lovers, the people who knew her dont know about their relationship. They
know not I knew thee, Who knew thee too well: -. The fourth stanza reiterates the secretism of
the relationship, In secret we met -, and the mislead of the woman towards the man, Thy
spirit deceive. It ends with the repeating of the sorrow he feels and will feel if they ever
encounter again; If I should meet thee After long years, How should I greet thee! With silence
and tears..
The poem has controversial points which leave the reader with a doubt of the real reference of
the poem. The fact that the poem is written in a first-person perspective leads to think that it
might be a biographical poem, a personal love experience. This could be perfectly possible due
to the numerous affairs that Lord Byron had durnig his life. The other uncertain point is if the
lover who is referring to in the poem is a man or a woman, we cannot be sure of it since the lover
is only referred with the second person pronoun which enables us to distinguish if it is a man or a
woman. In the case of being biographical, it is known that Byron also had intimate relationships
with men.