A Leave- Taking by Swinburne

Summary
‘A Leave-Taking’ by Algernon Charles Swinburne discusses how the poet took
leave from the lady whom the poet loved the most.
‘A Leave-Taking’  by Algernon Charles Swinburne is an emotional poem about
a lady’s rejection of the poet’s love. In the poem, the poet talks with his verse
that was composed of the lady. He tells it to take leave from the lady to whom
it was dedicated. The lady is so passive that she can’t hear the pang of the
poet. Even if the poet goes elsewhere, she won’t know or weep about it. There
is a firm resistance in her heart against the poet’s heartfelt words.

The poet also says though the verse he is writing for the lady doesn’t infuse
love in her. The reason is she doesn’t care about all the things the poet does
after being rejected. In the end, the grief-stricken poet feels that even if “all
men seeing had pity on me”, the lady cast her eyes elsewhere and remain
constant in not accepting the poet’s proposal.

Structure
‘A Leave-Taking’  by Algernon Charles Swinburne is a love-lyric that talks about
an egotistical lady who rejected the poet’s love. However, the poet employs
the well-known dramatic monologue form in this poem to express his feelings.
Moreover, there are a total of six stanzas consisting of seven lines each. The
poem follows a regular rhyming pattern that presents the rhyme scheme of a
closed couplet. However, the last three lines of each stanza form a
rhyming tercet. Apart from that, the whole poem is composed of iambic
pentameter with a few variations. As an example, the last line of each stanza is
in iambic dimeter.

Literary Devices
‘A Leave-Taking’ by Algernon Charles Swinburne is a poem that contains
several literary devices that make the poet’s feelings more appealing to the
readers. The first and foremost poetic device used in the poem is
personification. Employing it the poet directly talks with his verse and
this dialogue between a poet and his verse reflects how lonely the poet was at
the time of writing this poem. Another device used in the poem is anaphora.
As an example, the first two lines of the first and second stanzas, and the fifth
and sixth lines of the second stanza contain this device. The poet also
uses apostrophe for invoking the poetic spirit of his songs in the poem.

Apart from that, the poet uses some metaphors and similes in the poem. As an

example, in the second stanza, “And all the world is bitter as a tear” is an
example of a simile. In this line, the poet also uses metonymy in the usage of
the word “world”. Metaphors are present in the lines such as “Love is a barren
sea, bitter and deep” and “Though all the stars made gold of all the air”. The
poet also uses litotes in the poem. Moreover, the line “Deep down the stifling
lips and drowning hair” contains a synecdoche.

Analysis, Stanza by Stanza

Stanza One
Let us go hence, my songs; she will not hear.
Let us go hence together without fear;
Keep silence now, for singing-time is over,
And over all old things and all things dear.
She loves not you nor me as all we love her.
Yea, though we sang as angels in her ear,
         She would not hear.
‘A Leave-Taking’  by Algernon Charles Swinburne makes it clear, in the first
stanza, that the poet is a permanent leave from a lady. It is the end of all the
wooing and nagging, the poet did before. Now, along with his verse, he is
about to leave the lady’s world. Before leaving, he has to say something to
that cruel lady who has caused the poet’s heart so much pain. There is
a tone of irony in this section. However, in the first four lines, the poet tells
himself not to wait any longer. The “singing-time” is over and the lady, like an
old but dear thing, has to be left behind. The poet tried to please her in every
manner possible. The lady didn’t give an ear to the songs the poet had
composed for her. For such a passive response, the poet takes leave of the
lady.

Stanza Two
Let us rise up and part; she will not know.
Let us go seaward as the great winds go,
Full of blown sand and foam; what help is here?
There is no help, for all these things are so,
And all the world is bitter as a tear.
And how these things are, though ye strove to show,
         She would not know.
In the second stanza of ‘A Leave-Taking’, Swinburne tells himself or his song to
rise and take the way to the sea. After the lady’s calm response, the poet has
lost the feeling that he had for the earth. Now, earthly joys seem to him a
burden. The bitterness for the place the lady inhabits, makes him leave for the
sea. The poet thinks there might be something in the sea’s heart that can
understand the poet’s pain. However, the lady is so ignorant about the poet’s
existence that she can’t even know where he is or is going to.

Stanza Three
Let us go home and hence; she will not weep.
We gave love many dreams and days to keep,
Flowers without scent, and fruits that would not grow,
Saying ‘If thou wilt, thrust in thy sickle and reap.’
All is reaped now; no grass is left to mow;
And we that sowed, though all we fell on sleep,
         She would not weep.
In the third stanza of ‘A Leave-Taking’, the poet appears somehow puzzled in
his thoughts. Previously, he has talked about going to the sea. Now, he is
talking about going to his home. Such a conflict reflects how dedicated the
poet was to the lady. However, in this section, the poet uses metaphors like
sowing, reaping, and sowing not in their literal sense. Here, the poet talks
about the seeds of love that the poet had sown in his heart. In the present
scenario, everything is mown. What is left is the poet’s reaped mind with some
scattered pain rising their heads here and there.

Stanza Four
Let us go hence and rest; she will not love.
She shall not hear us if we sing hereof,
Nor see love’s ways, how sore they are and steep.
Come hence, let be, lie still; it is enough.
Love is a barren sea, bitter and deep;
And though she saw all heaven in flower above,
         She would not love.
In the fourth stanza of ‘A Leave-Taking’,  the poet expresses his laxity about
what he did before. Now all he wants is rest from all the emotional turmoil
that’s going on in his mind. The “love’s ways” aren’t soft and soothing as the
poet has suffered mental pain in this way. Now, there is a realization in the
poet’s mind that love is metaphorically a sea that is bitter, barren, and deep.
There is no hope left in it. At last, the poet imagines if the lady had ever
thought about the poet’s feelings, her egotist mind never allowed her to fall in
love with the poet.

Stanza Five
Let us give up, go down; she will not care.
Though all the stars made gold of all the air,
And the sea moving saw before it move
One moon-flower making all the foam-flowers fair;
Though all those waves went over us, and drove
Deep down the stifling lips and drowning hair,
         She would not care.
In the fifth stanza of ‘A Leave-Taking’, the poet uses the metaphor of the sea
for expressing how miserable the poet is without the lady. There are some
contrasting images in this stanza that present the poet’s suffering at one hand
and the passivity not only of the lady but also of the whole creation. Such a
hyperbolic expression only comes from a person in extreme mental pain like
the poet is. However, the poet feels like drowning in this symbolic sea and his
stifling lips can’t utter a single word. Even if the poet is undergoing all such
pains, “she wouldn’t care”.

Stanza Six
Let us go hence, go hence; she will not see.
Sing all once more together; surely she,
She too, remembering days and words that were,
Will turn a little toward us, sighing; but we,
We are hence, we are gone, as though we had not been there.
Nay, and though all men seeing had pity on me,
         She would not see.
In the sixth stanza of ‘A Leave-Taking’, the poet talks as if he is no more in this
world. In this context, he thinks about the attitude of the lady. According to
the poet, like the old days, if the poet sings again, she might look at him but
“a little” toward them. If she sighs for the loss, the poet won’t be there. At last,
the ironic remark about the lady’s passivity heightens the emotional effect the
poet has created in the previous sections. He thinks that men might pity after
looking at the poet’s pathetic fallacy for loving such a cruel lady. But, the lady,
“would not see”.

Historical Context
‘A Leave-Taking’  by Algernon Charles Swinburne reflects the artistic sensibility
of the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood. This group was founded in 1848. Christina
Georgina Rossetti‘s brother Dante Gabriel Rossetti and William Morris were
also part of the group. They tried to bring up the importance of the pre-
Renaissance art forms through their works. In this poem too, the
vibrant imagery reflects the influence of this artistic movement on the poet’s
mind.