structure
point of view
lexemes
repetition
grammar/syntax
word-classes
punctuation
configuration
sound
metre
atmosphere
background
transfer
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This poem voices the emotional aftermath of a separation from a
first-person speaker's point of view. With remarkable frankness, the speaker
lays open a spectrum of partly conflicting feelings, brooding over the loss
of love, over his general sorrow, and particular emotions such as grief,
shame, hurt pride, disappointment, disdain, regret, hope, and despair. In the
poem, time does not prove to be a healer, leaving the speaker behind in a
depressive mood to the very end. The quality of the poem may be "marred
by the air of moral sniffyness at a couple of points"
*1* ; yet does such a quality
virtually add to the credibility of the subject and theme worded by "the
most antithetical of men, and one of the most self-divided of poets."
*2* (cf. background below)
structure
(1)
the splitting-up - only the start of an emotional collapse? (2) the morning
after - increasing sorrow, (first) disappointment; shame and sympathy for an
ill-famed woman. (3) deepest (inward) humiliation, disdain, doubts and
regrets. (4) résumé, outlook
point of view
The
poet's use of a first-person speaker lends a high degree of credibility to
the revelation and description of intimate personal thoughts and emotions.
lexemes
Poetic
etc. use of words: (1) etc. thy = your,(2) light < lit.>
= happy, cheerful, free of worries, (3) thee = you (acc.), knell <lit.>
= bell rung at a funeral etc.; mine = my; wert = were, o'er
= over; thou = you (nom.), rue = regret; Neglecting the
speaker's emotions, a "factual account" of the circumstances of the
separation could be based on the following observations: the separation puts
an end to a secret love affair: (4,1) In secret we met. (2), (3)
People who remain anonymous, perhapsrelatives, friends, or members of a
certain circle of society mention the woman's name, even in front of the
speaker, not knowing about his feelings: I hear thy name spoken ...
They name thee before me ... They know not I knew thee. (2,6) The
woman's renown is dubious: [her] fame is light (s.a.), i.e. she
is probably not considered to be a person of a profound and serious character
etc.; in connection with the aspect of shame (2,8), this seems to
allude to immoral behaviour, the secret love affair having been another
instance as such. The lovers split up for an indefinite period of time, the
concrete reason for the separation remaining unknown: (1) We two parted
... to sever (break, cut off the relationship) for years. There is
the possibility of meeting again (see (4, 5-8)); yet, against the emotional
background revealed by the speaker, there hardly seems to be any chance of a
reconciliation.
The
gist of the poem, however, is represented by the speaker's highly subjective
perceptions and feelings during and after the splitting-up. Since, at the
moment of separation, both lovers find themselves in silence and tears
.. [/ and] Half broken-hearted (the latter complex being a complement
attributed to we two in the first line), up to this point, the woman
shares his feelings, reacting in the same speechless way to the loss of a
person who has been a close friend or lover. The closeness felt by the
speaker is disclosed by (4,4) Why wert thou so dear? and (3,5) I
knew thee [/] Who knew thee too well (intimacy; see, however,
conflicting emotions below).
During
the separation he senses the woman's loss of affection, as it is reflected by
physical phenomena: (1,5) pale grew [her] cheek and cold
(change of complexion, decrease in skin temperature, due to reduced
circulation of the blood) *3*; a clearly
sensual aspect is the loss of passion he perceives during the act of kissing:
(1,6) [Her] kiss [grows] Colder.
Whereas
the woman has obviously overcome the sadness etc. connected with the
separation (s.b.), the speaker falls into a state of depression; (1, 7-8) in
this respect, that hour only foreshadows the augmenting degree of sorrow
(unhappyness, sadness, grief and other, partly conflicting, feelings; s.b.)
arising in the wake of the split-up until the "present hour" (this),
and leading him into an even deeper state of dejection. From a
psychological viewpoint, the element of silence (s.a.) may have had a
strong effect on the
speaker: moments of silence generally are very touching and dramatic; another
aspect is that suppressed feelings, i.e. feelings which are not
"ex-pressed" in some way, tend to linger on - in the
subconscious etc. (the tears have thus been an insufficient kind of
"outlet"). The next step in the speaker's emotional downfall is
taken on the morning after the separation (morning = start of a
new day, new period of life; here the "dawning", i.e. realisation,
of the true extent of loss etc.). A metaphor describes his feelings: (2, 1-2)
The dew of the morning (drops of water forming in the cold of dawn;
association: tears, cold s.a.) sunk (indicating the
speaker's low position: depression, dejection) chill on [his] brow,
chill being an unpleasant coldness, the sensation of it; or even "an
illness marked by coldness and shaking of the body" *4* (cf. cold above, shudders
below); the brow is the anatomical feature behind which thoughts and
emotions are formed, which are hampered now by the cold; it is also one of
the parts of the body where fever is felt first. The chill (It)
is only like the warning of the speaker's present feelings; the
emotional state "on the morning after" becomes another
foreshadowing, which, as such, emphasises the present degree of depression
etc. (2, 3-4).
Conflicting
emotions, of which depression or dejection is only one aspect, are revealed
through reactions and thoughts communicated at various points of the poem:
(2, 5-8) Thy vows are all broken (all, det. = every single one
of; all, adv. = wholly, altogether etc.; used for emphasis in
either case); this breaking of solemn promises or "breach of
contract", which is not specified
at this point, might provoke strong disappointment at least (cf. 4, 2-4;
s.b.). He feels ashamed himself, or sympathises with the woman when her name
is publically put shame on (s.a. ill fame). (3,1) Whenever the
woman's name etc. is mentioned in his very presence (s.a.) it sounds
like a knell to [his] ear, i.e., he virtually seems to wish
that the ground would open and swallow him up in order to prevent him from
feeling (inward) shame or embarassment. A physical reaction to such a
confrontation is the shudder (uncontrollable reaction provoked by cold
(s.a.), dislike, disgust, disdain, embarassment, shame, s.a.; less likely:
reminiscences of happy days) which comes o'er (over) him; the latter
phrase puts him in a passive, and, again, a low position (s.a.).
Perhaps
as a result of this, in (3,4), he utters ironical doubt about the worth of
the relationship as a whole, or of the degree of his emotional involvement,
using a rhetorical question: Why wert thou so dear? In this context the
meaning of (3,6; s.a.intimacy, closeness) is ambiguous: having known
the woman too well might also hint at presentiments felt, but
suppressed, by the speaker during the relationship. The latter statement, or
all the preceding thoughts, prompt the feeling and expression of deep regret
at having had a relationship with her: (3, 7-8) Long, long shall I rue
thee, [/] Too deeply to tell.
In
spite of the distance gained in (3), the pains and sufferings go on; his
grief cannot be expressed openly, but only in silence (4,2)
corresponding to the secret character of the love affair (s.a.). His
silent grieving unavoidably stirs up memories of the separation itself, i.e.
the moment when the feeling of sheer loss manifested itself in silence and
tears (s.a.); the subsequent lines indicate that disappointment now forms
an additional and substantial component of his sadness etc. He blames the
woman for the breach of contract; bearing both emotional and spiritual
aspects (s.a. vows) in mind, he grieves, i.e. he virtually complains, that
[her] heart could forget, i.e. that she has meanwhile ceased to
remembermoments of love and affection etc., and that her spirit [could]
deceive, i.e. that also the "reasoning" part of her mind has
become untrue and dishonest towards him.
In
(4, 5-7) the speaker imagines a future meeting, which is not deemed
impossible, although to be considered rather unlikely towards the end of the
poem (if + use of modal auxiliary: if I should meet thee [/] After
long years; cf. (1,4) to sever for years); the subsequent question
expresses emotional uncertainty about the first moment of a potential
encounter, the dash at the end of the line indicating a pause for thought: How
should I greet thee?- ; the use of the modal auxiliary should
provides ambiguity, as to whether the speaker is, perhaps apprehensively,
pondering over his most likely reaction, or is seeking to give himself
"strategic" advice; in the first case, an encounter, finding the
speaker pent-up with frustration, shame etc., and haunted by positive
memories and feelings, would simply trigger his relapse into the depressive
mood associated with the moment of the separation; in the latter case, the
speaker would use silence and tears (4,8) as an instrument (With...)
in order to communicate his emotional state to his former mistress, his
ulterior motives remaining open to speculation (reconciliation, revenge?).
repetition
Terms
associated with feelings: When we two parted (title and first line;
emphasising the "key moment"); (1,2), (4,8) silence and tears
(impressive situational factors; note potential shift of meaning in (4) in
connection with "instrumental" use; s.a.); (4,2) silence;
aspect of coldness: (1,5-6) cold, cold [-er]; this aspect is
also repeated as a connotation of (2,2) chill and (3,3) shudder;
(2, 3-4) felt, feel; lost relationship: (1,3) broken[-hearted],
(2,5) broken [vows], (1,3) [broken-]hearted,
(4,3) heart [could forget].
Terms
stressing duration of time, suffering etc.: (1,4) [for] years,
(4,6) [After long] years; (3,7) Long, long, (4,6)
long [years]; Other terms: (4, 5-6) (know), knew,
knew; (4, 5 and 7) should, with change of meaning (s.a.);
personal pronouns: we, thy, thee, I (s.b.); (3,6), (3,8) too
(cf. word-classes, syntax - enjambment)
parallelism:
4,1-2) In + noun (secret/silence); the phrases we met
/ I grieve contrast togetherness vs. loneliness and the respective
actions linked to either state; (4, 3-4) [That] thy ... + noun
+ verb [/] Thy + noun + verb; this parallelism helps to organise
thought without breaking up the enjambment (s.b.).
grammar/syntax
In
(1, 1-6) and (4, 2-4 and 5-8) relatively long syntactic units (various
sentence/clause types) seem to reflect profound emotional involvement. As in
the stanzas referred to in the following, each two successive lines are
semantically linked, i.e. the thought is carried on from one line into
another, according to the predominant pattern of run-on lines or enjambment *5* (cf. punctuation, metre). Within this
structural pattern, repetition (e.g. cold, colder, felt, feel, knew
etc.; pronouns; s.b.), parallelism (s.a.), and contrast (that hour ...
this, s.a. lexemes) help to resume aspects, thus linking the two parts
of the enjambment, respectively. (4,1) can be considered an end-stopped line.v
In
contrast to the longer constructions in the first and last stanza, in (2) and
(3) each successive pair of lines forms a detachable syntactic and semantic unit;
concise, rational thought prevails, with the speaker gaining some emotional
distance (s.a.). Nevertheless, also in these stanzas the first and the last
two pairs, respectively, combine to larger units of thought (cf. punctuation,
end-rhyme pattern). Questions: (3,4): irony, doubt; (4,7) real uncertainty or
rhetorical question. Note (3,5): poetic or old form of negation: know not
word-classes
In
particular, adverbs help to describe the intensity of feelings etc.: (1,3) half,
(2,5) all (unless determiner; s.a.),(3,4) so, (3,6) verb + (too
+) well (3,8) too + deeply + verb. According to the
nature of the subject, there is frequent use of personal pronouns (including
possessive pronouns, different cases); the first-person speaker's thoughts
(point of view; s.a.) provide a permanent shift of focus: (title, (1)) the
two lovers are included in we; (1) shift from we to thy
(the woman being the object of the speaker's feelings etc. she is the first
of the two to be focused on individually; as a rule of chivalry?); (2)
alternating reference to himself and the woman: my-I / thy-thy,
I / thy; (3) broadening of perspective: social aspect (They);
alternation (s.a.): thee / me, mine-me / thou, I /
thee-thee, I / thee; (4) shift to/from we to I
(s.a. parallelism), I / thy-thy, I / thee, I / thee;
the woman is most frequently represented by a pronoun in the object case (thee;
s.a. object of feelings).Various tenses are used indicating the duration of
the speaker's sufferings past - present - "modal future" (4).
punctuation
Commas
help to organise aspects, hardly interrupting trains of thought which extend
across lines, semicolons create significant pause at the end of two
successive lines (end of two-line enjambment) and full stops confine larger
semantic units (s.a.). Dashes are used at different points for pause or
connection. In (4, 1-2), the dash seems to substitute a full stop. Question
marks signal doubt, uncertainty etc. (s.a.).
configuration
Byron
obviously avoided the typographical convention of the ballad stanza, which
would have been a plausible choice, too, in congruence with the logical and
grammatical pattern of the run-on lines used in the poem (s.b.); instead he
created rather an individual form which he perhaps found more adequate for
the very personal matter than the all-too common alternative, and which, of
course, matches the chosen rhyme pattern. The eight-line stanza suits the
complexity of the emotions but, owing to the shortness of the lines, retains
the conciseness of lyrical poetry *6*
- in comparison with the five-footed 'ottiva rima' as the most typical
form of octave, which was often used by poets such as SPENSER, MILTON, and
BYRON himself. *7*
sound
The end-rhyme
pattern (A-B-A-B)-(C-D-C-D) corresponds to the pattern of thought, linking
larger semantic units (s.a. syntax, punctuation); most of the rhymes are
perfect; identical rhymes occur in (3) and (4), putting particular stress on
the word me, and, by means of quadruple end-repetition, even more
emphasis on thee. Within the succession of the short, two-footed lines
the sound effect of the end-rhymes is very dominant, but, to a considerable
extent, also the close repetition of words at other points (s.a.) is
responsible for congruences of consonant and vowel sounds. In combination
with, or in addition to, these phonetic complexes the repetition of single
phonetic elements (alliteration/ consonance, assonance) contributes to the
unity of sound: (1) /w/ in (1,1), (1, 5-8) voiced /th/-phoneme and
/o/-sounds, (1, 5-6) /k/, (2) /ai/, (2, 6-8) end-rhymes + internal rhyme name
(2,8) /sh/-phoneme, (3, 1-3) /m/, (3, 1-4) /i:/, (3, 4) /w/, (3, 5-6)
voiced /th/-phoneme, /n/, (3, 5-8) /u:/, (3, 7-8) /l/, (3,8) /t/, (4) /t/,
(4, 1-2) /s/, etc.
metre
Most
of the run-on lines (s.a.), i.e. each two consecutive lines, can be scanned
in rather a fluent rhythm, as (1, 1-2), for example.
When we two parted [/] In silence and tears [/]
- ' - ' - - ' - - '
Half broken-hearted [/] To sever for years [/]
' - - ' - - ' - - '
Others clearly demand an interruption of the flow of speech, providing meaningful
"pauses of thoughtfulness", as in (1,5-6), where there are two consecutive
stressed syllables, in (4, 5-6), where line 6 starts with an accented
syllable, and in (4,7-8), where, quite naturally, a moment for reflection
seems to be necessary before a "reply" to the rhetorical question
is given.
Pale grew thy cheek and cold [///] Colder thy kiss
' - - ' - ' /// ' - - '
If I should meet thee [///] After long years [/]
' - - ' - /// ' - - '
How should I greet thee [///] With silence and tears. ' - - ' - /// - ' - - '
Some
interesting variation is to be found in (4, 1-4), giving this part an
identity of its own (s.a. structure: "résumé"); again, the absence
of a light syllable creates an effectful pause; (4, 1-2) are end-stopped
lines (s.a. syntax):
In secret we met [/]
- ' - - '
In silence I grieve [/]
- ' - - '
That thy heart could forget [/] - - ' - - '
Thy spirit deceive [/]
- ' - - '
atmosphere
sad,
moody; at points bitter, ironical>
background
Byron's
numerous love affairs, his experience of public scandal etc. *8*make an autobiographical background seem
likely. Byron himself has obviously kept discretion on behalf of the woman,
leaving it to posterity to guess at her identity and the nature of the
relationship. *9*
transfer
The
speaker's fairness - is he a man of morality? "Moral sniffiness"
(disdain etc.) - a flaw or a legitimate element of this lyrical
poem? Psychological aspects: The psychological development of the speaker.
Time and suffering - Why is time not always a healer? On the basis of these
topics transfer to personal experiences is possible, but it might hurt
private feelings. Other possibilities: The secret love affairs and feelings
of those in the lime-light (e.g. Prince Charles - Lady "Di") - a
public matter? Formal aspects: the poly-functionality of elements in this
poem.
__________________________________
*1* K. AMIS, a contemporary poet, commenting on this
poem in a newspaper gloss; the source is a newspaper cutting (DAILY EXPRESS)
from an unknown date.
*2* KERMODE et al., VOL. II, p. 285
*3* Physiologically speaking, such bodily
reactions are influenced by nervous impulses from the brain's limbic cortex
which contains clusters of nerve cells responsible for emotional aspects of
behaviour.
*4*
LONGMAN,
Dictionary of Contemporary English, p.167
*5* cf. MORNER et al, p. 192;
"genuine" run-on lines are (1, 1-2) and (4, 5-6), for example;
enjambment in the narrowest sense would perhaps exclude a separation of
aspects by commas; yet could lines concluded by a comma hardly be termed as
"end-stopped lines".
*6* cf. MORNER et al, p. 126
*7* cf. MORNER et al, p. 155; BYRON'S satirical
epic poem "Don Juan" perhaps being this author's most relevant
work; cf. KERMODE et al., VOL II, p. 286, 315ff.
*8*
cf.
KERMODE et al., VOL. II, p. 285f.
*9* Lady Frances Wedderburn Webster, with whom he
had a 'platonic' affair, or Caroline Lamb?; cf. KERMODE, F., p. 209; cf. BURR,
p. 73
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