When We Two Parted

poet

Lord Byron

context

• the speaker overhears his friends gossiping about a woman with whom he once had an affair unknown to them

• this forces him to relive the painful memory of their break up years earlier and reflects on the lasting emotional impact of the relationship

• themes → shame, secrecy, loss memory and the lasting impact of heartbreak

In silence and in tears

• nouns

• he was more emotionally invested

• she was quiet = ‘silence’

• he was distraught = ’tears’

pale grew thy cheek and cold, colder they kiss

• semantics of death → her passion for him is gone

• archaic word for you ‘thy’ → talks to her directly

the dew of the morning

• pathetic fallacy → cold weather symbolises new season → marks end of relationship

I hear thy name spoken and share in its shame

• sibilance → highlights secrecy he feels isolated as he can’t share or talk about his relationship

A knell in mine ear; a shudder comes o’er me

• metaphor

• noun ‘knell’=bell → bell rings out at funerals → her name is a reminder of the death of their relationship

• verb ‘shudder’ → physical reaction shows the power she has over him

I knew thee ,who knew thee too well

• verb ‘knew’ and repetition → suggests they had an intimate relationship

Long, long shall I rue thee

• repetition → the extent of his emotion + long lasting emotional damage

• caesura

• vowel sound ‘ue’ ‘ee’ → emphasise emotional damage drawn out

• verb ‘rue’ → he bitterly regrets relationship and wishes it undone

In secret we met - in silence I grieve

• anaphora → adds to the parallels

• parallelism → connection between affair and impact on speaker

• semantics of death → affair led to his pain ( one led to another)

With silence and tears

• cyclical structure → shows how things have changed after all those years the he still feels deeply about her

• he is now alone

• if they met again he would be quite but still emotional

structure

• ABAB rhyme scheme → consistent, measured and dignified

• → amplifies his feeling

• circular structure → memories will not go away

• title → ‘we’ addresses his lover, ‘parted’ → past tense as poet is reflecting on events