when we two parted Flashcards
synopsis
- the speaker states that they have separated with a lover and are upset about it.
- he expresses the impact of the separation on him
- the speaker then says how the relationship was a secret so none of his friends know of the suffering he is enduring
context
- byron was one of the romantics notorious for being entangled in public scandals
- lady caroline lamb (one of his lovers) said he was: “mad, bad and dangerous to know”
- byronic hero (an archetype created by byron himself): rejects authority, sexually attractive, self-destructive, secretive
form and structure
- first person narrative - shows how personal the poem is and highlights the speaker’s isolation
- cyclic narrative - indicates the speakers repetitive and ongoing sadness
- rhyme scheme - repetitive rhythm demonstrates the speaker’s sadness as seemingly endless + regular rhyme scheme (ABAB) - shows separation
- irregular line lengths - conversational tone
- accentual verse: same amount of stresses per line but different number of syllables
when we two parted/porphyria’s lover
+ in porphyria’s lover, browning makes explicit references to death “three times her little throat around//and strangled her” and in when we two parted, byron makes more implicit references to death when comparing his relationship to it - “a knell in mine ear”
- in porphyria’s lover, the speaker describes his body in a way which makes her seem alive in the metaphor “laughed the blue eyes without a stain” or “smiling rosy little head”. however in when we two parted, his love is made to seem physically dead. uses the semantic field of death “pale grew thy cheek”, “in silence i grieve”
when we two parted/neutral tones
+ both speakers use morbid references to express their sadness. byron
does so through his use of auditory imagery in “a knell to mine ear”
and the lack of in “in silence I grieve”. hardy similarly uses the
metaphors “the smile on your mouth was the deadest thing” and “alive enough to have strength to die”.
+ the speaker’s sadness is further shown through the poet’s use of
phonetics. byron uses sibilance in “share in its shame” and “silence
and tears” whilst hardy uses the same technique in “bitterness swept thereby” and “keen lessons that love deceives”.
- in “neutral tones”, the speaker’s dejection is reflected in his negative
description of his surroundings. natural imagery usually has positive connotations however, here this is subverted in the syndetic listing in “your face, and the god curst sun, and a tree, // and a pond edged
with greyish leaves.”. opposingly, in “when we two parted”, the
speaker reflects on his internalised feelings in “in silence I grieve”
“pale grew thy cheek” / “a knell to my ear”
- semantic field of death - the idea of mourning a relationship and likening it to a corpse
- metaphorical death of their relationship
- a knell are bells in funerals - the mourning of a loved one and a life that could’ve been
- ‘pale’ suggests that without the relationship there is no life left
- DEATH IS A MOTIF
“colder thy kiss”
- use of the comparative word ‘colder’ suggests that they gradually grew apart over time
- coldness = emotional coldness or a lack of passion
“i hear thy name spoken, / and share in its shame”
- regrets being with her and suggests that this quickly spread as a rumour
- sibilance suggests quiet and hushed tones, quiet gossip or a hissing, disapproving tone
- she has a reputation for promiscuity, and he’s
ashamed to have known her. Sibilance of sh = secrecy
“long long i shall rue thee”
- he has deep regret for
the affair and doesn’t feel that the poem can fully convey the strength of his bitterness and anger.
“the dew of the morning / sunk chill on my brow”
- juxtaposition of the morning and new beginnings and coldness
- pathetic fallacy - he remains cold despite the freshness of the morning dew
“in secret we met / in silence i grieve”
- collective pronoun ‘we’ became ‘i’ - they were together in secrecy and now he is alone
“how should i greet thee? / with silence and tears”
- rhetorical questions - he is still unable to grapple with the loss
- cyclical structure - even as time and seasons have passed, he is still thinking about his deep feelings
why is this poem almost a shakespearean sonnet but NOT a sonnet?
- not a love poem
- no heartbeat because his heart is broken
- not a traditional relationship
themes
heartbreak, loss, separation, death, mourning
when we two parted/winter swans
+ both poems explore the difficulties encountered within a relationship
- both attribute some of the difficulties encountered in the relationship towards a lack of communication - WS describes the couples as “silent and apart” and WWTP described the speaker as “in silence and tears”.
- in WWTP, the couple is already separated and do not reunite, however in
WS they begin separated however reunite at the end of the poem. - both poems have stanzas of a set length, eight for WWTP and three
(mostly) for WS
