When We Two Parted - Lord Byron

Question 1

THEMES (2)

Answer 1

1. love and heartbreak

2. loss and reminiscence

Question 2

CONTEXT

Answer 2

likely about his illicit affair & subsequent breakup with Lady Frances Wedderburn-Webster, a married aristocrat, who was later rumored to have had an affair with the Duke of Wellington, a prominent British military leader, which may have spurned Byron to write this poem.

Question 3

FORM

Answer 3

lyrical poem, four octets (rigidity suggests he is trapped in his grief)

Question 4

STRUCTURE

Answer 4

cyclical

Question 5

When we two parted

In silence and tears

Answer 5

Half broken-hearted

To sever for years.

Question 6

Thy vows are all broken

And light is thy fame

Answer 6

I hear thy name spoken

And share in its shame.

Question 7

Long, long shall I rue thee

Answer 7

Too deeply to tell.

Question 8

In secret we met–

In silence I grieve

Answer 8

That thy heart could forget

Thy spirit deceive.

Question 9

If I should meet thee

After long years

Answer 9

How should I greet thee?

With silence and tears.

Question 10

LANGUAGE

diction

Answer 10

relating to cold: her cheek, her kiss; the morning dew (“sunk chill” on his “brow”) [develops tone]

Question 11

TONE

Answer 11

mournful

Question 12

RHYME SCHEME

Answer 12

ababcdcd (simultaneous unity and division)

Question 13

POETIC DEVICES (3)

Answer 13

alliteration; enjambment; aporia (speaker expresses doubt/uncertainity)

Question 14

Why wert

Answer 14

thou so dear?