When We Two Parted - By George Gordon Byron

When We Two Parted

-      By George Gordon Byron

        George Gordon Byron was simply known as ‘Lord Byron’. He was an Anglo-Scottish poet, politician, and a leading figure in the Romantic Movement. He has also written ‘She Walks in Beauty’. I have studied this poem in my graduation.

When we two parted

When we two parted

In silence and tears,

Half broken-hearted

To sever for years,

Pale grew thy cheek and cold,

Colder thy kiss;

Truly that hour foretold

Sorrow to this.

The dew of the morning

Sunk chill on my brow--

It felt like the warning

Of what I feel now.

Thy vows are all broken,

And light is thy fame;

I hear thy name spoken,

And share in its shame.

They name thee before me,

A knell to mine ear;

A shudder comes o’er me--

Why wert thou so dear?

They know not I knew thee,

Who knew thee too well--

Long, long shall I rue thee,

Too deeply to tell.

In secret we met--

In silence I grieve,

That thy heart could forget,

Thy spirit deceive.

If I should meet thee

After long years,

How should I greet thee?--

With silence and tears.

        In this poem, from the very first stanza we come to know that the poet is talking about partition. The poet expresses his feeling of being separate from someone and how he recalls the past. When poet has parted from his lover or we can also say friend, they have parted in silence and tears. There were not any harsh arguments or not any fight but they have parted very calmly and with understanding. In relation this thing is very important. People break up with harsh arguments and fight rather than understanding of love. Poet notices the effect of separation on both sides.

       

       In next stanza poet expresses the broken relationship’s effect in public life. Every moment he remembers the love and care of broken relation and when someone speaks the name of the lady or friend he used to feel the shame because they were unknown now. When any person recalls the name of lady, for poet it was like knelling to his ear. He was very broken because of separation and the name of lady reminds him all the good as well as bad memory he had with her.

     

      When a person ends up any relation, at that time normally s/he recalls the past memories and one question always come to the mind, and that is

“Why wert thou so dear?”

      We don’t understand what changes people’s mind, but once they change than we can never get them back. The same was also happened with the poet. People used to take lady’s name unknowingly, because they were not aware about the past relationship of poet with her. The relation was very secret.

   

     In last stanza poet asks that what if we meet after long years, how the poet would great the lady, and again the answer was,

“Silence and Tears”

     If we love a person and we have separated our self with the person, we separate with understanding. After long time the same person meets us, we cannot communicate easily as before. The best way to communicate is with feelings and poet also talks about it. Because when they will meet the will not able to speak to each other but they will cry definitely. Those feelings will be more valuable than words.