When We Two Parted

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1816

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Form and Meter

“When We Two Parted” is a four-stanza poem with eight lines per stanza, for a total of 32 lines. It is considered an example of accentual verse, meaning that no matter the count of syllables in a line, there must be the same number of accented stresses. The majority of the lines in the poem include two stresses; for example, “To sever for years” (Line 4). The exception is in Lines 5 and 7 that describe the coldness foretelling the future, which helps to solidify the mood. The rhyme scheme is ABABCDCD. The end rhymes, while often enjambed (the meaning is wrapped over to the next line), help to create a driving rhythm, perhaps to mimic the “knell” (Line 18) alluded to in Stanza 3. Byron’s organizing structure is that incidents in the past, such as the parting, can foretell the future, Frances’s current trouble. While the poem never mentions a party or specific event, the repeated “they” may suggest such an event, or at least a larger social network of voices.

Consonance and Alliteration

Byron’s use of sound techniques—particularly consonance (repeated consonant sounds within words) and alliteration (repeated sounds at the beginning of words)—enhances the emotions of the poem, especially in two key places. In the description “Pale grew thy cheek and cold, / Colder thy kiss” (Lines 5-6), Byron uses the consonance of the hard “k” to show the undercurrent of breakage in the relationship. Here, the clipped response enhances the idea of severing that occurs a line before. While the audience knows they parted, this line hints at a friction as to why they parted. Byron also uses alliteration in this same way later in the lines “I hear thy name spoken, / And share in its shame” (Lines 15-16) when alluding to hearing the rumors regarding Frances. The repetitive “s” indicates the hissing spread of gossip as well as the slink of the growing embarrassment he feels. These uses of consonance and alliteration enhance the key emotions in the trajectory of the poem.

Excision and Revision

In 1823, Byron revealed that he revised the poem to excise (remove a section of content) a stanza from the end of “When We Two Parted.” Whether this was, despite his anger, to protect Frances from further gossip or not, the choice serves the poem. The opening line of that stanza (See: Background), “Then fare thee well, Fanny” (Gore), both names Frances by her nickname and suggests Byron has said goodbye to her. By excising the stanza, he helped strengthen the poem’s themes in two main ways. First, he eliminated a definitive conclusion, leaving the reader to speculate what will happen “[i]f [he] should meet” (Line 29) Frances after learning of her affair. This heightens our perception of his pain at not knowing the outcome and justifies his prediction that such a meeting would contain “silence and tears” (Line 32). More importantly, by excising a stanza that included Frances’s name, he did not participate in the continuing gossip regarding her affairs, which heightens the idea that he was alone with grief and not part of the community contributing to Frances’s own. Byron had also used many of these last lines in an undressed poem addressed to Caroline Lamb, “Go—triumph securely” in 1814 (See: Further Readings & Resources). His attempt to reuse them didn’t fit the scenario as well, and he deleted them, perhaps for propriety but more likely as an authorial edit for a better poem.