Julie Randall's Canonball

Julie Randall, Foss, Eng 335B, 31 March 2011

When We Two Parted

While the “Romantic Era” is an era that questions the very core of society, by looking at independence, freedom, and reform, there is an underlying principle to the era which is altogether missing from our British Romantic Literature canon. This missing principle is love. While the scholarly approach to “romantic literature” does not contain the same feelings brought by association to the modern meaning, we must keep it in mind when looking at any piece of literature. Love is transcended through all time frames, and while it may not be as monumental as slavery and women’s rights, it is still a driving force in the lives of many of the poets we studied, most notably, George Gordon, or more commonly known as Lord Byron. In his poem, “When We Two Parted”, he discusses the hardships of love and heartbreak. This poem is important to include in our British Romantic Literature canon because this poem embodies love, an emotion that is significant throughout time.

Byron is alleged to have been in love affairs since the age of seventeen, with John Elderston, a choirboy from his school. Although his written documents show minimal affection for her, Byron later married Annabella Milbanke to “normalize his life” (Mellor & Metlak, 882). He also had love affairs with his wives sister, Augusta Leigh, his half sister, Astarte, the countess Teresa, and Claire Clairmont, whom he never married but bore him a child. Lord Byron’s life was influenced by his quick-to-love personality and his dramatic love life, which influenced much of his poetry, including “When We Two Parted”. Due to his scandalous romances, Lord Byron’s poem, “When we Two Parted” takes an ironic turn on the classic poem of sorrowful love when one reads the footnotes below the first verse. These claim that Byron’s subject was not really known to the readers, due to his many love affairs and other scandals. This poem may directed to Lady Caroline Lamb, Lady Wedderburn, Lady Byron, or all of them at once. We can tell from his poem, though, that the romance was a scandal which was hidden from the public. In the line, “They knew not I knew thee, who knew thee too well” (21-22), Byron is making a claim that others did not know of their relationship, and that he had kept it hidden from the public eye. Byron embellishes on this fact by stating that, “In silence we meet- In silence I grieve, That thy heart could forget, Thy spirit deceive” (25-28). Byron notes that while their relationship did not have public attention, it did not mean that he did not love her and wish for their relationship to be made legitimate in order to maintain the beloved’s attraction to him. When their relationship is over, Byron still has attachment for the beloved that he must hide away, “with silence and tears” (32). His heartbreak and obvious pain at losing his beloved can be applicable to many terminated relationships, not just those contained within the British Romantic time period.

One can argue that Love factors into all things, non excluding the movements taking place from 1780 to 1830. Byron’s poem of love and heartbreak is significant to the understanding of romantic love because he does not hide his disappointment or his feelings behind revenge or depression. Instead, Byron lays down facts of what their relationship and knows that it was wrong- an affair which broke vows of marriage. This poem is a raw example of sorrow and romantic destitution that embodies both transcending love qualities and those of the Romantic time period.

This poem has many qualities of Romantic Literature shared by many writing samples from this era. There is strong emotion, expressed through Byron’s use of poetic meter and style, with a focus on his despair and loss. There are four stanzas, each containing eight lines As with most poets from the romantic time period, Byron favors the pastoral over urban, relying on the “dew of the morning” to produce an example of pathetic fallacy (9). While mornings are supposed to bring in the promise of a new day, the morning seems to have “sunk chill on my brow- it felt like a warning of what I feel now” (10-13). Byron uses the weather to match his moods, comparing the morning brisk and coldness to the cold and detached feelings of his beloved. The cold is a repeating motif throughout the poem, lending itself to the theme of sorrow. It is easily accessible, and can be applied to life today as it was almost two hundred years ago.

The ‘Romantic’ era of literature is mostly characterized by change. While change, such as granting rights and freedoms to the repressed is monumental to the time period, one cannot look over those themes which transcend all time boundaries. Times change politics and society, but Love is always present. Lord Byron’s poem, “When We Two Parted” is about love and heartbreak, how there is no escape to being human, and to desiring a human connection. Lord Byron’s emotional state and claims are typical of a Romantic era poet, focusing on love and separation. The tears and silence accompanying the heartbreak between the two lovers transcends to be an image to all people who, throughout time, have been victim of the sorrow of love.

Word Count: 901