the theme is poignant. POIGNANCY OF PARTING. and reader need to empathise the language in order to get a closer picture.
(In silence and tears)
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 very first line tempts us to think of the circumstances under which they both parted and the reason for their separation. why they were silent and could not speak but shed tears. it was heart breaking for the pain was immense.
the poet is recollecting the saddest memory after long years. it is extraordinary to remember exactly what happened.
a cold look on her face and she did not carry any more love for the poet, it again enquires us to ask about what actually did happen? devoid of any feeling or warmth (colder thy kiss), it must have been a very painful for whatever may be the reason for their separation.
and he knew then that the sorry state of his that is now. that grave hour hasn’t passed yet.
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.
he thought it’d have been better if he didn’t wake up at all. he is still not over the incident but deeply engrossed in sadness, vulnerable to the very depth of it.
the vows: maybe there had been lots of promises made by her but something unpredictable has happened due to which they had to part in a very serious and grave manner.
we can go back to the first stanza ‘colder grew thy kiss’. maybe the poet is the one who suffers the pain as he expects a kind of passion in the kiss. but the colder is no longer warm which denotes something similar to contempt and use of colder was to express that there are no feelings left at all.
light: it expresses different meanings, truth or fragile.
it suggests that she became famous, her fame grew among people.
it might also give rise to the dilemma that she was being infamous reputation. her reputation is not what it used to be.
it is established that she was famous.
now he hears her name, through media or gossips at local gatherings. or it was only the recollection of memories.
what is he ashamed of? that he has been forgotten by her, or she is with someone else. or thinking about his own relationship, what it used to be.
They name thee before me
a knell to mine ear:
a shudder comes over me
why wert thou so dear?( I love this line)
they know not I knew thee
who knew thee too well
long, long shall I rue thee,
too deeply to tell.
the news circulated and people were talking about her and he can’t help it but hear.
but it hurts so much, like we think of someone so dear to us if something is mentioned about them. no matter how much you help, it keeps ringing like forever.
the shudder comes over me. it is kind of a feeling that you cannot control but lose yourself in its strong flow. the emotional torture.
why wert thou so dear? (cannot explain this)(you don’t have any answers to reason why you love someone so dearly)
it could have been a secret relationship as people dear to her has no knowledge of him at all.
forever he will regret or think about the feeling of her being so dear to him, how much he loved her. no one can 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.
their relationship was hidden from the public coverage, from the people’s eyes.
( in silence I grieve) nobody would believe him even if he told that he knew her or loved her, he is left alone to grieve in silence.
how she made all the promises about the future of their relationship but the love she had for him did not prevent her to seek worldly beauty. how she was deceived? the love should always be kept in high regard as it is the only thing that matters but how can someone leave the lover/ beloved for other things. surely she was deceived.
how a lover suffers? I mean he thinks of how? if he ever decides to meet her again despite all that he has been through.
after long years ( he might be thinking if he gives her time, maybe she might love him again, could be a possibility)
but if I should greet you (or think of you) after all these years. how should I do it? how he has been so miserable and pathetic? truly he would not be able to find any words. it will be all silence and tears.
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