narrator’s future feelings of sorrow. Mention is
made of the woman’s broken promises, and the
tarnishing of her reputation. In a letter from
1823, Byron refers to this poem and its relation
to his 1813 flirtation with Lady Frances Wed-
derburn Webster. In 1816, when many scholars
believe the poem was written, Lady Frances was
scandalously linked with the Duke of Welling-
ton. Byron had written earlier sentimental
sonnets to Lady Frances and in ‘‘When We
Two Parted’’ he appears pained to hear of her
entanglement with the Duke. When he speaks of
the vows she has broken it is possible that he is
referring either to her wedding vows to her hus-
band that Lady Frances has betrayed with her
affair, or alternatively, promises she may have
made to Lord Byron. He discusses as well the
shame he feels. This could be viewed as an empa-
thetic response to what his former sweetheart is
going through. It could also be interpreted as a
judgment upon her. The relationship between
Lady Frances and Lord Byron was rumored to
not have been consummated sexually, and per-
haps the poet is, in his way, scolding her for
having actually gone through with an adulterous
affair.
Stanza 3
The third stanza speaks of the secretive nature of
the affair, how others did not know of the nar-
rator’s relationship with the woman. Again the
tone is dark, he hears her name as a ‘‘knell,’’ an
ominous toll typically associated with death. The
speaker reveals the depth of his regret and pre-
dicts he is likely to retain such feelings indefi-
nitely. ‘‘Why wert thou so dear?’’, a key line in
this stanza, offers the only indication of the
nature of the speaker’s relationship to the
woman. He has not even spoken of loving her;
in fact the word love does not appear at all in the
poem. But this question ‘‘Why wert thou so
dear?’’ is the singular suggestion in the poem of
the warm and positive connection the two people
had shared.
Stanza 4
In the fourth and final stanza, the narrator once
again refers to the clandestine nature of the affair
and his grief at what he perceives to be the wom-
an’s betrayal. The future is once more referred
to, with the portent that a future meeting with
the woman would bring the speaker to tears, and
would result in his continued silence. By this he
refers not only to the fact that he no longer
communicates with his former lover, but to the
fact that he has never discussed their secret rela-
tionship and he will continue to keep his silence
on the matter. This emphasizes the fact that
while she may have defamed herself by being
caught in another affair, he at least has handled
himself like a gentleman by not revealing the
truth about their own relationship with one
another. The speaker expresses his grief that his
lover has forgotten him, and emphasizing his
betrayal with the lines ‘‘That thy heart could
forget, / Thy spirit deceive.’’ It seems unlikely
that Byron is speaking of Lady Frances deceiv-
ing her husband. Rather, his betrayal stems from
the fact that when Lady Frances did choose to
commit adultery it was with another man, the
Duke of Wellington, and not with him. The final
stanza ends with a reiteration of the ’’silence and
tears‘‘ phrase from the first stanza, emphasizing
the speaker’s sense of being frozen in this
moment of betrayal and heartbreak.THEMESBetrayal
In ‘‘When We Two Parted,’’ the poet speaks
often of his sorrow and pain. He recalls the
tears shed when the relationship was severed, of
being broken-hearted, of how his sorrow has not
abated over the years. The cause of such pain is
more than the simple fact of the relationship’s
termination. Promises have been broken. The
speaker may be referring to promises the
woman made to him, or perhaps to the fact
that she has broken her own marriage vows to
her husband when she had an affair with another
man, as was the case with Lady Frances. Pre-
sumably, the woman is the subject of gossip: the
poet speaks of her celebrity in the poem’s second
stanza (‘‘light is thy fame’’). From this we can
infer that she is now being discussed lightly, no
longer taken seriously. Hearing her name results
in the poet’s own shame. It is unclear whether he
is embarrassedforher, or is himself ashamed for
having himself been another man she’d once had
a flirtation with. Perhaps more telling of the
poet’s feeling of betrayal, more than his many
mentions of his sorrow, is his statement in
the final stanza: ‘‘That thy heart could forget /
thy spirit deceive.’’ The speaker is positively
wounded to have been cast aside, to have his
affections replaced by those of another man.When We Two Parted