“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.”
What’s it about?
The title says it all: this poem is about the parting of two lovers. The poet is remembering the end of a secret affair. He can’t express his feelings in public, so he imagines that he’s speaking to his former lover. He is full of sorrow, regret and grief at the end of the relationship, but also feels ashamed. His lover has lost her good reputation (“light is thy fame”). When he hears her name spoken by friends, it sounds to him like a death bell (“knell”). In the last stanza, he sounds bitter: his lover has already forgotten him and was untrue to him (“thy spirit [could] deceive”). He wonders how it would feel to meet this person sometime in the future and realizes that he wouldn’t know what to say to her.
An infamous poet
George Gordon Byron, the great Romantic poet, was notorious for his scandalous private life. He had many relationships with women (and one very short marriage), as well as relationships with men. He fathered several children, including one with his own half-sister, and was described by one of his lovers as “mad, bad and dangerous to know”. Under increasing pressure because of his failed marriage, shocking affairs and huge debts, Byron left England for Europe at the age of 28, never to return.
Did you know?
Here are a few more strange facts about Lord Byron:
- Byron wasn’t allowed to take his dog to Cambridge – so he bought a bear instead and walked it around the college on a chain.
- Byron took animals with him on his travels – ten horses, eight big dogs, three monkeys, five cats, five peacocks, an eagle, a falcon and a crow. Apart from the horses, they were all allowed to move around his home.
- Byron was massively famous in his lifetime and fashionable people tried to copy his “brooding poet” style – which is why he's sometimes called "the first modern celebrity".
- Byron used real skulls as flowerpots and drinking cups.
- His only marital child was Ada Lovelace, who became a mathematician and an early computer pioneer.
- Byron died at the age of 36, while helping Greek forces in their fight for independence from the Ottoman Empire.
Info to go
“Thou” and “thee” are archaic and poetic English forms of the singular “you” (du and dich/dir). “Thy” and “thine” are Old English equivalents of the singular possessive “your” (dein).