Themes: Time & Anger
English Lit: AQA GCSE Poetry - Love & Relationships, topic 1.1.3
Significance of Time
The narrator has a strong sense of time in this poem, emphasising that he cannot imagine not feeling this way. The foreshadowing throughout reminds us that the poem is written from the poet's current perspective.
Repetition - 'long, long'
- The repetition of 'long, long' in line 23 suggests he cannot imagine not feeling this way.
'Long years'
- At the end of the poem, the narrator imagines their reunion after 'long years'.
Foreshadowing
- The poem is also written from the poet’s perspective now – so it is filled with foreshadowing for the end of the poem.
- 'It felt like the warning' (line 11).
- 'Truly that hour foretold' (line 7).
Frustration and Anger
The poem describes the end of a relationship, and focuses on the narrator’s feelings of bitterness, regret and loss. The poem also explores the narrator’s inability to share his pain, as the relationship was an illicit (forbidden) one.
Language of bitterness and anger
- The narrator uses language of bitterness and anger towards his lover.
- 'Thy vows are all broken'.
- 'That thy heart could forget, / Thy spirit deceive'.
- 'Long, long shall I rue thee'.
- These lines build up a sense that the narrator is resentful of his lover, and feels that he has been unjustly rejected.
- His use of the word 'rue', meaning to bitterly regret, suggests that he feels that the relationship was not worth the intense pain he feels now.
Secrecy and frustration
- There is a clear sense of the secrecy of their relationship.
- 'In secret we met – In silence I grieve' (lines 25-26).
- This quote demonstrates the narrator’s frustration that he cannot share with others the nature of his pain.
Test yourself on Themes: Time & Anger
What does the repetition of 'long long' suggest?
What stage of a relationship does the poem explore?
What does the word 'rue' mean?