Key Quotes & Comparisons
English Lit: AQA GCSE Poetry - Love & Relationships, topic 1.1.4
Key Quotations: When We Two Parted
Here are some key quotations to remember from When We Two Parted:
'Silence and tears'
- 'When we two parted / In silence and tears...How should I greet thee? - / With silence and tears'.
- The repetition of the "in silence and tears" at both the beginning and the end of the poem gives it a circular structure, demonstrating that our narrator is unable to move on.
'Long, long shall I rue thee...'
- 'Long, long shall I rue thee / Too deeply to tell'.
- The word "rue" means to bitterly regret. So this line suggests that he feels that the relationship was not worth the intense pain he feels now.
'In secret we met...'
- 'In secret we met - / In silence I grieve' (lines 25-26).
- This quote (lines 25-26) demonstrates the narrator’s frustration at his inability to share with others the nature of his pain.
Key Comparisons: When We Two Parted
Here are some suggestions for poems you could compare When We Two Parted to. Remember, there are endless options!
Neutral Tones
- Contrasts:
- Neutral Tones has a muted tone (which contrasts to Byron’s dramatic narration).
- Uses natural imagery.
- Similarities:
- Circular structure.
- Another narrator stuck in a painful situation.
- Use of death imagery to describe his lover.
- Ominous and foreboding language.
Porphyria’s Lover
- Contrasts:
- You could consider contrasting the use of language around death. Browning uses language to make it seem like his lover is still alive, in contrast to Byron.
- Similarities:
- Very similar rigid form used to contrast to the narrator’s uncontrolled mental state.
Test yourself on Key Quotes & Comparisons
Which quote from When We Two Parted gives the poem its circular structure?
What does the following quote show about the nature of the relationship in When We Two Parted?
'In secret we met – In silence I grieve'