When we two parted

When we two parted

 

The first stanza of “When We Two Parted” sets up the parting of the two lovers: for some reason their split was accompanied by “silence and tears” (line 2). Upon parting, the speaker’s beloved became physically cold and pale, a change foreshadowing later sorrow which is taking place as the poet writes.

The second stanza continues the sense of foreboding as the speaker awakes with the morning dew “chill on my brow” (line 10). He believes this chill to have been a “warning / Of what I feel now” (lines 11-12). His beloved has broken all vows (line 13), and the sound of the beloved’s name brings shame to both lover and beloved (lines 15-16).
The name of the beloved carries over into the third stanza as an unknown. An equally unknown “they” speak the beloved’s name, which sounds as a “knell” (line 18) in the speaker’s ear. He shudders and wonders why the beloved was so dear (either to him or to others). He compares his love to those others’ concern; they do not know of the speaker’s intimate knowledge of the one they name so casually (lines 21-23). The speaker concludes that he shall mourn the beloved’s loss “Too deeply to tell” (line 24).

In the fourth stanza, the speaker reflects upon his relationship with the beloved. They met “in secret” (line 25) and so he must mourn “in silence” (line 26). What he mourns is that the beloved could forget him and be deceitful (lines 27-28). Thus, the speaker concludes that he could not again meet the beloved many years hence without expressing his pain “with silence and tears” (line 32).