MONDAY TRAVELS: WHEN WE TWO PARTED by Lord Byron

Happy Monday friends! I hope you packed some notebooks:

So today we are in ENGLAND and we will explore:

WHEN WE TWO PARTED

British poet Lord Byron:

George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron, (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), commonly known simply as Lord Byron, was a British poet and a leading figure in the Romantic movement. Among his best-known works are the lengthy narrative poems, Don Juan and Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, and the short lyric poem, She Walks in Beauty. He traveled extensively across Europe, especially in Italy, where he lived for seven years with the struggling poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Later in his brief life, Byron joined the Greek War of Independence fighting the Ottoman Empire, for which Greeks revere him as a national hero.

 

Poem:

      WHEN we two parted
          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.  

Thoughts:

I heard someone once say, that the best love story, is the unhappy one.

I agree, because I strangly do find pleasure in reading about unhappy love! Weird.

But this poem, by Lord Byron is truly so wonderfully sad, that it stops my heart!

Stay cozy and see you next Monday!