When We Two Parted 诗歌鉴赏

2011-2012学年第一学期期末论文浅谈当我们分别了中的结构、主题、暗喻问题 课程名称： 英美诗歌 任课教师： 申玉革 学生姓名： 殷红霞 班 级： 08本科一班 学 号： 2008041128 Analysis on the Structure, Theme and Metaphorical Element of When We Two PartedAbstract: This poem is a very typical Romantic poem, about the love. The poet of this poem is Lord Byron, who expressed his feeling of love, a typical issue of Romanticism. This theory analyzes this poem from its structure and theme.Key Words: love, structure, theme, Romanticism. The Structure of This PoemWith respect to the structure of the poem, When we two parted contains four stanzas of eight verses each one. There are, also, four kinds of rhyme in each stanza. In the first four verses of each stanza, odd verses have a rhyme, and even verses have another rhyme, and this method is used by the writer in the last four verses of each stanza with a rhyme for each pair of verses as I said before. The whole poem is with the rhyme of ababcdcd. The vocabulary is easy to understand for everybody who studies the English language. The first verse of the poem is also the title of the poem, which means that the writer could not or did not want to find a title for the poem (maybe the damage he felt was so strong that he was not able to find a good title for the poem, as he writes at the end of the third stanza (Long, long shall I rue thee/ Too deeply to tell), or maybe he wanted the later generations to remember this poem deeply. The Theme of This PoemThis poem is about the love. Its a typical Romantic poem, typical Romantic poet Lord Byrons work, and Lord Byron expresses his feeling of love, a typical issue of Romanticism.As we all know, Lord Byron is a typical Romanic poet in Romanticism. There is no doubt that When We Two Parted has typical structure and theme of Romanticism.As I said at the beginning of the theory, firstly the poem is about the end (the man probably does not know that it is the end) of a love story between a man and a woman (the first four verses). After the whole poem is an expression of feelings of hate from the man towards the woman because she left him (To sever for years: did the man go to fight in a war, for instance?). Also, the whole poem, from the first line to the last one, is written in the first person, in plural (When we two parted), and in singular (I hear thy name spoken). It means that this poem maybe autobiographical or not, maybe the woman was a real woman or not, or simply the work is an ode to disappointed love. I would like to emphasize the contrast between two verses (the second one and the last one), seemingly equal in form but with different meanings, it depends on what the previous line said. In the first pair of verses (When we two parted/ In silence and tears) the man feels true love towards his beloved, but she, as we will see some verses later, does not, and the last verse is the definitive confirmation of what he feels is disgust and pity because of what could be and was not. The third verse of the poem may have two different meanings too: Half broken-hearted: the man can have his heart broken because he loves her completely and he would do anything for her, and can have his heart broken because she has left him and he will never see her again. I will analyze the feeling of each stanza, seemingly equal in form but with different meanings, it depends on what the previous line said. In the first pair of verses (When we two parted, in silence and tears) the man feels true love towards his beloved, but she, as we will see some verses later, does not. And the first stanza has already implied that this poem expresses the feeling of grief and hate. In a word, the first stanza tells us the base of grief and sorrow. The second stanza verse exposes the reasons of grief and sorrow (Thy vows are all broken, and light is thy fame). The third verse of the poem may have two different meanings from the former ones (Why wert thou so dear? They know not I know thee, who knew thee too well-long, long shall I met thee, too deeply to tell). This verse expresses the mans complete love to the woman and he can do anything for her, and can have his heart broken because she has left him and he will never see her again. And the last verse is the definitive confirmation of what he feels is disgust and pity because of what could be and was not. He imagines that “If I should meet thee?” then the answer is “With silence and tears.” This verse expresses the sorrow and the desperation towards the love and the woman, then this expression switches from the sorrow to hate in “That thy heart could forget, thy spirit deceive.”. The Metaphorical Element of This PoemLord Byron made the best use of metaphorical element to convey his feelings of the love and all the scenes in this poet give the readers an inconsolable impression deeply. Now, I will analyze the metaphorical elements in this poet. The cold is a very important metaphorical element at the beginning of the second and the third stanzas: The dew of the morning/ Sunk chill on my brow: here the cold is shown as a metaphor of the feelings that the man has towards the woman, as it happens too in A knell to mine ear/A shudder comes oer me: dew, chill, knell and shudder are words that symbolize cold in many different ways. Here the man would not already break himself his heart for her. The verses They name thee before me and They know not I knew thee give to understand that maybe more men were in love to the woman he got for some time.In the last stanza, the two first verses have two words that may be synonyms, but they mean a totally different thing, they are the contrast of the poem: In secret we met, here Byron wants to transmit the passi