Poetry, Year 11: When We Two Parted, Love's Philosophy and Porphyria's Lover (Love and Relationships option)

4

HintEach is a block of eight short lines.

The whyEvery stanza is made of short lines, which sound like broken, stifled speech. The poem was first printed in Byron's Poems of 1816.

knell

HintA bell rung to mark a death.

The whyHe writes “A knell to mine ear”: hearing her name is like hearing a funeral bell. The love is dead, and the sound is painful to him. He cannot say anything, since no one knows he was her lover.

That her reputation is poor: people speak of her lightly

HintThe word fame here does not mean being admired.

The whyShe has broken her promises and is now spoken of in a way that brings the speaker shame as well, since he cannot defend her. He ends the stanza by saying he shares in her shame.

He cannot grieve or complain openly, so his sorrow has to stay silent

HintNo one knows he knew her.

The whyIn the third stanza he says “They know not I knew thee, / Who knew thee too well”. The secrecy explains the silence of the title situation and why the pain is held in.

It repeats the opening picture of silence and tears: after years, the grief has not changed

HintCompare how the poem begins and how it ends.

The whyHe imagines meeting her after long years and says he would greet her with silence and tears, exactly as they parted. The circle shows that time has healed nothing.

8

HintThere are two stanzas, with matching shapes.

The whyThe two stanzas follow the same rhyme pattern, which gives the poem a tidy, song-like shape. Shelley's manuscript calls it an Anacreontic.

That everything in nature joins with something else, so the woman should join with him

HintHe wants to turn a list into an argument.

The whyHe argues “Nothing in the world is single”, so it would be unnatural for her to hold back. It is an argument made to win a kiss.

He treats mingling as a law of nature or God, so refusing him would break that law

HintHe gives his wish the force of a holy rule.

The whyCalling it a divine law makes his request sound like a moral duty. The reader may notice he is only borrowing the idea to persuade.

Only the speaker's: the woman never replies

HintOne person speaks, and the other is silent.

The whyThe last line is the question “If thou kiss not me?” It expects her to give in, but the poem does not tell us her answer. One reading is that the silence makes his argument seem one-sided.

kiss

HintThe final line asks for it directly.

The whyHe writes that the moonbeams kiss the sea. The poem's manuscript is headed “An Anacreontic”, which marks it as a light celebration of love, so the title Love's Philosophy is half a joke.

dramatic monologue

HintA speech, as in a play, delivered by one person.

The whyBrowning lets the speaker tell his own story without comment. The reader has to decide what is true and what is the speaker's self-deception.

He strangles her with her own long hair, wound three times round her neck

HintThe weapon is part of her own appearance.

The whyHe says it calmly: “And strangled her.” As if it were a kind thing to do. The use of her hair makes the act intimate, which is what makes it so disturbing.

To keep her perfect, devoted and his for ever, in a moment he does not want to end

HintHe thinks it cannot get better than now.

The whyHe says she was “perfectly pure and good” at that moment and that he found a thing to do. His idea of love is possession, and it has no place for her own wishes.

That he is trying to convince himself, which makes him unreliable

HintThe more he insists, the less we believe him.

The whyA man who was really sure would not need to say it twice. The reader sees through his calm and senses an unbalanced mind.

The speaker sits all night with the body and notes that God has not said a word to condemn him

HintA calm, defiant last line.

The whyThe last line is “And yet God has not said a word!” He takes the silence of God as approval, which is one of the most chilling moments in the poem. He seems to believe he has done nothing wrong.

personification

HintThe wind is given a mood, as if it were a person.

The whyThe storm outside matches the speaker's disturbed state of mind, and it also contrasts with the warm cottage Porphyria brings to life. Weather is used to set the mood.