Lord Byron was known for having one forbidden love, which is depicted in his poem "When we two parted". The theme of the poem forbidden love comes from the poem itself telling a story about a love affair, and how both cannot coincide with each other, cheating and loving one person.
The poem starts off with Byron and his mistress departing from one another, the two lovers now are nothing, but allusions, memories in each other's mind. Also that they only both left with "half Broken Hearts". The poem continues on with Byron informing the readers in the next lines "
Pale grew thy cheek and cold,
Colder thy kiss;
Truly that hour foretold"
That they both left in tears, and then they use imagery to describe the "morning dew" and how it reminds him of the shame Byron is facing. The shame that the shame that is being referred to in the morning dew is, that you cannot have love affair. Throughout the next verse of Byron's poem he tells us that his conscious is now getting to him. He is realizing what he has been doing is wrong but he cant admit or tell his mistress that has departed already. He shows the audience he is now feeling the guilt and uneasiness is hard to bare with in this in the next lines:
Hear thy name spoken,
And share in its shame.
They name thee before me,
A knell to mine ear;
A shrudder comes o'er me--
In the lines to come he tells us that he was having an affair and he is now wishing he could take it all back for he knows what he has done is wrong. After he is finished admitting to his wrongdoing he now is faced with the guilt of this for the rest of his life. That he shall never meet his love again. But if he shall meet his love again he would tell her what he has done, but he will now have to live with this guilt for the rest of his life. He expresses these feelings in the closing verse of his poem:
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.
Loving one means to love only one. You cannot win with two and you should never try. Love is a strong word and only had room for one. In this poem Byron talks about his affair and his lost. You see that he teaches us, no matter how good it feels at first, if you doing wrong, the pain will be even greater.
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