When We Two Parted

 

This poem is kind of like an upset guy's internal monologue when he finds out his old flame is dating somebody else: "OMG, I remember when we broke up. It was cold, your cheek was cold, and that kiss you gave me was so un affectionate. You made a vow to me, and you didn't even bother to keep it. Sigh. I should have known I would feel like this now, just based on how our goodbye was. I can't even hear your name without getting upset. You'll never know how deeply I mourn your loss. If I meet you again, I will simply be quiet and cry."

The speaker begins with a statement. When he and some mysterious person "parted" (i.e., said goodbye), they did it silently, while crying. Sad, right?

They were also "half-broken-hearted," and, it turns out, separated for some years. Separated? Where did we get that from? 

Ah, the word "sever" here means something like separated. It's kind of weird because usually you sever something (like, um, your pinky finger in a woodshop accident). Think of it like this: people would look at your funny if you were like "I'm severing" ("Severing what?" somebody might ask).

(Grammar note: verbs like "sever" that require an object are called transitive verbs. This is already in the TMI zone, but if you want even more TMI—TTMI—head here.)

It sounds like this is going to be one of those "it was so sad that we had to say goodbye" poems, except for the fact that the speaker and his mystery friend are only "half broken-hearted." Now that seems worth keeping in mind. It's possible that the phrase "half broken-hearted" means in fact that either one, or both of them, just didn't care all that much.

This could really change things up a bit. Perhaps it's just the woman who is "half broken-hearted" and the speaker is actually angry about it. 

Also, keep in mind that we don't know what happened when they parted. These first four lines just give us the "when" part of a longer sentence. 

That means we gotta keep reading to get the rest of this longish sentence. 

Before we do that, though, did you notice the rhyme going on in lines 1 and 3, then 2 and 4? You might have also heard a similar beat going on there as well. Check out "Form and Meter" for more on how this poem's put together. Hurry back, though, because we gotta see what's up with our teary-eyed speaker…