When We Two Parted

"When we two parted In silence and tears, Half broken-hearted To sever for years..." When We Two Parted is a short lyrical poem by Lord Byron, widely believed to have been written in 1816, and is one of his most famous works. The poem describes the anguish and lament that follows a break-up between the speaker and his lover. The details are sparse, however, the poem implies that the relationship was a private affair—likely extramarital—and the speaker now feels dejected after becoming aware of his ex-lover becoming romantically involved with another partner. Lord Byron, or George Gordon Byron, was a British poet and a leading figure in Romanticism. Amongst Byron's best-known works are the brief poems She Walks in Beauty, When We Two Parted, and So, We'll Go No More a-Roving, in addition to the narrative poems Childe Harold's Pilgrimage and Don Juan. He is regarded as one of the greatest British poets and remains widely read and influential, both in the English-speaking world and beyond.