Audiobook · read by volunteers
When We Two Parted
George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788–1824)
Read by Clayton J. Smith, Erin K. Sullivan, Ezwa, JemmaBlythe, Justin S Barrett, Kristin Hughes (1974-2021), Michael Corley, Mark F. Smith, Matthew Walton · 9 chapters · 12 min
About the book
When we two parted in silence and tears, half broken-hearted, to sever for years: so begins one of Lord Byron’s most haunting short poems, a song of lost love and secret grief. Nine different volunteers have recorded it, and the contrast is part of the pleasure. Each reader finds a different weight for the repeated notes of silence and regret. The poem has four stanzas of short lines, and its feeling is all the stronger for being held in check. The poem is brief, and each version lasts barely a minute or two, so you can listen to a single reading or compare all of them in one sitting. A fine introduction to Byron the lyric poet, and a rewarding exercise in hearing how voice shapes feeling. Hear the poem anew.
Introduction
George Gordon, Lord Byron, who lived from 1788 to 1824, was the most celebrated English poet of his generation and a symbol of the Romantic spirit. His life was full of scandal and travel, and his writings range from comic epics such as Don Juan to short, intense lyrics like the one recorded here.
When We Two Parted was published in 1816, and it is one of the poet’s best-known short poems. It speaks in the first person of a parting that was followed by shame and silence. The feeling is bitter rather than sweet. The poem moves in short lines and carefully balanced stanzas, and its emotion is held in check, which makes it all the more telling. The recurring sense of cold, silence and secrecy has given it a lasting place in anthologies of English verse.
The recordings in this collection come from the weekly poetry project run by LibriVox. Each week, a short text is chosen and any volunteer who wishes can record it. The week of this poem was in late November 2006, and nine volunteers took part. The chapters are labelled with the initials of the readers, such as CJS, EKS and EZWA, and the participants include Clayton J. Smith and Erin K. Sullivan.
The versions are brief, and the whole collection takes about a quarter of an hour. Listening to several in turn shows how much a reader contributes to a poem, and how many shades of regret a handful of lines can hold. Whether you choose one reading or all nine, it is a short and moving way to spend some time with a great poet.
Public domain
George Gordon, Lord Byron died in 1824: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text