So, we'll go no more a-roving- George Gordon, Lord Byron

From the start of this poem, I was captivated by every word, because I did not feel like an observer but a participant. The poem felt like a letter written to me. Gordon accomplishes this by beginning the poem as, “So, we’ll go no more a-roving/So late into the night…” (358). The initial “we” in line 1 compelled me to believe that Gordon was breaking a romantic routine that I lived to experience nightly. I think Gordon wanted to invoke this feeling purposely, because he wanted the reader of the poem to feel a personal connection to insure they read with a wide range of emotions, and pose questions that compel them to read further for the answers. If Gordon would have begun the poem with “you and I will” the personal attachment the reader could feel would be limited, because “you and I will,” though more specific than “we’ll,” seems very cold and detached.

Gordon wouldn’t have wanted the narrator to seem cold in any way, because he too is a lover in the relationship. As the first stanza continues with, “though the heart be still as loving/And the moon be still as bright” (359), a sense of regret and displeasure with the decision to cease the nightly tryst is felt. I think this is the genius of the poem, because it makes the heartbroken sympathize with the heartbreaker; a tough job to accomplish in the world of love. Once I got to this part, all that came to mind was: Why stop our tryst now?

That question was the bait that hooked me into reading the next stanza. Why does “…love itself have to rest…” (359) if “…the heart be still as loving…” (359)? Though I felt Gordon was romantically disappointing me, I couldn’t find the courage to be angry. In some weird way I started to feel hopeful as I read,

“Though the night was made for loving,
And the day returns too soon,
Yet we’ll go no more a roving
By the light of the moon.” (359)

At this moment I felt he (the narrator) too was hurting. I wanted to naturally reach out to him, as a lover would, and embrace his pain away as if that would take away my hurt as well. And when Gordon’s uses “yet” in line 11, it suggested that the end of our night time pleasures could possibly be temporary, or they could become day time moments. My broken heart was mended with this sense of hopefulness.

I believe my emotional experience was the goal for the poem. In what other way would the reader/lover be engaged enough to continue to read such heartbreaking information? I believe Gordon wanted the readers to experience the pain of the separation while still being able to objectively see the narrator’s point of view in ending the nightly romance.

To me, that suggests that Gordon wanted the reader to remember that relationships have two perspectives that should be accounted for wholly.