Poetry · Chapter
When We Two Walked explained
The speaker reflects on a past walk during Lent with a companion, contrasting their quiet, hidden happiness with the proud, ostentatious love of gods like Juno and Jupiter.
What happens
The speaker reflects on a past walk during Lent with a companion, contrasting their quiet, hidden happiness with the proud, ostentatious love of gods like Juno and Jupiter. They suggest that their humility and discretion allowed them to escape divine jealousy, preserving the memory of their happiness.
Themes in this chapter
Memory and Time
The poem centers on recalling a past happiness, emphasizing memory's power to preserve moments that might otherwise be lost.
Love and Loss
The speaker contrasts their hidden love with the jealous gods' destruction of a proud couple, suggesting that their own love endured through humility.
Characters to notice
- Unknown
The speaker who recalls walking with a companion and reflects on the nature of their happiness.
Key passages
“When we two walked in Lent We imagined that happiness Was something different And this was something less.”
During our walk in Lent, we thought true happiness must be something grander, and that our simple joy was inferior.
The speaker reflects on their youthful misconception of happiness.
“But happy were we to hide Our happiness, not as they were Who acted in their pride Juno and Jupiter:”
Yet we were content to keep our joy private, unlike those who proudly displayed their love like the gods Juno and Jupiter.
The speaker contrasts their discreet happiness with the proud, public love of mythological figures.
“For the Gods in their jealousy Murdered that wife and man, And we that were wise live free To recall our happiness then.”
Because the jealous gods destroyed that proud couple, while we, being wise, remain free to remember our happiness from that time.
The speaker concludes that their humility saved them from divine punishment, allowing them to cherish the memory.