April Love
Ernest Dowson
Biography:
Ernest Christopher Dowson was an English poet, novelist and short-story writer. In 1889, age 23, Dowson fell in love with the eleven-year-old Adelaide "Missie" Foltinowicz. In 1897, Dowson was distraught when she married a tailor who lodged above her father's restaurant. One after another terrible things started to take place in his life. In August 1894 Dowson's father, who was in the final stages of tuberculosis, died of an overdose of chloral hydrate. His mother, hung herself in February 1895, and soon Dowson began to decline rapidly.
http://www.poemhunter.com/ernest-christopher-dowson/biography/
April Love
We have walked in Love's land a little way,
We have learnt his lesson a little while,
And shall we not part at the end of day,
With a sigh, a smile?
A little while in the shine of the sun,
We were twined together, joined lips, forgot
How the shadows fall when the day is done,
And when Love is not.
We have made no vows--there will none be broke,
Our love was free as the wind on the hill,
There was no word said we need wish unspoke,
We have wrought no ill.
So shall we not part at the end of day,
Who have loved and lingered a little while,
Join lips for the last time, go our way,
With a sigh, a smile?
Poem Analysis:
The poems theme is love not forever lastly, and sometimes it is a must to say goodbye. In the first stanza he begins with saying him and his love were clearly in love for some time now. They have known how it feels to experience this type of deep love. They have learned many lessons from there love, even in this short period of time. The lesson they must have learned is the more madly in love you are with someone, the harder it will be to part.
The rest of the poem is very simple if you have a good understanding, their love is strong and it is always reborn every time they meet. Time lost as they connected, but can they leave with a smile? Can one be happy being away from their lover? The poem is not answering, but more so asking the reader.