I LEFT you in the morning,
And in the morning glow,
You walked a way beside me
To make me sad to go.
Do you know me in the gloaming,
Gaunt and dusty gray with roaming?
Are you dumb because you know me not,
Or dumb because you know?
All for me And not a question
For the faded flowers gay
That could take me from beside you
For the ages of a day?
They are yours, and be the measure
Of their worth for you to treasure,
The measure of the little while
That I’ve been long away.
In the first four lines, the speaker is leaving his partner in the early morning. The partner accompanies him hoping he’ll regret his decision. In the second four lines, the speaker is returning at dusk; he looks tired and defeated. The stanza ends playing with the two senses of the word “dumb”, i.e., speechless and foolish. He wonders if his partner’s lack of interrogation is due to ignorance or grace, and there’s a hint of scorn for either case.
The second stanza begins with a kind of paradox: the speaker has been gathering flowers, yet he’s met with a gift of some sort. “All for me…?” he asks. Perhaps he is referring to an embrace or a kiss; I like to think so. He gives her the bouquet and tells her it represents the value of the things which could keep him away from her. He tells her the bouquet is a symbol of the “faded flowers gay”, which themselves represent temptation, perhaps sexual encounters with aging, gilded women.
I met a wonderful man,his name is AngusP. At near to sunset a time of day known as the gloaming we were together. I remembered this poem that I studied in high school because it expressed exactly my feelings as I had to leave him to return to N.Y.To me he is my bouquet and I do treasure him. I sent him an email of the poem. I will analyse its meanings for him as there are several enterpretations.
My job is worth my being away from you for awhile, is it not?
Thnx dr.Vaibhav your comment helped me SOOOOO much!!
this poem gets me everytime i read it. It clearly explains the inuendos of love and how we are sometimes so caught up in ourselves that we fail to see the ones who stand before us with the best they have to offer…. themselves!!!!
This poem reminds me a lot of the relationships that i have been in. He knows that he has so much to give and she cant see or understand what exactly it is. The ironic thing though, is that the only thing to give is himself, but that is an extrodinary gift and if she cant see it then there is nothing he can do.
This is one of my all time favorite poems, becasue I think that it can be interpreted to mean so many different things. I see it as a lost relationship of some sort, or feeling as though someone doesn’t know the real you, and how you feel about them…