Parting

W. B. Yeatsfirst published 1929from The Winding Stair and Other Poems15 lines

He. Dear, I must be goneWhile night shuts the eyesOf the household spies;That song announces dawn.

She. No, night’s bird and love’sBids all true lovers rest,While his loud song reprovesThe murderous stealth of day.

He. Daylight already fliesFrom mountain crest to crest.

She. That light is from the moon.

He. That bird . . .

She. Let him sing on,I offer to love’s playMy dark declivities.

Text: The Winding Stair and Other Poems (Macmillan, London, 1933). Public domain.

In brief

Summary

Two lovers argue at dawn over whether it is time to part.

A dawn dialogue between lovers. He says he must go while the "household spies" are still asleep, because a bird's song announces the dawn. She says no: it is the bird of night and love, whose song tells lovers to rest. He points to daylight spreading across the mountains; she says it is only the moon. He starts to mention the bird again and breaks off, and she has the last word: let it sing, for she offers herself to love once more. The exchanges get shorter as the argument goes on, and she wins.

Lines to remember

That light is from the moon.

My dark declivities.

Line by line

Lines 1 to 4He must go
He wants to leave while night still closes the eyes of the "household spies". The bird he hears, he says, announces dawn. The danger of discovery gives the love a secret, stolen air.
Lines 5 to 8Night's bird
She denies it. This is "night's bird and love's", which "Bids all true lovers rest", and its "loud song" rebukes "The murderous stealth of day". Day is pictured as an assassin creeping up on the lovers.
Lines 9 to 15Moonlight
He points to light running "From mountain crest to crest"; she answers, "That light is from the moon." He begins again about the bird and trails off. She tells him to let it sing, and offers "to love's play" her "dark declivities".

Themes

Love and time

The lovers' quarrel is an argument with the clock. He reads the signs of dawn; she reinterprets each one to keep the night going. Day is the enemy, murderous and stealthy, while night belongs to love. Her refusal to see the dawn is both playful and desperate.

Desire

The poem ends on the woman's frank offer of "My dark declivities", a bold, bodily image. She does not so much argue him into staying as tempt him, and his broken-off line about the bird shows the moment he stops arguing.

Context

This is the seventh poem of "A Woman Young and Old", first published in The Winding Stair (New York, 1929) and collected in The Winding Stair and Other Poems (1933). It belongs to the old tradition of the aubade, the dawn song of parting lovers, and recalls the scene in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet where Juliet insists that the bird singing is the nightingale, not the lark.

Form

Fifteen short lines split between "He" and "She", with replies that shrink to a line or less as the exchange quickens. Rhymes cross between the speakers ("rest" and "crest", "flies" and "declivities"), so the lovers echo each other's sounds even as they disagree.