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THE BROKEN TRYST by James Russell Lowell

Summary, meaning, line-by-line analysis & FAQ.

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A speaker strolls alone through a spot they once enjoyed with a lover, and the autumn landscape keeps highlighting that person's absence.

Poet
James Russell Lowell
Meter
alternating anapestic tetrameter and trimeter
Rhyme
ABAB CDCD
Themes
love, memory, nature
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The PoemFull text

THE BROKEN TRYST

James Russell Lowell

Walking alone where we walked together, When June was breezy and blue, I watch in the gray autumnal weather The leaves fall inconstant as you. If a dead leaf startle behind me, I think 'tis your garment's hem, And, oh, where no memory could find me, Might I whirl away with them!

Public domain

Sourced from Project Gutenberg

§01Quick summary

What this poem is about

A speaker strolls alone through a spot they once enjoyed with a lover, and the autumn landscape keeps highlighting that person's absence. The falling leaves seem like a harsh reminder of how that person slipped away. In the end, the speaker longs to disappear with the leaves, looking to escape the hurt of those memories.

§02Themes

Recurring themes

§03Line by line

Stanza by stanza, with notes

  1. Walking alone where we walked together, / When June was breezy and blue,

    Editor's note

    The speaker goes back to a place rich with shared memories. June — warm, breezy, and blue — symbolizes the peak of the relationship, a time when everything felt effortless and vibrant. The difference between that past June and the current solitary walk is clear from the outset, and the word "alone" hits hard right at the beginning.

  2. If a dead leaf startle behind me, / I think 'tis your garment's hem,

    Editor's note

    Grief can distort perception. Every rustle has the speaker turning around, half-hoping to catch a glimpse of the lost lover. The "dead leaf" serves as a quietly haunting image — what the speaker believes to be a living presence is, in fact, something dried up and falling. The second stanza ends with a longing to be swept away with the leaves and vanish beyond the grasp of memory altogether.

§04Tone & mood

How this poem feels

Quiet and aching. Lowell uses straightforward language and keeps emotions in check, making the longing feel more authentic than any dramatic outburst could. There's a subtle bitterness in likening the absent lover to "inconstant" leaves, but the prevailing emotion is exhaustion—the speaker is drained by grief and would prefer to disappear than continue to bear it.

§05Symbols & metaphors

Symbols & metaphors

June
Captures the height of the relationship—warmth, vitality, and happiness that are now just memories.
Falling leaves
A double symbol: they reflect the lover's inconsistency (drifting away without loyalty) and represent loss, decay, and the broader passage of time.
The dead leaf rustling behind the speaker
Captures how grief alters perception — the mind continually seeks a presence that has vanished, discovering only something devoid of life in its stead.
Gray autumnal weather
The season reflects the speaker's inner feelings: the color, the chill, and the fading year all relate to a sense of emotional emptiness.

§06Form & structure

Form & structure

Meter
alternating anapestic tetrameter and trimeter
Rhyme
ABAB CDCD

§07Historical context

Historical context

James Russell Lowell wrote during the American Romantic period, a time when nature imagery often carried deep emotional and moral significance. Lowell himself experienced personal grief — he lost his first wife, Maria White, in 1853, and several of his children died young. While this poem isn’t strictly autobiographical, his experiences with loss inform its backdrop. The poem is part of a long tradition of *ubi sunt* lyrics — works that ponder "where has it gone?" about something cherished — and it also fits into the Romantic idea of the pathetic fallacy, where the natural world mirrors the speaker's emotions. With just eight lines, it feels more like a concise lyric fragment than a fully developed elegy.

§08FAQ

Questions readers ask

A person returns to a location they once enjoyed with a lover who has since departed. The autumn backdrop—leaves falling, overcast skies—amplifies the sting of that loss, and by the end, the speaker wishes they could vanish completely instead of enduring the weight of those memories.

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