Poem: With rue my heart is laden
— By A.E. Housman.

With rue my heart is laden
For golden friends I had,
For many a rose-lipt maiden
And many a lightfoot lad.

By brooks too broad for leaping
The lightfoot boys are laid;
The rose-lipt girls are sleeping
In fields where roses fade.

Summary:

The speaker of the poem is a grief-stricken person. He recalls his friends and is saddened, as his friends are no more. In his youth, he has many good friends including many rose-lipped girls and light-footed boys. By ‘rose-lipt’ girls, he means that girls who was very beautiful with lips of the color of the rose. They had the fragrance and fresh beauty of the rose flower. By ‘lightfoot lad’, he means the boys who were light of foot and agile in running and leaping.

His light-footed friends are now dead and they are buried by “brooks too broad for leaping”. Here it is suggested that they have died by the obstacles in life that they could not overcome. These obstacles may be a serious illness, war, or some fatal barrier. The rose-lipped girls have also died as they were mortal. The death of his dear friends is the cause of his sorrow and regret.

Main theme of the poem:

The instability of life is the main theme of the poem and the theme is presented through nostalgia. The poet says that he has many “golden” friends in his youth. Among his friends, there are many agile youths and many rose-lipped girls. In spite of their youth and vitality, all of his male friends meet death as they could not overcome the obstacles of life. In spite of their youth and beauty, all of his female friends die obeying the law of nature. Thus, in the poem, the poet shows that nothing is permanent in the world. Nothing last forever, it does not matter how youthful or how beautiful a thing is. In mourning the death of his friend, the poet also mourns the loss of his own youth and the years that have gone by. So, the theme of the poem is the instability of things in life.

Evaluate the poem as a lyric:

A lyric is a kind of short poem with song-like quality. It is a formal type of song, which expresses personal emotions and feelings, typically spoken in the first person. This is a lyric poem in which the poet expresses his personal feelings and thoughts. In the poem, he laments the loss of his dear friends. In his youth, he has many friends both young boys and girls. With the passage of time, all of his dear friends have died. In mourning the death of his friends, he also mourns the loss of his own youth.

Like a lyric, there is sonority in meter and rhyme in the poem. The poem consists of two stanzas and eight lines. It is also written in the first person. Considering all these we can conclude that the poem is a lyric.

Poet Position of the poem:

The poet’s position in the poem is subjective. The poem is a lyric in which the poet expresses his personal feelings and thoughts. The poet here mourns for the death of his friends. In his youth he has many friends including boys and girls. The boys who were his friends were very agile and youthful but they faced death because they could not overcome the obstacles of life. The girls who were his friends were very beautiful. In spite of their youth and beauty, they also faced death because they were mortal after all. In mourning the death of his friends, the poet also mourns the loss of his own youth and the years that have gone by. Thus, the position of the poet is subjective.

Tone:

The tone is a musical or vocal sound with reference to its pitch, quality, and strength. The tone of the poem is sad or melancholic. The first line of the poem expresses the poet’s sadness and heartache. His heart is grief-stricken because of the death of his friends. The poet has a number of friends both boys and girls. The boys were very energetic, and agile and the girls were very beautiful but none of them survived death. It is very sad for the poet that all of his dear friends have died. They are lost forever from the poet’s life, but their memories are still alive in his heart and mind. The happy days of the past revive in his mind in old age. The poet laments the death of his friends. In lamenting the death of his friends, the poet also laments the loss of his youth and the years that have gone by. Thus, the tone of the poem is sad or melancholic.

Rhyme Scheme

The rhyme scheme is the ordered pattern of rhymes at the end of the lines of a poem or verse. A rhyme scheme is used in poetry. It helps us to read a poem with rhythm. It is maybe common or uncommon. It establishes the poem. It is the combination of a number of stanzas. Every stanza has some lines.

The rhyme scheme is easily identified, usually by the accent or sound of the last word of each line of every poem. “With Rue My Heart is Laden ” rhyme scheme is given in the poem. The poem consists of 2 stanzas and 8 lines.

Now I am going to mention below rhyme scheme with an explanation.

• laden – A
• had – B
• maiden – A
• lad – B

Here the last word of the first line is “laden” and the last word of the third line is “maiden”. Both words have the same sound. So we can mark it “A”. Then, the last word of the 2nd line is “had” and the last word of the 4th line is “lad”. Both words have the same sound. So we will mark it ” B”. Like the first stanza, the remaining two stanza lines have the same patterned rhyme scheme.

After figuring out the rhyme scheme of the last syllable of each line of this poem, each seven-line stanza is rhymed AB AB. And Second stanza lines follow the same pattern.

Figures of speech

The poet uses a variety of figures of speech in the poem including alliteration, image, metaphor, symbol, and euphemism. The poem is full of alliteration. We find alliteration in every line of the poem. We find images of his friends both boys and girls. The boys were light-footed, that is, they were very agile and youthful. The girls were rose-lipped, that is, they were very beautiful. They had the fragrance and fresh beauty of the rose flower. The poet’s heart is saddened with rue. Rue is a plant with a bitter fragrance that traditionally symbolizes loss and regret. The poet uses a metaphor when he says his male friends are buried by brooks too broad for leaping”. Here “brooks” are metaphors for the obstacles in life. The brooks were so wide that the light-footed boys could not “leap” or cross (overcome) them. The rose-lipped girls dies “in the field where roses fade”, which metaphorically refers to the world of change and instability. The poet uses euphemism in the lines, “The lightfoot boys are laid; / The rose-lipt girls are sleeping”. Here the word “laid” and “sleeping” refers to the death of the boys and girls respectively.

Q: Explain the following lines

By brooks too broad for leaping
The lightfoot boys are laid;
The rose-lipt girls are sleeping
In fields where roses fade.

Ans: These lines express why the poet’s heart is laden with sorrow and regret.
When the poet was young, he had many friends both boys and girls. The boys who were his friends were light-footed, that is, they were very agile and restless. But they meet death as they could not overcome the obstacles in life. The poet metaphorically compares the obstacles of life with the brooks which are too wide for his friends to overcome (leap). The girls who were his friends were rose-lipped. It suggests that the girls were very beautiful and they had the fragrance and fresh beauty of rose flowers. In spite of their youth and beauty, they had die “in fields where roses fade”. The “fields where roses fade” refers to the world where everything is subject to death and decay. Thus, the poet’s heart is consumed by grief because instability of things in life.