A Quoi Bon Dire – Charlotte Mew

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Lesson notes

The poem at a glance

  • "A Quoi Bon Dire" by Charlotte Mew (1869–1928), from×The Farmer's Bride×(1916).
  • The French title means roughly "What is the point of saying?" / "What good is it to say?" — words cannot capture what the speaker feels.
  • The speaker addresses a beloved who died seventeen years ago: everyone else thinks he is dead — "But I" do not.
  • Now the speaker is old; the world sees only that — "But you" do not.
  • The last stanza imagines young lovers who think no one ever loved as they do, while the speaker and the dead beloved are together "over there".
  • Three short stanzas; key ideas: enduring love, death and memory, ageing, the private nature of grief.

Stanza 1: 'But I'

  • "Seventeen years ago you said / Something that sounded like Good-bye": the death is described gently, almost as a misunderstanding.
  • "And everybody thinks that you are dead, / But I.": the short final line (just two words) isolates the speaker — alone in keeping the beloved alive.
  • The caesura-like brevity makes "But I" stand out as defiance and loneliness.
  • Death is not accepted: in the speaker's mind the love continues.

Stanza 2: 'But you'

  • "So I, as I grow stiff and cold / To this and that say Good-bye too": the speaker is ageing and letting go of the world — the words also hint at death.
  • "And everybody sees that I am old / But you.": the second two-word line mirrors the first.
  • The beloved — frozen in memory — would still see the speaker as young; the love keeps both of them unchanged.
  • The parallel structure (But I / But you) binds the two lovers together against "everybody".

Stanza 3: over there

  • "And one fine morning in a sunny lane / Some boy and girl will meet and kiss and swear / That nobody can love their way again": new young lovers, sure their love is unique.
  • There is gentle irony: every generation believes it invented love.
  • "While over there / You will have smiled, I shall have tossed your hair.": the future perfect tense places the speaker and beloved together — perhaps in an afterlife, perhaps in memory — sharing an intimate, playful gesture.
  • The ending is tender and consoling: love outlasts death.

Form and methods

  • Stanzas 1 and 2 are quatrains with short final lines ("But I." / "But you."); stanza 3 is longer, with its own short line "While over there".
  • Rhyme (said/dead, Good-bye/I, cold/old, too/you) gives a song-like closeness.
  • Parallelism links the lovers; repetition of "Good-bye" and "everybody".
  • Understatement: death as "Something that sounded like Good-bye".
  • Tense shift to the future perfect in the last line: "will have smiled", "shall have tossed" — as if the reunion is already certain.

Themes and comparisons

  • Enduring love beyond death.
  • Grief and memory: the private world of the bereaved vs what "everybody" thinks.
  • Ageing: the speaker grows "stiff and cold", but love keeps youth alive.
  • Time: seventeen years, a lifetime, and eternity.
  • Comparisons: "Because I Could Not Stop for Death" (death and eternity), "Meeting at Night" (lovers), "Because I Liked You Better" (unexpressed love), "One Art" (loss).

Slides

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Practice questions

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  1. 1.Who wrote 'A Quoi Bon Dire'?

    Easy
    • ACharlotte Mew
    • BEmily Dickinson
    • CRuth Pitter
    • DChristina Rossetti

  2. 2.What does the French title roughly mean?

    Easy
    • AGoodbye, my love
    • BSeventeen years
    • COver there
    • DWhat is the point of saying?

  3. 3.How long ago did the beloved say 'Good-bye'?

    Easy
    • ASeventy years
    • BOne year
    • CSeventeen years
    • DSeven years

  4. 4.What does 'Something that sounded like Good-bye' refer to?

    Medium
    • AA train leaving
    • BThe beloved's death, described gently
    • CAn argument
    • DA letter

  5. 5.Who does NOT think the beloved is dead?

    Medium
    • AThe speaker
    • BEverybody
    • CThe young lovers
    • DThe beloved's family

  6. 6.What does everybody see about the speaker in stanza 2?

    Medium
    • AThat the speaker is rich
    • BThat the speaker is in love
    • CThat the speaker is ill
    • DThat the speaker is old

  7. 7.What is the effect of the two-word lines 'But I.' and 'But you.'?

    Medium
    • AThey are questions
    • BThey introduce new characters
    • CThey isolate and bind the two lovers against everybody else
    • DThey show the poet ran out of words

  8. 8.What does 'stiff and cold' suggest about the speaker?

    Medium
    • AGood health
    • BAgeing and drawing closer to death
    • CAnger at the beloved
    • DWinter weather only

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