Literary analysis of The new remorse by Oscar Wilde

The New Remorse

The sin was mine; I did not understand.

So now is music prisoned in her cave,

Save where some ebbing desultory wave

Frets with its restless whirls this meagre strand.

And in the withered hollow of this land

Hath Summer dug herself so deep a grave,

That hardly can the leaden willow crave

One silver blossom from keen Winter's hand.

But who is this who cometh by the shore?

(Nay, love, look up and wonder!) Who is this

Who cometh in dyed garments from the South?

It is thy new-found Lord, and he shall kiss

The yet unravished roses of thy mouth,

And I shall weep and worship, as before.

Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

Narrative elements

SETTING: In a beach during the 19th century, (Victorian era) the end of the summer and the beginning of the winter.

THEME: Why does the author lose his lover?

PLOT: A man who resigned himself to give his lover to another man

CHARACTERS: The narrator (man who loses his lover), the lover, the new man.

POINT OF VIEW: The atmosphere evokes sadness from a man who is losing his lover because he did not know what was happening. The author uses the seasons of the year in order to show the transfer of his woman to another man.

FIGURES: Paradox and personification

The new remorse

“The new remorse” by Oscar Wilde is an example of why so many times relationships end; on the one hand, in this case, apparently, it was the man’s fault the cause of the breakup but he did not know it, it is what evokes the verse: ‘The sin was mine; I did not understand”. In this very first part, it is possible to perceive the sadness from the man that lost someone without having any idea. On the other hand, the new person who stays with his old woman “It is thy new-found Lord, and he shall kiss” after having wasted a woman’s love, he decided to give her to a man who probably is going to love her much more.

This poem belong to the realistic fiction, because Wilde decides to use personification in order to show, through several elements from nature, how much the man regretted the loss of his woman love.  “Hath Summer dug herself so deep a grave,” it is known that summer (the season) cannot do any action, in this case digging, but the authors writes in this manner in order to show remorse from the man that he pretends to throw everything in a grave.  Oscar Wilde is known for using paradoxes in his writings: “One silver blossom from keen Winter's hand.” is an example of it, one silver blossom refers to the woman who will stay with someone like the winter, which is paradoxical how these two people are so different and they will stay together. In the same way “Winter's hand.” It is another example of personification because it refers to a season and not a person. The poem is realistic fiction because characters are in a real setting but this setting seems to be alive in the author’s head. When talking about characterization, the poem presents the first man who seemly does not know how to keep relationship having a result the loss of someone, different from the second man who seems to be the perfect man for women who wish be loved really; the woman seems to belong to those women who are wished by all men, beautiful and dedicated to their lovers. All these three people are in a beach, the woman and the narrator, they seem to be quit while the man is regretting with all this heart his lose, and the woman seems to be perfectly beautiful, being part of the place and waiting for her new love.

Going back to the central idea, “why does the author lose his lover?” this is a question that is basically answered at the begging of the poem, the neglect of a man could become an advantage for a new one. The relationship ended because the narrator did not show properly his feelings to his woman, he believed this was not necessary and he began to lose her, she began to feel unloved and she got bored of him having as a result a new person able to make feel that woman the most beautiful and the luckiest in all the Earth for having him.  The narrator staid alone, regretting each moment in which he did not say “I love you” to that woman.

This situation actually happens in real life, most of relationships end because one of two people (or perhaps both) does not say what she/he feels for the other person, we usually think that it is now necessary to open our heart to our couple and we loses them slowly until they cannot stand this situation anymore.  The poem is a reflection about our love life, it is fairly important to show our feelings and to make feel our couples that they are too lucky for having us.