Speaker

In most poems, the speaker is also the protagonist of the poem. "The Unfortunate Lover," however, splits these roles into two – the poem is not narrated by the lover to whom the poem's events happen. Instead, the speaker takes a distant, but still sympathetic, approach. He refers to the protagonist as "my poor lover," suggesting a sense of intimacy, even ownership, of his story (11). However, ultimately he is outside it, watching and commenting on the poem's themes.

The Unfortunate Lover

The central character in the poem is the "unfortunate lover" of the title. He is a young man to whom a series of extremely tragic events occurs. He is born in the midst of a shipwreck, during which his mother dies. Now orphaned at a young age, he loses his fortune to the greed of the Court of Wards. Most tragically of all, he falls in love with...