The speaker addresses someone she has lost, asking that every town remember the person’s beauty and youth. She wants that memory spoken gently, in spring evenings after the dew has fallen. The middle lines paint delicate, fleeting images—wind stirring against a warm-colored window, white flags or petals in a wistful row, a single star after rain. Each one feels brief and lovely, much like youth itself. But the final stanza turns inward. There is one thing she will not share: the knowledge that all this loveliness belonged to her. That private claim is the poem’s quiet center. The mood is tender, wistful, and a little possessive. It balances the desire for public remembrance with a grief or love too intimate to speak aloud, even while the whole world is being asked to remember.
Remembrance — Summary
Let all the towns remember you. And tell it out with mellow tongue, Down April yards at fall of dew — That you were fair, that you were young.
A wind at dusk shaken to and fro Against a melon-colored pane; White flags in a brief, wistful row; An only star after a rain.
But let this secret keep unsung; Nor wise nor fool must it divine, And tell it out with April tongue — That all this loveliness was mine !