The speaker makes a rueful joke about how love changes with familiarity. If the two had separated early, he says, he would have remained a romantic figure in the beloved’s mind: distance would have made him seem always at the beloved’s side. Instead, he stayed. The result is paradoxical but painfully ordinary—he is so present in the other person’s life that he is no longer really seen. “Always everywhere but here” captures that strange feeling of being taken for granted, at once indispensable and overlooked. The tone is light and clever, but under the wit there is real sadness: the lover who remains is less treasured than the lover who might have left. The rhyme and neat antitheses give it the feel of an elegant complaint, tender in its affection and a little bitter in its honesty.
Love-songs, at Once Tender and Informative XVIII — Summary
Had we but parted at the start, I'd cut some figure in your heart ; And though the lands between were wide, You'd often see me at your side.
But having loved and stayed, my dear, I'm always everywhere but here. And, still more paradoxical. You always see me not at all.