If I Could Tell You

The poem opens with the speaker declaring that “Time” (Line 1) will never reveal anything to anyone in particular—it will only say, “I told you so” (Line 1). The speaker suggests that this lack of revelation is because Time itself does not contain any inherent wisdom or insight, as it “only knows the price we have to pay” (Line 2) and nothing more. The speaker then finishes the first stanza by assuring their beloved, “If I could tell you I would let you know” (Line 3, emphasis added), implying that the speaker does not have any insights or special wisdom about life either, but that if they did, they would be willing to share that knowledge with their loved one. The three lines of the opening stanza contain the refrains that will appear at various other points of the poem, creating the repetition that is so important to the villanelle form the poem follows (See: Literary Devices). The stanza also contains the only two rhyme-sounds that will appear throughout the poem.

In the second stanza, the poem’s speaker suggests that the outcome in life will be similar whether things go according to plan or not.