Department of English

Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University

2202242  Introduction to the Study of English Poetry

 

 

 

Robert Browning

(May 7, 1812 – December 12, 1889)

 

Meeting at Night

(1845, 1849)

 

I
The grey sea and the long black land;

And the yellow half-moon large and low;
And the startled little waves that leap
In fiery ringlets from their sleep,
As I gain the cove with pushing prow, 5
And quench its speed i' the slushy sand.
II
Then a mile of warm sea-scented beach;
Three fields to cross till a farm appears;
A tap at the pane, the quick sharp scratch
And blue spurt of a lighted match,
And a voice less loud, thro' its joys and fears, 5
Than the two hearts beating each to each!

 

 

 

Parting at Morning

(1845)

 

Round the cape of a sudden came the sea,  a
And the sun look'd over the mountain's rim:  b
And straight was a path of gold for him,  b
And the need of a world of men for me.  a

 

 

Robert Browning

 

Discussion

imagery

personification

time of day

 

Poem Notes

"Parting at Morning": Answering a query in 1889, Browning said a man was the speaker in this and "Meeting at Night."  This lyric "is his confession of how fleeting is the belief (implied in the first part) that such raptures are self-sufficient and enduring--as for the time they appear" (DeVane 178). [This note taken from Loucks 92.]

 

Reference and Further Reading

DeVane, William Clyde.  A Browning Handbook.  2nd ed.  New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1955. (CL 821.8 B885Dd)

Loucks, James F., ed.  Robert Browning's Poetry: Authoritative Texts, Criticism.  New York: W. W. Norton, 1979.

 

 

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Last updated June 21, 2007