Meeting at Night

“Parting at Morning” by Robert Browning (1845)

This was originally the second part of the poem that was titled “Night and Morning,” which included what is now “Meeting at Night” as its first part. Browning later separated the two parts to create separate poems. This poem describes the morning after the lovers’ night together. The man leaves early as the sun rises; he feels that he must get back to “a world of men” (Line 4) that awaits him. This shows the other side of a man’s role; after sharing the tenderness of love with a woman, his duty is to involve himself in society (run by men in those days) and take part in whatever important business needs to be done. 

“Love Among the Ruins” by Robert Browning (1855)

This is another of Browning’s love poems set in Italy. His speaker is making his way across a pasture, and he thinks of how, in bygone days, it was the site of a great city. Browning may have had in mind ancient Syracuse in Sicily. The speaker imagines the spectacular scenes of luxury and power that must be on display there. Now only a ruined tower remains, from which a king once looked out, and there, a woman waits eagerly for him. He thinks of the joy with which they will greet each other and concludes that all the glories of the ancient city were no more than centuries of “folly, noise, and sin!” (Line 81). Far greater than all that is love: “Love is best” (Line 84). 

“The Last Ride Together” by Robert Browning (1855) 

This is another poem about love between a man and a woman. It is a dramatic monologue, a form for which Browning is renowned. The male speaker laments the failure of their romantic relationship, and he has decided to end it. He invites the woman on one last horseback ride together. During the ride, he reflects on the work of poets, sculptors, and composers and claims that their achievements are not a match for the joy he experiences riding with his lady. In the final two stanzas, he speculates that even heaven can offer no greater happiness. What if, he speculates, heaven is no more than these joyful moments of riding together extended forever? 

“Two in the Campagna” by Robert Browning (1855)

Browning wrote this after visiting the Campagna di Roma, a plain that surrounds Rome, with his wife. The poem takes a longer and more sober view of love than “Meeting at Night.” The speaker longs for an even deeper connection with his beloved than the one they already have. Yet they can only go so far in fulfilling his desire to be absolutely at one with her since they are two separate beings. They may have an “infinite passion” (Line 59), but they must also experience “the pain / Of finite hearts that yearn” (Lines 59-60).