19 pages • 38-minute read
Meeting at Night
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Themes
Passionate, Mutual Love
The man and the woman are passionately in love; they cannot wait to see each other. The fact that they are meeting in secret, at night, suggests that their relationship may be forbidden or illicit for some unstated reason. Little is said to convey any details of who they are—they are nameless, for example—or where they belong in society. There is only one thing that defines them: their love for each other and their anticipation of their meeting, which gives every appearance of having been well planned. The man is determined and purposeful as he guides his boat into the cove, where it nestles in the sandy beach. There is no one around to observe him. He knows the way to the farmhouse, but the light from the moon no doubt makes it easier for him. The night is calm, but one can imagine his rising excitement as he nears the farmhouse for this romantic, potentially erotic encounter. Their passion is entirely shared, and they are confident of each other’s love. The woman knows he is on his way, and she knows full well who is tapping at the window. This is no unknown nighttime intruder to be feared. The lighted match is a sign—a prearranged signal, perhaps—that she is there and waiting for him.
Browning builds anticipation for reader to imagine that the woman will soon open the door for the man and that there will be a passionate embrace and whispered, fond greetings. Their hearts are pounding as the moment of meeting is upon them. Perhaps it has been a long wait since their last meeting, but again, that is speculation; their life story is not revealed or even implied. In this moment, they are simply a man and a woman fired by romantic love, a couple thinking only of the joy of their love and the thrill of being in the presence of their beloved. It is a moment of great emotional intensity, as the quickening heartbeats convey.
Male Action and Female Emotions
Man and woman are portrayed rather differently, reflecting the traditional gender roles of the time. In “Meeting at Night,” the man is the initiator and mover; he is the active one. He has ventured out in the dead of night, procured a boat, steered it unfailingly to where he wants to go, and walked across the beach and fields. He is bold and adventurous, doing “what men do” when seized by love and desire for a woman. On the other hand, the woman waits, passive. She has nothing to do but light the match when the moment comes. She is the sought one, not the seeker.
Tellingly, the poem reveals more of the woman’s emotions than it does of the man’s. The man has a quick-beating heart, just like she does, which indicates his excitement and eagerness to embrace his beloved, but it is the woman who explicitly has a mixture of emotions, both “joys and fears” (Line 11). Joy is self-explanatory, but the presence of fears lends itself to speculation. The poem is told from a male point of view, so this is a man’s idea of what a woman might feel in such a situation. This perspective leaves room for the reader to question what might be racing through the woman’s mind as she sees the familiar, much-loved face and form emerging through the doorway, illumined by just that one match: Can I wholly trust? Can this love survive? Am I doing the right thing? What will happen if I abandon all boundaries, scruples, and restraints? Where will it all end?
“Fear” in this context also suggests the vulnerability of the woman. In Victorian times, a woman was regarded as the “weaker vessel” (a phrase that originated in the New Testament, in I Peter 3:7). She was more delicate physically and more emotional than a man, and in love, she has more to lose than the man. Indeed, Browning’s companion poem “Parting at Morning” shows the man leaving at dawn the next morning: He needs to get back to the world of men and play his important part in society—he has a schedule to keep. The woman, meanwhile, is left alone with her feelings. This puts in mind the words of another 19th-century English poet, writing a quarter of a century earlier than “Meeting at Night”—Lord Byron, who expressed something of this sentiment through his character Donna Julia in his epic satire Don Juan: “Man’s love is of man’s life a thing apart, / ‘Tis a Woman’s whole existence” (Byron, Lord George Gordon. Don Juan. Project Gutenberg. 2007. Stanza CXCIV).
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