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Meeting at Night/Parting at Morning​ by Robert Browning

Overview:
● These two ​personal​ poems are
seemingly based around Browning’s
secret meetings with his future wife
(Elizabeth Barrett)
...


Structure/Form:
● The two poems are separated - ​Meeting at Night d
​ escribes the speaker’s long
journey and joyful relief at finally being reunited
...

● In the first poem there is an ​ABCCBA ​rhyme scheme, which almost imitates
the couple’s coming together and then being separated
...

● The tense changes to past in the second poem, indicating Browning’s sense
of ​nostalgia and longing​
...
​ The long sentences and drawn
out sounds also give a sense of time passing and the ​lengthy​ journey that
Browning embarks on
...

Language analysis:
● Assonance of the “o” sound is used in the first two lines of ​Meeting at Night,
for example in the ​“long black land…
...
T
​ hese ​drawn out​ and
perhaps slightly ​hyperbolic​ sounds prepare the reader, much like how
Browning probably prepared himself, for the journey ahead
...
​“Black” i​ s
also symbolic for ​death​, and this colour imagery may suggest that the speaker
fears for his life
...

● Browning uses the quotation: ​“startled little waves that leap” ​to contrast the
pathetic fallacy​ and assonance of the previous two lines of ​Meeting at Night
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This sudden movement
contrasts the slow pace of lines one and two and personifies the waves
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● The phrase ​“a tap at the pane, the quick sharp scratch” ​highlights the change
in sentence length and ​pace​ as Browning gets nearer to his love
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● Browning also uses an exclamative in the phrase ​“two hearts beating each to
each!”
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The lyrical language here is also a far cry from the prosaic ​colour imagery​ at
the beginning of stanza one, which may suggest that the brutal journey has
changed or even broken him
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● The use of the phrase ​“world of men” s​ uggests Browning’s slightly ​bitter
realisation that he will have to return to work after his night of passion
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Key ideas/features:
● Lexical field of fire​ (passion, desire, danger)
● Colour imagery (symbolic, can be used as pathetic
fallacy e
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​“The grey sea”,​ also provides contrast)
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● The ​building intensity​ in ​Meeting at Night a
​ nd the
eventual satisfaction and relief he experiences
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Themes:
● Romanticism
● Personal relationships
● Sense of place
● Memory
● Nature



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