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Meeting at Night
By Robert Browning

Questions and answers for class 11  

DESCRIBE THE JOURNEY OF THE LOVER.

3IMAGES USED IN THE POEM —  AT NIGHT.

-” MEETING AT NIGHT is one of Robert Browning’s most endearing love poems that focuses on a lover’s journey to meet his sweetheart at night in private. This journey is both passionate and challenging.

In the darkness of the night, the lover starts a very long journey through the sea with his boat heading towards the black land when the yellow half-moon was shining brightly in the sky. For reaching his ladylove farmhouse, the lover walks three fields and thereafter a one-mile-long sea scented beach. It is a very challenging journey. But the lover overcomes all obstacles and reaches the farm secretly. Perhaps they are not allowed to meet with each other. After reaching, he taps at the windowpane and his beloved responds to him by lighting a match. Then they reunite, but they are talking softly, as they must be careful about their secret love affair..But they are excited to meet after a long period. So the heart beat of the lovers  are louder than their voice.

Their meeting was passionate and desired to them,  but at the the same time, they had to be alert enough as their love was a secret affair.

2]ANALYSE MEETING AT NIGHT   IS A LOVE POE

In the beginning of the poem, the lover undertakes a long journey by boat to meet his beloved:  Here  The lover describes the color of the ocean and land in the dark..  The waves rippling far way the boat and seeming to reflect the “yellow half-moon” because they appear  “fiery.”  The speaker identifies the waves’ color with fire because fire often symbolizes passion.

In the second stanza, the speaker crosses the beach and three fields, before taping quietly at the windowpane of the beloved. Then, the beloved inside the house strikes a match, perhaps, to light a candle. .Again, the regard to fire might be symbolic of passion.

 Then, the last two lines are where we discover the foremost  evidence for this interpretation:

. The images depicted  in the sonnet are those of the “..grey ocean”, ” ..long dark land”, “..yellow half-moon”, “..frightened… waves”, “..slushy sand”, “..warm ocean scented seashore”, and “..three fields”  prepare  the depiction charming, bold, energetic,

‘….. long black land

…And the yellow half-moon large and low’

The reference to a “long black land” suggests that it is night time and the “..yellow half-moon” , ‘…startle waves’ and ‘ ..fiery ringlets’ suggest passionate feelings of the lover. . The  image  of the grey sea is  the symbol anxious mind associated with secret  meeting.

The warm sea scented beach symbolizes a sense of prospect. The image ‘ tap at window pane’  and ‘  another image quick sharp scratch’ shows the excitement of a lover for the meeting. The beautiful image ‘ blue spurt’  stands for the passionate love of the lovers. 

With these pictures and with the challenging exertion , Browning, brings home  the reality  Amor Vince Omnia which means love overcomes all.