Meeting At Night by Robert Browning Summary Explanation Questions Answers

Meeting At Night By Robert Browning|Summary, Explanation Question Answers

Browning's 'Meeting At Night' is a very popular love poem in English Literature. Published in "Dramatic Monologue and Lyrics" in December,1845 it narrates the struggle of the speaker to reach his beloved. Initially Browning wrote a poem entitled 'Night and Morning'. Later, the poem was divided into two separate poems. The first part is 'Meeting at Night' and the second part is 'Parting at Morning '

The Poem Meeting At Night

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,
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,
Than the two hearts beating each to each!

About the Poet Robert Browning 

Robert Browning was a famous English poet of the Victorian age in English  Literature. He was born on May 7,1812 in Camberwell in South-Ease London. His father, Robert Browning was a scholar and a clerk in the Bank of England. 
His first published poem was 'Pauline', appeared in 1833. Browning came up with a new form of poetry that is called 'Dramatic Monologue '. Among his poems which contains the style of dramatic monologue are - 'Porphyria's Lover', 'My Last Duchess, 'The Last Ride Together ' etc. 

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Introduction to the poem Meeting At Night 

Browning's Meeting at Night was published in "Dramatic Monologue And Lyrics" in December 1845. The poem is autobiographical in nature. It reflects the Browning -Elizabeth Barret love affair. In 1845, Browning met Elizabeth Barret whose poetry impressed him . Love grew between them. They would meet secretly as Elizabeth's father did not approve of Browning. After a number of secret meetings they got married and went to Italy. 

Style of the poem Meeting at Night

The poem is a lyric. It is not a Dramatic Monologue as it does not reveal the speaker's character in a Dramatic Situation. There is no silent listener. The poem is written in first person singular number. It is the voice of the male lover. 

Summary of the poem Meeting at Night 

The speaker undertakes long journey in the sea and on land to meet his beloved secretly at night. The sea is grey and the land is Balck. The speaker moves towards the land on a boat. The moon that is called 'Yellow half-moon' is visible and clear though it looks large and low. The waves are very active. It seems that they have just risen from sleep and are dancing in joy. The waves look like fiery ringlets. 
The speaker disembarks from the boat. He then walks a mile on the warm sea beach and crosses three fields to reach to his beloved. He reaches to a farm where he taps at the window pane of the farm house. 
His beloved responds by lighting a match within. They speak in whispers so that they might not be heard by others. Only the sound of the beating of the lovers' hearts can be heard. 

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Central Thought of the poem Meeting at Night 

The poem Meeting at Night is a love poem. The main idea of the poem is that love conquers all difficulties. The poem 'Meeting at Night' is actually an account of a lover's long, arduous journey to meet his lady love secretly. But one must mot overlook the poet's intense and deep passion. Love is so deep that it gives energy to the lover to overcome all the challenges of time and place. He overcomes the challenges of the dark night, the grey sea and the black land. Finally when they meet the words fade away as the excitement of the meeting triumphs over everything through the beating of the lovers' hearts.

Title of the Poem "Meeting at Night"

Robert Browning's poem Meeting at Night describes a secret meeting of two lovers. The Title gives emphasis on the sense of secrecy. Only the last four lines highlight their meeting. But the title implies that the meeting is eagerly awaited. The lover overcome all obstacles only to meet his ladylove. He sails over a part of the ocean. The , he walks a mile on the beach and crosses three files to reach the farmhouse where his ladylove lives. The love ultimately meets his beloved at night. The suppressed excitement bursts into passion. The lovers' hearts, beating as one, drown their soft whispers. The title thus connects both the secrecy and urgency, related with the reunion of the lovers. So, the title is appropriate.

Line by line Analysis of the Poem Meeting At Night 

First Part

"The grey sea and the long black land;
And the yellow half-moon large and low"

The first line focuses on the night landscape. The narrator tells that the sea is grey . The word 'grey' suggests loneliness. It also indicates the time during which the narrator embarks his journey. 

The speaker describes the land as black as it is dark outside. It also indicates the time and secrecy of the speaker's journey.

Next, the speaker mentions the colour of the moon. The reference to the yellow moon once again indicated the time. The colour yellow indicates warmth, opposite to grey. So, this refers to the symbolic representation of the warm and fiery passion in the heart of the narrator. 

"And the startled little waves that leap
In fiery ringlets from their sleep"

Here, the speaker describes the sea waves as 'little' and 'startled'. The poet makes the waves seem alive and active ny giving them human qualities. This is called personification. 

The poet imagines that the active waves are jumping. Here, the poet adds another human quality to non-human waves. The waves leaping suggests the intense passions in the heart of the lover.

The waves leap in 'fiery ringlets'. As soon as the waves come in contact with the boat they break up and disperse as small sparks of fiery ringlets. The waves are not literally on fire. This is another metaphor that suggests the warm passion in the heart of the speaker.

The poet imagines that the waves have risen from their sleep. They shve become active as the poet's intense passion. 

" As I gain the cove with pushing prow,
And quench its speed i' the slushy sand."

The narrator then reached the land. Prow is the pointed part of a boat. The pointed part of the boat is moving fast. The word 'quench' means to satisfy or to stop through gratification. The boat hits the shore forcefully and thereby slows down. Again, symbolically it is the thirst in the heart of the speaker to meet his beloved. It has been quenched that means satisfied when the boat reaches the land. 

The beach is slushy. It suggest the excitement of the lover.

Second Part  

"Then a mile of warm sea-scented beach;
Three fields to cross till a farm appears"

The beach is still warm because it was open to the scorching of the hot sun. The sea beach becomes scented. After crossing a mile of warm sea-beach, the speaker will have to cross three fields to reach his destination. The speaker then has to pass through the beach and three fields to reach the farmhouse where his ladylove lives. 

"A tap at the pane, the quick sharp scratch
And blue spurt of a lighted match"

A light and quick sound on the indoe pane is heard. The speaker secretly knocks on the gate of the house where his ladylove resides. The tapping of the window pane is responded to by a quick and sudden scratch of matchstick on matchbox. 

After the sharp sound of the scratch, the blue light of the match stick could be seen. It is a metaphor that suggest the ignition of the lovers' passion.

"And a voice less loud, thro' its joys and fears,
Than the two hearts beating each to each!"

The voice is the voice of the ladylove. The voice of the poet fades because of the beating of the hearts. Her whisper has a mix of both joy and fear and excitement. The secret meeting of them makes them so excited that the sound of the beating of the hearts seem to be louder than the whisper of the ladylove. This is a romantic scene ,no doubt. 

Meeting At Night Questions Answers

1. How does the poet describe the sea in the poem 'Meeting at Night'?

The poem 'Meeting at Night' opens with a vivid description of the sea. The sea is grey and calm. The sport speaks of the startled waves, the warm sea-scented beach. The boat of the speaker hits the land. The poet describes the colour of the sea and the thing associated with the sea. The description of the sea acts as the setting of the poem. It also expressed that speaker's mental state. 

2. What is personification? How is it used in the poem "Meeting at Night"?

Personification is a figure of speech that is widely used in poems. It is the practice of representing inanimate objects as humans in art and literature. It is the literary style of imposing human qualities on non-human objects. 
The poem Meeting at Night is a good example where personification has been used widely. In the poem the speaker observed the startled waves in fiery ringlets. Eaves do not sleep or leap. But here the poet imagines that the waves are leaping or sleeping. 

3. Describe the speaker's journey in the poem "Meeting at Night".

Meeting at night is a love poem. It describes the lover's journey to his beloved. She lives in a secured farm house across the bay. The speaker sails his boat at night and travels across the sea. The sea is grey and the land black. The yellow half moon is large and low on the horizon. The speaker moves on until his boat reaches the slushy land. He leaves the boat and walks a mile on the beach. Then he crossed three fields and comes upon the farmhouse. Finally the lovers meet overcoming all challenges.

4. How does Browning present Nature in the poem "Meeting at Night"?

Robert Browning is a Victorian Poet. Although he has made use of nature and natural images effectively in the poem Meeting at Night. The poem Meeting At NIGHT presents the beauty and mystery of nature. The lover has to undertake a long journey to reach his destination. It is a farmhouse where the bobes is waiting. During his journey he encounters the grey sea, the long black land and the yellow moon. The use of olfactory sense are found in phrases like 'slushy' and 'sea-scented beach'. Such rich imagery adds magic to the description of nature.