Men and Women was Browning's first published work after a five year hiatus, and his first collection of
shorter poems since his marriage to Elizabeth Barrett in 1846. His reputation had still not recovered
from the disastrous failure of Sordello fifteen years previously, and Browning was at the time
comprehensively overshadowed by his wife in terms of both critical reception and commercial
success. Away from the spotlight, Browning was able to work on a long-considered project. He had
long been associated with the dramatic monologue, having written two early volumes of poems
entitled Dramatic Lyrics and Dramatic Romances and Lyrics, but with Men and Women he took the
concept a step further.
Browning's Men and Women consists of fifty-one poems, all of which are monologues spoken by
different narrators, some identified and some not; the first fifty take in a very diverse range of
historical, religious or European situations, with the fifty-first -One Word More - featuring Browning
himself as narrator and dedicated to his wife. The title of the collection came from a line in
her Sonnets from the Portuguese. Browning himself was very fond of the collection, referring to the
poems as "My fifty men and women" (from the opening line in One Word More), and today, Men and
Women has been described as one of Victorian England's most significant books.[citation needed]
[edit]Transcendentalism
- A Poem in Twelve Volumes
Thirteen years after the publication of Men and Women, Browning revisited the first edition, and made
a reclassification of it. He separated the simpler rhymed presentations of an emotional moment, such
as Mesmerism and A Woman's Last Word, or the picturesque rhymed verse telling a story of an
experience, such as Childe Roland and The Statue and the Bust, from their more complex
companions, such as Cleon, Fra Lippo, and Rudel. The resulting collection of only twelve poems is
typically found today in many abridged editions of Men and Women, and in the somewhat more
accurately titled volume, Transcendentalism: A Poem In Twelve Volumes.[2]
Love in a Life
from Robert Browning Men and Women, vol. I (1855).
First publication date: 1855.
‘Love in a Life’ is a poem by Robert Browning which, at first sight, talks about love
as the main subject. Its title is highly illustrative, it presents ‘love’ to the readers as something
that can or cannot be part of a life. Moreover, to emphasize such possibility in a life, the
author has used the literary device of alliteration; he uses the same liquid sound at the
beginning of the two lexical items that make up the title (love, life).
Throughout the full poem, Browning narrates the search of a girl, the search of her
love, the search of the woman he is in love with, through a house. But parallel to this search,
the search of knowledge, science and discoveries is also implied. Therefore, Browning hides
the idea of the new explorers and scientists below the image of a man in love who searches
his lover.
The poem is divided into two paragraphs and it does not follow any regular metre.
However, the structure of the first paragraph is almost identical to the second paragraph’s
one. The same patterns are repeated.
From the very first line the author introduces the image of searching by the sentence
‘Room after room’. Furthermore, in the following line he uses the verb ‘hunt’ with the
meaning of searching, searching her love through the entire house. But the election of the
verb ‘hunt’ instead of ‘search’ or ‘look for’, for instance, can be related to imperialism and
colonialism, because of the connotation of cannibalism and savagery of this word, keeping in
mind that these methods were used during this period of the History of England. This verb
also means to chase animals, so it can be even related to slaves. Hence, with the use of it,
Browning once again sets an ambiguous scene to the reader, a scene which can have two
ways of being interpreted. And something similar happens with the next verb ‘inhabit’, which
one of its uses is related to animals living in an area or place.
Going forward, the fourth line has the implied sense of encouraging the reader to read,
to the individual knowledge, which was very typical during the Victorian Age among
Browning’s acquaintances, but which was not Browning’s case, since he went to University,
(Heart, fear nothing, for, heart, thou shalt find her,...).1[1] The following line ( Next time,
herself! -not the trouble behind her...) is still fostering the same idea of science, knowledge,
but this time the author tries to encourage the reader not to be afraid of the problems that to
achieve a cultural level could signify, which, as he states in the next line, are Left in the
curtain, the couch's perfume!. Browning states all these ideas of progress, together with the
ideas of evolution and natural laws, which defined Victorianism,2[2] through the image of
love. Therefore, among the two last lines of the first paragraph he uses a metaphor to
exemplify the troubles of her lover. But he is exemplifying at the same time the idea of
leaving behind the closed religious explanations to the mysteries of life and the idea of
investigating and being more critical,
(As she brushed it, the cornice-wreath blossomed anew, Yon looking-glass gleamed at the wave of her feather.)
During the second paragraph, the author continues with the same double
exemplification of love and science. Here probably the most interesting lines, because of its
clarity, are the three last ones. Line 13 (Spend my whole day in the quest, -who cares?) invites
the reader to think that there is never enough time to be used for science, that there is always
a new thing to discover. This line can be seen as a challenge to the ortodox Genesis, which
defends that every single thing was created by God.
But, perhaps, the best verse of the poem because of the double image it manages to
build up, is the last one:
But 'tis twilight, you see, -with such suites to explore,
Such closets to search, such alcoves to importune!
Through these last lines the double meaning of searching results evident. The use of verbs
such as explore or the image of a lot of things and places to be searched through, make
reference to the social events and the progress which were taking place at the time. But, at the
same time, these lines are speaking about love, with the implied meaning of exploring the
body of the woman he is in love with.
Personally, I am impressed by the ability of Robert Browning to write such an
interesting poem. I am impressed by his capacity to reflect a love story and the needs of his
society at the same time in a poem, and in a very intelligent way. ‘Love in a Life’ is a poem
which can be perfectly interpreted in one way or the other, it just has to do with the anxieties
and likes of the reader.
"LOVE IN A LIFE" represents the lover as inhabiting the same house with
his unseen love; and pursuing her in it ceaselessly from room to room,
always catching the flutter of her retreating presence, always sure that
the next moment he will overtake her.
"LIFE IN A LOVE" might be the utterance of the same person, when he has
grasped the fact that the loved one is determined to elude him. She may
baffle his pursuit, but he will never desist from it, though it absorb
his whole life.
The poem I am going to talk about is “Life in a love” by Robert Browning.
Curiously this author has another poem titled “Love in a life” which is different,
always with any relation, but I can see how he is playing on words in his own poems
and titles. In the title of the poem to analyze I can understand that Browning has
lived in love and for his love, like he says, a life in a love, inside a love story he has
lived. This is the sense of his life.
Robert Browning was in love with Elisabeth Browning, and this love story was
very difficult. They got married in secret and they escaped also in secret, and that is
the reason why he starts this poem like this: “Escape me? / Never”. It is probably that
he felt like a fugitive, but he was always convinced about his facts and his ideas, he
believed in himself to carry with his love story.
This poem is a dramatic monologue, because he is reflecting on his ideas
through all the text, he asks the questions and gives the answers, it is a kind of
conversation in which he is the narrator and we turn into the silent listener, we only
can attend to what he is telling us to share the poem with him.
The structure of this poem reminds us of a letter. It is possible that it was: the
romance between Robert and Elisabeth Browning never was accepted. They came
from different social classes and she was seen as an inferior person to be with
Robert. Also, her family didn’t accept him. One way to talk was the writing. They
maintained a correspondence but some years after, the poems were published.
Elisabeth Browning titled them Sonnets from the Portuguese. This kind of “game”
allowed them to be in touch although they were distant, because she was in
Florence and he lived in London. Even so, he loved Elisabeth with all his heart and
this is one of the causes of his flight.
The fact that they published these poems (letters), it is like a way to
communicate them providing the appearance of “Yellow Press”. As this love story
was not accepted and it created controversy, this was something which produced
curiosity in the people and everyone was waiting for news of this couple, and all
people talked about them, gossiping. As we know, all the forbidden things call for our
curiosity and in those times, happened the same: there was a new way of thinking,
the social classes were stronger, and the religion saw these things like a sin… All
that caused a social scandal.
In some way, this scandal was positive for Robert and Elisabeth because
thanks to it, their poems were read by a lot of people. It did not matter if these poems
were good or not, the most important thing was that people can red news about the
Browning’s love story and know if the things went right and if the new society
accepted it.
Reading this poem, I can see how the author looks for being more popular. This
is a period of time in which it is more difficult to be read and obtain a place between
the most read poets, and that is why Browning preferred to write this kind of poems,
this kind of monologue, in order to attract better the attention of his audience. In
those times, the audience sometimes shares their worries with the poets.
As I said before, in this poem the author talks about escape. He does a
reflection justifying his acts. He thinks he did not escape, and his first answer to it is:
“Beloved!”. Escape is something that society thinks, but he did not. He is moved by
love and this justifies all. He considers the other person (Elisabeth) like an equal
person, he does not differenciate between social classes, one person is not higher
than another, and in this case they both are in love, so they are not different. The two
lovers escaped together. I can justify it in the 5 th verse: “So long as the world
contains us both”, it does not matter the destiny or the place, the most important
thing is their love and being together. In the verses “Me the loving and you the loth /
While the one eludes, must the other pursue” he shows us how he will be able to do
all for Elisabeth. He fears that his life became a fault, but he thinks this is his way;
this is what he has to do. He is worried because he can fail in his purpose. He asks
himself what he will do if he fails. And he answers himself that the solution is “keep
the nerves at strain”. There will be time to “dry one’s eyes” if he fails but the first
thing to do is to try it, he always can “get up and begin again” if he falls. The author
thinks that this purpose, this chase can takes up all his life, but he wants to know his
“farthest bound”, all that he is able to do for love and where he can arrive. He always
has his hope and this is something that he will never loose and it will give him
strength to go on. Nothing and no one will stop him, everything (people, family,
society) that want to sink him does not matter and it does not remove him. “Ever”. If
there is any possibility to fail, he will learn through his faults and he will try to make it
better.
Finally, I also can see how his sources of inspiration are his strength, his love,
the fate, the desire to face the forbidden things… and he never requests to God or
supernatural divinities because he is an atheist.
In my opinion, Robert Browning was very brave. It is too easy to give up your
objectives, if you find some difficulties but he did not. He always fought for what he
wanted, “he pulled down each wall” that he found in his way, and finally he was
rewarded with love, the best reward that a human can obtain in his life. So, clearly I
can say that he lived his “life in a love”.
A Structural Analysis of Robert Browning’s “Life in a Love”
Robert Browning’s “Life in a Love” is a poem where the speaker argues with his beloved who keeps
on rejecting him and his love. During his argument, the speaker realizes that he will never succeed in
winning his beloved’s heart. Yet, he emphasizes that even if fate stands in the way, he will never give
up hoping that one day she will accept his feelings. For him, he still has the choice of whether to
passively accept his fate and lead a life full of misery, or to keep on hoping and persuade his beloved
to accept him. Since the latter choice is what grants him happiness and renewed hope, he chooses
to adhere to it and live his life in love. The experience of unrequited love is used in “Life in a Love” to
emphasize that people have the freedom of choice within fate and that they should make the best
and the most positive choices. In other words, fate does not mean the absence of human choice.
Hence, rather than losing hope and surrendering to despair, people must take positive choices that
may grant them happy lives.
This interpretation of the poem is built upon tow binary oppositions. The first opposition is between
fate and free choice. The second opposition is between negative and positive choices in life. Within
the tension between negative and positive choices, there are two supporting binary oppositions
which are interwoven within each other. These secondary oppositions are despair versus hope and
happiness versus misery. Whenever there is hope, there is happiness and misery accompanies
despair.
Through the tension between fate and free choice, the poem introduces the idea that there is
freedom of choice within fate. At first, fate is presented as a dominant power in human life. The
speaker tells his beloved that it is already decided, “[s]o long as the world contains us both, / Me the
loving and you the loth, / While the one eludes, must...
First Published 1855, in Men and Women
- Keep in mind that these are actually two separate poems, though they seem to mirror each other,
as if they were one.
- An inward looking poem, which is interested in the intimate, private relationship between the man
and woman rather than its social implications.
- Love is unfulfilled but Browning avoids the clichés of this theme by writing two connected poems,
which echo each other, as opposed to a sonnet.
Points for consideration
- Love is shown as complex and perplexing - consider the maze-like setting of the poem.
Poems for comparison
- Women and Roses – the complexity of women
- Love Among the Ruins – desertion and isolation
- Two in the Campagna – obstacles to love
- Apparent Failure – misplacement and disorientation
Thinking about the imagery in 'Love in a Life / Life in a Love', which would be the most appropriate
image to sum-up the poem?
- Do you have an image which works better?
- Can you match quotations to the images below? These may be keywords, phrases, or entire lines.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
How Do I Love Thee?
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of every day's
Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love with a passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints, -- I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! -- and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning