Meeting at Night by Robert Browning:
Descriptive types Questions with Answers — : Class-XI (WBCHSE)
Question : Evaluate “Meeting at Night” — as a love poem.
Ans: Browning is a master artist of love-poem and his Meeting at Night is purely a love poem. This poem describes a lover’s tale. The lover is keen on meeting his beloved. So the lover sets out on a lonely and tedious journey with many apprehensions to meet his ladylove secretly.
The ladylove lives in a farmhouse and so the lover crosses the beach and three fields, in order to reach the farmhouse. However the excitement of this bold adventure inspires him to overcome all the obstacles of the way.
After reaches his destination, he taps at the windowpane, then the ladylove lights a match which signifies the spurt of passion in their hearts. Their hearts beat against each other as they get locked in the supreme moment of perfect union in love and the union of their hearts makes the words useless. Love transcends all obstacles and it is more powerful than any human efforts and it triumphs at the end.
Thus a cinematographic setting of the poem makes the poem as a beautiful love-poem.
Question : Write a critical appreciation of Browning’s Meeting at Night.
Ans: Browning’s Meeting at Night is a short and relatively simple love poem, culminating in a clandestine meeting of the lovers. The poem has two stanzas and each stanzas have six lines. The entire poem has a sense of movement to it that reflects the speaker’s desire to unite with his beloved.
When we read aloud we can sense how the language is pushing ever forward, with three lines in the first stanza alone beginning with And. It suggests that the speaker’s mind is not in the present moment; he is eager for the next thing, since the latter gets him closer to his lover.
The imaginary in the first stanza is extremely picturesque and pastoral, the type of landscape which usually poets like to describe. However, animated with expectation the lover finally stands at the door of his ladylove.
But the poem ends abruptly when the lover reaches the ladylove’s farmhouse. It suggests that once the lover achieves the unspeakable beauty of love and happiness for himself, he needs not say anything more, but just enjoy. This is artistically justified. The rhyme scheme of the stanzas are ‘abccba’ and ‘deffed’ and the metre is iambic tetrametre loosely applied. Phrases like fiery ringlets and slushy sand stand out.
Question: Describe the lover’s journey to meet his beloved.
Ans : Meeting at Night is one of the loveliest love poem of Robert Browning. The entire poem describes the lover’s desire to unite his ladylove secretly at night. But the ladylove lives across the sea. Therefore to keep their meeting a secret, the lover undertakes a long journey by sea and by land to meet his ladylove.
At first the lover sails in a boat in the grey sea and the moon is not in full grandeur. The waves are look active and they look like fiery ringlets. The speaker moves on over the sea until his boat hits the slushy sand. Finally he reaches the cove and lands on the beach, walks along the long sea-scented beach and crosses three fields, in order to reach the farmhouse, where his beloved lives.
There, he gives a tap and a quick sharp stretch on the window-pane. His ladylove lights a match. She murmurs something inaudibly through her joys and fears. The sound seems to be softer than the beating of two hearts in perfect union. It is the supreme moment of joy. Thus the lover overcomes all the obstacles of the way to meet his beloved.
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