The Full Text of “Meeting at Night”
I
1The grey sea and the long black land;
2And the yellow half-moon large and low;
3And the startled little waves that leap
4In fiery ringlets from their sleep,
5As I gain the cove with pushing prow,
6And quench its speed i' the slushy sand.
II
7Then a mile of warm sea-scented beach;
8Three fields to cross till a farm appears;
9A tap at the pane, the quick sharp scratch
10And blue spurt of a lighted match,
11And a voice less loud, thro' its joys and fears,
12Than the two hearts beating each to each!
The Full Text of “Meeting at Night”
I
1The grey sea and the long black land;
2And the yellow half-moon large and low;
3And the startled little waves that leap
4In fiery ringlets from their sleep,
5As I gain the cove with pushing prow,
6And quench its speed i' the slushy sand.
II
7Then a mile of warm sea-scented beach;
8Three fields to cross till a farm appears;
9A tap at the pane, the quick sharp scratch
10And blue spurt of a lighted match,
11And a voice less loud, thro' its joys and fears,
12Than the two hearts beating each to each!
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“Meeting at Night” Introduction
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Victorian poet Robert Browning's "Meeting at Night" follows the journey of its speaker to a meeting with a lover. It was published in Dramatic Romances and Lyrics (1845) with an additional "Morning" section (later separated into a different poem titled "Parting at Morning"). Browning composed the poem during his courtship of Elizabeth Barrett, his future wife, who was already a successful poet at the time. Barrett's father did not approve of Browning, and perhaps a hint of this can be detected in the hushed and secretive nature of the "meeting" the poem describes. This sensual, sexually suggestive poem was unusually bold for its time: the Victorian era was marked by its moral and social conservatism.
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“Meeting at Night” Summary
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The speaker describes a mysterious landscape: a dull sea and an expanse of land that looks black in the darkness. The half-moon looms low in the sky, giving off a yellow light. Small waves appear in little rings, where previously the surface had been calm. The speaker rows into the bay and brings the vessel to a halt in the wet sand.
The speaker walks for a mile along the warm beach, and can smell the sea. The speaker continues across three fields until reaching a farm. The speaker knocks gently on a window, at which point someone else (implied to be the speaker's lover) hurriedly strikes a match that bursts into a blue flame. "A voice"—either the speaker's or this lover's—talks, overcome with happiness and fear. The voice, though, doesn't seem to be as loud as the lovers' racing hearts, which beat together.
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“Meeting at Night” Themes
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Love and Perseverance
“Meeting at Night” aims to capture the vitality and excitement of romantic love, especially when that love is in its early stages. (Worth noting is that Robert Browning wrote it while courting his eventual wife, Elizabeth Barrett, and that Barrett's father did not approve of the match!) On a literal level, the poem tells the story of the speaker’s long and clandestine journey through a mysterious coastal landscape. This determined journey culminates with the speaker finally meeting up with a lover, their “two hearts beating” powerfully together. The poem thus argues that love is precious and worth striving for, even in the face of significant obstacles. Put simply, love is worth the effort.
The poem takes care to detail just how hard this journey is before revealing to the reader where the speaker is actually going. First, the speaker traverses a “grey sea” and “long black land,” reflecting the title's assertion that whatever "meeting" the speaker is heading towards is taking place "at night." This further suggests that this meeting is a secret, since it's happening under the cover of darkness when other people aren't around to watch. This adds a sense of danger and raises the stakes of the speaker's journey.
The mixture of precise imagery with vague nouns like “sea” and “land” also creates a sense of scale, suggesting the vast distance the speaker has to travel. Indeed, even when the speaker comes ashore, the journey isn't over. Now, the speaker must trudge down a mile of beach and cross "three fields," again underscoring the sheer scale of this trek. The speaker’s determination remains unwavering throughout, however, as is evident by the fact that the speaker both keeps going and never complains about the difficulty of this undertaking.
And again, it's important to note that it’s not until the final line that the reader really gets a sense of why the journey is being made. By delaying that reveal, the poem builds up a sense of anticipation—what powerful force could be driving the speaker forward so consistently?
The answer, of course, is love: the speaker has gone on this voyage in pursuit of romance. And when the poem finally does reveal the speaker’s purpose, its imagery suggests the thrill of new love—symbolized here by the match-lit meeting place and the intense intimacy of the poem’s final line.
In a sense, now that the reader knows the whole journey has been for love, the rest of the poem comes to represent the anticipation of that love. The fact that the lovers must meet at night suggests that their love is in some way forbidden, yet that it's worth taking a risk to pursue. The lines also take on a lustful tone in hindsight: for example, the “ringlets” of water could be hair, and the final two lines of the first stanza read like a metaphor for sexual intercourse itself.
In any case, the poem clearly suggests that love is something vital and thrilling. Through hiding its literal meaning until the final lines, the poem manages to capture something of the excitement—and perhaps even the danger—of love. The speaker makes the difficult journey to meet this lover precisely because love is worth fighting for.
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Meeting at Night”
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Lines 1-2
The grey sea and the long black land;
And the yellow half-moon large and low;Right from the beginning, the poem creates an atmosphere of anticipation. The first two lines of the first section are entirely descriptive, establishing the poem's distinct and mysterious sense of place. This isn't hollow descriptive language: the purpose of the description will become clear later in the poem. For now, though, all readers get is the image of a shoreline at night.
The nouns here are purposefully vague. The reader is presented with "sea" and "land," but no indication of which sea or which land. This creates a sense of mystery and risk—wherever this landscape is, it is an unfamiliar place. At the same time, these words also suggest that the specifics of the location are not all that important to the speaker. That is, the ominous landscape is nothing more than another obstacle in the speaker's journey. It's not important which sea or land the speaker is traveling through—it's where the speaker is traveling toward that matters most.
In addition to the title, the first two lines make it clear that the poem takes place at night. The land is visible only as a kind of black mass, emphasized by the way that /l/ sounds are drawn out by alliteration and consonance in "long black land." The adjectives, then, are an important part of creating the poem's specific atmosphere—and the low visibility suggests uncertainty and potential risk. It also suggests secrecy—that something about this meeting is clandestine, because it has to happen under the cover of darkness.
Line 2 picks up on the /l/ in line 1, with nearly half of the words in making use of the same sound "yellow half-moon large and low"). Here, the sound works to create a sense of the imposing sight of the moon, hanging "large and low" in the sky. The line also introduces another key technique that the poem uses to develop its atmosphere and heightened suspense. The line begins with "and," introducing the poem's polysyndeton. This repetition of "and" suggests the seemingly endless nature of this journey—it is one step, followed by another, and another, and another.
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Lines 3-4
And the startled little waves that leap
In fiery ringlets from their sleep, -
Lines 5-6
As I gain the cove with pushing prow,
And quench its speed i' the slushy sand. -
Lines 7-8
Then a mile of warm sea-scented beach;
Three fields to cross till a farm appears; -
Lines 9-12
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!
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“Meeting at Night” Symbols
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The Moon
The moon is one of the oldest symbols in humanity. People have long gazed up at the night sky and projected their thoughts and feelings onto that strange rock looking down on them. Here, the symbolism of the moon functions in a number of ways.
Firstly, it represents distance. Put bluntly, the moon is a very long way away, no matter where you stand on planet Earth. As such, it's a constant reminder of the vastness of the universe. This reminder of distance, then, represents the gulf in space and time between the speaker and the speaker's lover. Indeed, this is the gap that the speaker is trying to close through this journey.
People also often see a face in the moon. As such, it can also be interpreted as a symbol for the other lover—a faraway person who is nevertheless present even in absence.
Perhaps most important of all, this moon is a half-moon. It is incomplete, one half of a whole. Just like... the speaker!
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The Match
A match is struck in the second stanza, presumably by the speaker's lover. It's a dramatic moment, made all-the-more powerful by the onomatopoeic sound of "quick sharp scratch."
A match is, of course, a form of fire. Fire carries with its common associations of passion and emotion, which is also hinted at by the mention of "fiery ringlets" earlier in the poem. The striking of the match represents the moment of union between the speaker and the speaker's lover—suddenly, the wait is over and the flame of love is reignited. Fire is also used for warmth and, though you wouldn't get much warmth from a match, it still represents the emotional and physical intimacy that the two lovers share.
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“Meeting at Night” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Alliteration
"Meeting at Night" makes frequent use of alliteration and consonance. Generally, this is part of an overall strategy to build a sense of atmosphere and anticipation throughout the poem.
The first obvious example of alliteration is in line 1. In this line, the lolling /l/ of "long" and "land"—which also chime with the /l/ in "black"—create the sense of a huge, imposing landscape. The "volume" of the sound—the degree to which it imposes itself on the line—emphasizes the way in which the surrounding geography imposes itself on the speaker's experience while journeying to this meeting; in other words, the speaker can't avoid trekking through this landscape, and the insistent /l/ sound is a sonic reminder of that fact.
In the following line, the yellow moon is described as "large and low." The alliterative /l/ sound picks up on the /l/ sound found elsewhere in this line (i.e., in "yellow") and the first line. As with the previous example, the alliteration helps to create the poem's mysterious nocturnal atmosphere. The line is once again dominated by the /l/ sound, which has already been linked with the imposing landscape.
The very same sounds repeat again in the third line (also combining via consonance with "startled"). Here, "little waves ... leap." This alliteration is more about creating a sense of small and sudden movement, with the /l/ sounds "leaping" between the different stages of the line.
Later, line 5's alliterative /p/ suggests physical effort, the plosive sound causing the reader's mouth to exhale almost as if from exhaustion. It also suggests doggedness and determination as the speaker is "pushing" the "prow" (part of a boat) to shore.
The following line uses alliterative /s/ sounds—also known as sibilance—to try to replicate the sound of the thing that it's describing. The speaker is pushing their boat through "slushy sand," making a squelchy wet sound mimicked by the sibilance.
Yet another example of meaningful alliteration occurs when, in line 8, "fields" is linked with "farm." Apart from linking two nouns that are both related to agriculture, the alliteration here also creates the sense that the speaker is passing through separate stages of the journey. That is, the two /f/ sounds read like markers along the route to this meeting.
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Caesura
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Consonance
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Enjambment
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Extended Metaphor
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Onomatopoeia
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Pathetic Fallacy
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Polysyndeton
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Sibilance
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End-Stopped Line
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"Meeting at Night" Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Ringlets
- Gain
- Cove
- Prow
- Quench
- Pane
- Spurt
- 'Thro
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A ringlet is a small and curly lock of hair. The word is being used figuratively here.
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Meeting at Night”
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Form
"Meeting at Night" has tightly-knit form. It is comprised of two stanzas, both of which are sestets (made up of six lines). Each stanza is also numbered, "I" and "II," respectively.
The first thing to notice about the form, even before reading the poem, is the symmetry created on the page. It's clear that this is a poem of two halves. This is significant because what's described is essentially a story of two halves. Each lover, of course, represents one half of the meeting. The two sections, in their way, represent both the initial separateness of the lovers (because the stanzas are divided), but also the lovers' coming-together (because the stanzas are part of one poem).
The first stanza is a lonely one, dealing entirely with the first section of the speaker's journey. Accordingly, notice how this stanza also contains the only pronoun in the poem, the first-person singular "I."
The second stanza is markedly different in that it shows the actual meeting between the lovers. In fact, tt's only in the poem's final lines that the reader understands where the speaker has been heading this whole time (that is, to a lover), and this delayed gratification reflects the agonizing wait that the lovers themselves have to endure before seeing each other. The poem eventually ends with an exclamation mark, representing the lovers' passionate embrace.
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Meter
"Meeting at Night" is metrically unusual. Each line has four stresses, and most feet in the poem are iambic (an unstressed-stressed syllable pattern). Generally speaking, then, the poem is in iambic tetrameter.
The only problem is that hardly any lines actually conform to strict iambic tetrameter! That metrical scheme is definitely implied, but the poem is full to the brim with metrical variations. It's not free verse (unmetered verse), but is far from regular. The closest the poem actually gets to true iambic tetrameter is line 4, and even that depends on "fiery" being pronounced with two syllables rather than three:
In fier- | y ring- | lets from | their sleep,
The varying metrical feet throughout the poem aren't the product of poetic sloppiness—they help create the sense of physical effort, of arduousness and dogged determination. The speaker is determined to reach an end-point—as is the poem.
Perhaps one of the most effective moments of metrical substitution occurs as the poem describes the lover lighting a match (lines 9 and 10). Here, the passion of the moment seems to overwhelm the lovers, and this is enacted by the near-total breakdown of metrical regularity:
A tap at the pane, the quick sharp scratch
And blue spurt of a lighted match,These lines are almost at breaking point, with no real regular rhythm at all, such is the heightened emotion of the lovers' meeting.
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Rhyme Scheme
The rhyme scheme in "Meeting at Night" is one of the poem's most interesting and powerful features. Put simply, the poem is the record of one person journeying to find a lover. It is, then, about the closure of distance—the speaker's traveling is an effort to reduce the gap between themselves and their beloved, and to restore physical and emotional intimacy (closeness).
Browning uses the rhyme scheme to depict this passage from remoteness to reunion, and deploys the same scheme in each stanza:
ABCCBA
The words are rhymed in pairs (another symbol of the union between lovers, in which two halves become one whole). These pairs start off at a distance from each other (note how far apart the A rhymes are), and draw closer together as each stanza progresses (the C rhymes are right next to each other). In both stanzas, the rhyme pairs eventually meet in the middle: leap/sleep and scratch/match. The rhyme scheme, then, suggests the act of meeting itself.
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“Meeting at Night” Speaker
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The speaker in "Meeting at Night" is non-specified—given no name, age, nor gender. It is often taken to be Robert Browning himself, and the poem was indeed written during his courtship of his eventual wife Elizabeth Barrett. Barrett's dad wasn't a big fan of Browning, so the poem might be about their need to be hush-hush about their relationship. That said, it's not necessary to read the poem as being autobiographical. Though little is known about the speaker, this person must be very dedicated, and very in love, to go through such a long and taxing journey in the hopes of meeting up with their beloved.
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“Meeting at Night” Setting
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"Meeting at Night" begins on a beach at night and passes through three fields before arriving at a window, on the other side of which is the speaker's lover.
The first four lines are entirely descriptive, more concerned with establishing a sense of place than with telling the reader what's going on. What is clear, however, is that it's very dark out, and that the speaker is on a shoreline somewhere. The lack of people creates a sense of isolation and secrecy, while the yellow moon creates an epic, mythic quality that perhaps gestures at a kind of fate shared by the two lovers.
The setting changes dramatically in line 9—moving from the vast, imposing external landscaping to the lovers' hearts. It's a dramatic shift from awesome (in the more "fearsome" sense of the word) scenery to breathless intimacy. The poem ends at the meeting place itself.
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Literary and Historical Context of “Meeting at Night”
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Literary Context
Robert Browning was an English poet and remains one of the most widely-read of the Victorian era. The poem was published in Dramatic Romances and Lyrics (1845), which formed part of a larger work called Bells and Pomegranates. Browning is probably best known for his dramatic monologues; also known as "persona poems," these poems tell a story from one character's viewpoint (at a distance from the author themselves). Browning's "My Last Duchess" is perhaps the quintessential example of a dramatic monologue.
The poem itself is remarkably sensual for the age in which it was written. Victorian poetry—as with Victorian society itself—was frequently conservative, both morally and socially. "Meeting at Night" is on the edge of being sexually explicit, and there seems to be something transgressive about the love between the poem's two characters. Such a suggestion would be extremely unlikely in the poems of Browning's contemporary, Alfred Lord Tennyson, for example.
It's also worth noting that the poem was originally published with a companion piece, called "Parting at Morning" (which is linked to in the "Resources" section). In that poem, the speaker wakes up the following morning and sees a "path of gold" on the horizon. Sensing "the need of a world of men for me," the speaker leaves their lover. Browning made the decision a few laters to separate that poem from "Meeting at Night."
Historical Context
"Meeting at Night" was written during the Victorian era (strictly speaking, this was the time of Queen Victoria's reign from 1837-1901). This era was a time of great social, scientific and cultural upheaval. Rapid technological advancement saw the spread of rail travel, canals, and roads. Effective sewage systems were put in place, just one of many changes that improved people's life prospects (though there was still plenty of poverty and hardship).
The scientific discoveries of people like Charles Darwin, the geologist Charles Lyle, and the paleontologist Richard Owen called into question people's religious beliefs, undermining the sense that humanity was at the center of a well-designed and benevolent universe. This shift in attitudes—especially in the way it was reflected in the literature of the time by writers like Thomas Hardy—is often described as Victorian Pessimism.
With the above in mind, there's little to tie "Meeting at Night" specifically to its era. In fact, it's part of one of the oldest traditions known to humanity: love poetry. To that end, this particular poem was written during Browning's courtship of his future wife, Elizabeth Barrett (who was an accomplished poet in her own right). Barrett's father was not especially taken with Browning, and perhaps this is hinted at by the hushed and secretive nature of the meeting described.
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More “Meeting at Night” Resources
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External Resources
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"Parting at Morning" — The sister poem to "Meeting at Night." The two were originally sections of the same poem.
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Further Poems and Biographical Discussion — More poems by and essays about Browning from the Poetry Foundation.
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A Literary Love Story — An essay about the relationship between Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett.
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Lovers' Correspondence — The letters between Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett. In the first, Browning keenly praises Barrett's poetry.
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The Poem Out Loud — A reading of the poem courtesy of the Poetry Foundation.
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LitCharts on Other Poems by Robert Browning
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