Meeting At Night By Robert Browning

The gray 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.

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, through joys and fears,

Than the two hearts beating each to each!'  

In his poetry “Meeting At Night”, Robert Browning wants to tell us about how someone efforts to meet his beloved, the theme that I can guess from this poem is secret love. Robert Browning describes this poem very beautifully. He used imagery, symbolism, and personification to described his poetry very clearly. If we looked at its title, Meeting At Night, we can surely guess what the author wants to convey from his poetry. Through this title, seen from the word ‘night’, the author wants to draw the situation and the atmosphere at night, while referring to the word ‘meeting’ then the author wants to describe a meeting at night who either we don’t know who will meet and where they will meet. Once we understand the meaning of the title then we can read and try to the understanding line by line then word by word we associate with the title. This poem consists of two stanzas that are continuous with each other. Each stanza consists of six lines of sentences. Each line corresponds to the other in either meaning, rhyme, or rhythm. Lets we identify the figurative language of this poetry. 

We start from the first line that reads: "The gray sea and the long black land;". The author opens the poetry with the description of the gray sea and then followed with the line that associate with it. As we know that the color of the sea is usually blue, but Robert Browning described that at that time the color of the sea is gray, which means it isn’t in daylight but at night. From this line, we can enjoy the painting by Robert Browning about the place in the night that the land is dark everywhere while the ocean is gray because of the reflection of light, through the eyes sense. 

We continue with the second line that reads: "And the yellow half-moon large and low:". Reflected in this line is that the moon is only half and yellow. The position of the moon is almost closer to the horizon and the size is large indicating that it was almost dawn, no longer midnight, so the atmosphere was silent. 

The third line reads: "And the startled little waves that leap". when the seawater was calm, suddenly startled by the presence of something that appears from small waves chasing each other. Thus the tranquil situation then turned into a bit noisy because of something coming from the sea to the beach. It can be indicated that the people in this poetry were sailing. Its write there that “waves that leap” didn't mean that the waves were leaping it was called personification.

The next line reads: "In fiery ringlets from their sleep,". It didn’t mean that the waves are on the fire, the author is comparing them to something fiery. It is called metaphor. It can be described that the wave is not a big wave but a small wave that looks like a circular ring. Thus we know that something that comes from the direction of the sea has a size that is not too large, this is evident from the wave that caused not so big, just in the form of small circles. We can predict that the coming maybe just a small boat. 

The fifth line reads: "As I gain the cove with pushing prow,". It is can be described, after arriving at a bay, this man with difficulty landed on the beach as evidenced by his efforts to push the bow of the boat in order to reach the mainland. In this line, the cove is a symbol of a place that the man was get away from the waves and get closer to his destination. 

The last line of the first stanza reads: "And quench its speed i 'the slushy sand.". On the previous line, explained that the man was pushed hard his boat into the bay and this line was explained about the place of the bay that is less smooth, because the beach consists of a muddy sand beach and mud containing water, so stop the boat's speed. So the conclusion of the first stanza is that there is a man who is landing difficulty in a bay by riding a boat alone at night before dawn.

We enter the second stanza. The first line of this stanza reads: "Then a mile of warm sea scented beach." From this line, we know that the man still had to travel through the beach a mile away. The second line reads: "Three fields to cross a till a farm appear;". After a mile walk on the sand beach, this man still has to continue his journey across three fields until it reaches his destination of the journey is a field. A field of course there is the owner and of course, there is a building occupied by the owner. 

The third line reads: "A tap at the pane, the quick sharp scratch". Arriving at the destination, the man knocks on the window instead of the door. This shows that this man is not an ordinary guest who knocks on the door and through the front door when he is going to visit someone's home. The answer to that tap is not the usual utterance when someone is knocking on the door, but the answer that comes from inside the house is a quick sharp scratch. This is an event that happens if we start a fire by using matches. 

The next line reads: "And blue spurt of a lighted match,". As a result of the matches are turned on, it will appear bursts of fire are blue. The fifth row reads: "And a voice less loud; through joys and fears, ". Then the two people who met each other spoke in a quiet voice in the joy and fear that mixed. They are happy because they have met each other but also worry if their meeting is known by others. 

The last line reads: "Than the two hearths beating each to each!". Because their voices are so weak that they are weaker than the sound of their heartbeats. Their heartbeats are louder than their whispers. In this line we can say about the use of synecdoche in the word “two hearths beating each to each”, it represents the two people. 

We can conclude from this poetry that people are in love then anything will be done to meet the lover. People who are afraid to go out at night will be brave and dare to walk alone at night. The physically weak person will be strong and healthy or made stronger to meet his lover. This poem tells the story of a man's journey to meet his lover. When you are in love then something trivial will be something very valuable. This poem tells about LOVE and this is different from the poems we used to create when we are in love.

The interesting thing about this poem is that this poem has a unique and beautiful rhyme that can be seen at the end of a word that has an irregular rhyme and a good combination of words; ABCCBA ABCCBA. In this work, Robert Browning writes it as interesting and beautiful. Here we can look at his poetry : 

The gray sea and the long black land; ( A )

And the yellow half-moon large and low: ( B )

And the startled little waves that leap ( C )

In fiery ringlets from their sleep, ( C )

As I gain the cove with pushing prow, ( B )

And quench its speed i' the slushy sand. ( A )

Then a mile of warm sea-scented beach; ( A )

Three fields to cross till a farm appears; ( B )

A tap at the pane, the quick sharp scratch ( C )

And blue spurt of a lighted match, ( C )

And a voice less loud, through joys and fears, ( B )

Than the two hearts beating each to each!'  ( A )