Meeting at Night

“Parting at Morning” by Robert Browning (1845)

This was originally the second part of the poem that was titled “Night and Morning,” which included what is now “Meeting at Night” as its first part. Browning later separated the two parts to create separate poems. This poem describes the morning after the lovers’ night together. The man leaves early as the sun rises; he feels that he must get back to “a world of men” (Line 4) that awaits him. This shows the other side of a man’s role; after sharing the tenderness of love with a woman, his duty is to involve himself in society (run by men in those days) and take part in whatever important business needs to be done. 

“Love Among the Ruins” by Robert Browning (1855)

This is another of Browning’s love poems set in Italy. His speaker is making his way across a pasture, and he thinks of how, in bygone days, it was the site of a great city. Browning may have had in mind ancient Syracuse in Sicily. The speaker imagines the spectacular scenes of luxury and power that must be on display there. Now only a ruined tower remains, from which a king once looked out, and there, a woman waits eagerly for him.