“LIFE IN A LOVE”

Robert Browning

Escape me?

Never –

Beloved!

While I am I, and you are you,

So long as the world contains us both,

Me the loving and you the loth,

While the one eludes, must the other pursue.

My life is a fault at last, I fear:

It seems too much like a fate, indeed!

Though I do my best I shall scarce succeed.

But what if I fail of my purpose here?

It is but to keep the nerves at strain,

To dry one’s eyes and laugh at a fall,

And, baffled, get up and begin again, –

So the chase takes up one’s life, that’s all.

While, look but once from your farthest bound

At me so deep in the dust and dark,

No sooner the old hope goes to ground

Than a new one, straight to the self-same mark,

I shape me –

Ever

Removed!

(Men and Women 1855)

http://www.netpoets.com/classic/poems/009012.htm


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 5th 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”.



BIBLIOGRAPHY:

- http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/rb/rbov.html 16&17.01.06

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/robert_browning 16&17.01.06

- Tutoría con Vicente Fores (en la cafetería de Filología) 17.01.06




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