Reading module 5

Poem

Two in the Campagna

 
I wonder how you feel today 
As I have felt since, hand in hand, 
We sat down on the grass, to stray 
In spirit better through the land, 
This morn of Rome and May? 
 
For me, I touched a thought, I know, 
Has tantalized me many times, 
(Like turns of thread the spiders throw 
Mocking across our path) for rhymes 
To catch at and let go. 
 
Help me to hold it! First it left 
The yellow fennel, run to seed 
There, branching from the brickwork's cleft, 
Some old tomb's ruin: yonder weed 
Took up the floating weft, 
 
Where one small orange cup amassed 
Five beetles, -blind and green they grope 
Among the honey meal: and last, 
Everywhere on the grassy slope 
O traced it. Hold it fast! 
 
The champaign with its endless fleece 
Of feathery grasses everywhere! 
Silence and passion, joy and peace, 
An everlasting wash of air- 
Rome's ghost since her decease. 
 
Such life here, through such lengths of hours, 
Such miracles performed in play, 
Such primal naked forms of flowers, 
Such letting nature have her way 
While heaven looks from its towers! 
 
How say you? Let us, O my dove, 
Let us be unashamed of soul, 
As earth lies bare to heaven above! 
How is it under our control 
To love or not to love? 
I would that you were all to me, 
You that are just so much, no more. 
Nor yours nor mine, nor slave nor free! 
Where does the fault lie? What the core 
O' the wound, since wound must be? 
 
I would I could adopt your will, 
See with your eyes, and set my heart 
Beating by yours, and drink my fill 
At your soul's springs, - your part my part 
In life, for good and ill. 
 
No. I yearn upward, touch you close, 
Then stand away. I kiss your cheek, 
Catch your soul's warmth, - I pluck the rose 
And love it more than tongue can speak- 
Then the good minute goes. 
 
Already how am I so far 
Our of that minute? Must I go 
Still like the thistle-ball, no bar, 
Onward, whenever light winds blow, 
Fixed by no friendly star? 
 
Just when I seemed about to learn! 
Where is the thread now? Off again! 
The Old trick! Only I discern- 
Infinite passion, and the pain 
Of finite hearts that yearn.

Robert Browning. Two in the Campagna (1855)

Source: http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/browning/section11.rhtml

Analysis

Robert Browning, born in London in 1812 was a very well educated man. He was so well read that although his poems were very abstract sometimes, as is the case of Two in the Campagna, he did not realise they were not easy for the readers to understand.

Browning wrote in 1855 Men and Women, a work that included this Two in the Campagna. He was one of the most representative poets in the Victorian tames.

Two in the Campagna is one of the most famous poems of Robert Browning. It is divided in 12 stanzas with 5 lines each and the rhyme used is ababa. When we read the poem what we first realise is that the fifth verse of each stanza is shorter than the four previous verses. The use of these shorter lines has a significant meaning, which may be that that shortness represents that life is short; it is not as long as it should be to really enjoy the love of our beloved one.

As we have mentioned before this is one of his abstract poems, but he is not using a too difficult language since he is mainly using daily words known by the majority.

Campagna refers to the countryside around Rome, although in this poem, the Campagna ‘seems to suggest to the speaker that he can in fact transcend his human limitations to put his subtle ideas into poetry or see the world through his lover’s eyes’ (SparkNotes LLC, 2006, http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/browning/section11.rhtml+Robert+Browning+%22Two+in+the+Campagna%22+analysis&hl=es&gl=es&ct=clnk&cd=1. Day of access May 9^th). He expresses this wish to see the world through his lover’s eyes in line 42, ‘See with your eyes, and set my heart’.

In this poem we find Browning himself addressing his beloved one, his wife. It reflects the ideal love, but a love that it is not easy, a love that is affected by some difficulties.

In the first stanza Browning is wondering how his woman is feeling at the moment and he is remembering nice moments that both spent together, ‘We sat down on the grass, to stray, In spirit better through the land (lines 3 and 4).

We find a comparison in the second stanza. He is talking about a thought that comes to his mind frequent times but that quickly goes away, just ‘like turns of thread the spiders throw, Mocking across our path’ (lines 8 and 9).

At the very beginning of the next stanza, the third want, he expresses his desire to keep that thought in his mind, ‘Help me to hold it!’ (line 11).

As we can see, the author mentions Rome a couple of times, ‘This morn of Rome…’ (line 5), ‘Rome’s ghost…’ (line 25). Both sentences belong to those shorter verses we have mentioned at the beginning. Campagna was placed around Rome; that is the reason he is naming it. And the fact that these verses are shorter may mean that the time he is going to enjoy Rome is not long enough.

We can clearly see how much he really wanted to share his live and everything with his lady in some verses: ‘I would that you were all to me’ (line 36), ‘…your part my part, In life, for good and ill’ (lines 44 and 45). He is really hoping to share his love and life with her.

At the very end of the poem we can read ‘Infinite passion, and the pain, Of finite hearts that yearn’. This reflects our limitations when we love a person. Love is passion, but it is also pain.

So we are reading a poem that shows an ideal love that has to get through some difficulties because of society, ‘Let us be unashamed of soul’ (line 32), ‘to love or not to love’ (line 35), ‘Where does the fault lie?’ (line 39). But Browning knows this ideal love worth it to fight for it. His ideal love is his wife’s love, a love that he wants to last forever. This poem dedicated to his wife will help this love to last forever.

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