Page 1 of 7
European Journal of Business &
Social Sciences
Available at https://ejbss.org/
ISSN: 2235-767X
Volume 07 Issue 01
January 2019
Available online: https://ejbss.org/ P a g e | 1
Theme of love in Robert Browning’s Poetry
Abstract
It is an established fact that Robert Browning has presented the theme of love
in all varied manifestation. He is one of the greatest love poets who has
contributed a great deal to the development of this theme. No doubt, his love
poems reflect a perfect equilibrium of faith that happens to be nectar of ecstasy
in human life. In Browning’s poetry, one can witness more unfathomable
depths into the human heart with the delicate matter that stuff it, upon which
Browning’s name and fame and the whole glory as the poet of love and his
eternality as a great poet stands. Love, for Browning, is also the supreme
principle for both, morality and religion.
Key-words: Emotion, Human, Optimism, Dramatic Lyric
Paper
Love theme has been the substance or subject matter of poetry from the time
immemorial, and the poetry of different ages and views have analysed and
expressed the emotion of love in a variety of shapes and manners. Shakespeare
has made a dramatic expression of true love, and Spenser has made a
Dinesh
Asstt.
Dyal Singh College, Karnal
Prof. of English
Kumar
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European Journal of Business &
Social Sciences
Available at https://ejbss.org/
ISSN: 2235-767X
Volume 07 Issue 01
January 2019
Available online: https://ejbss.org/ P a g e | 2
passionate illustration of the love in his sonnet collection, Amoretti. John
Donne has also explored variety of moods and kinds of love in his love poetry.
After John Donne, it is Robert Browning who has made a comprehensive and
all inclusive expression of love in his poetry. Although Robert Browning is an
innovator of the poetic technique of dramatic monologue, and a seer of
optimistic vision of life, he is also a reflective and spiritual lover, who treats
love both as an experience and an ultimate vision of human life.
For Robert Browning, love is the supreme expression and function of human
soul. He considers love to be the governing force of this universe. For
Browning, love is the other name of God. Love is the only source which can
unite man with God. Broadly speaking, Browning wrote two kinds of love
poems-personal and dramatic. His personal poems of love are few as his bent
of mind is fundamentally dramatic. That is why, the poetic works of Robert
Browning abound in love experiences ranging from an unsuccessful love of The
Last Ride Together through the contended married love of One Word More up to
the impulsive love of Evelyn Hope, and the psyche love of Porphyria’s Lovers.
The very opening lines of One Word More, speak of Browning’s love for his wife,
appended as an epilogue to Browning’s collection of fifty dramatic monologues,
entitled Men and Women as the poet himself says:
“There they are, my fifty men and women
Page 3 of 7
European Journal of Business &
Social Sciences
Available at https://ejbss.org/
ISSN: 2235-767X
Volume 07 Issue 01
January 2019
Available online: https://ejbss.org/ P a g e | 3
Naming me the fifty poems finished!
Take them, Love, the book and me together
Where the heart lies, let the brain die also.”
The lover in The Last Ride Together, after having understood his fortune, requests his beloved to
Take back the hope you gave,-I claim
Only a memory of some”
Even though the lover has failed to realize his dreams, he tries to extract consolation
and relief by asking for the last ride together as well as by commenting or by general
endeavour, as he says:
Fail I alone in words and deeds ?
Why all men strive and who succeeds?
Then he makes a meaningful comparison of love with the reward and honour bestowed
upon a soldier, a sculptor, a statesman, and a musician by the world. Finally, the
lover tries to immortalize presumption of the doom’s day. In the same way, we get a
beautiful poetic expression of personal emotions of love in the poem, One Word More,
where Browning and his wife are more interested in Rafael’s sonnets and Dante’s
painting of Angel than in their professional excellences, as the poet says:
What of Rafael’s sonnets and Dante’s pictures?
The original and strikingly new idea of love gets illuminated when the poet suggests
that lovers should have stored some water in his breast to quench the thirst of his
