Surface meaning :
Meeting at Night The Robert Browning’s poem, as the title
Robert Browning
The grey 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, thro’ its joys and fears,
Than the two hearts beating each to each !
Analyse The Poem
Imagery :
 Sight : “grey sea”, “long black
land”, “yellow half-moon large”,
“startled little waves”, “fiery ringlets”,
etc. (almost all the parts of this poem
give sight imagery).
 Hear : “voice less loud”
 Touch : “warm sea-scented beach”
shows it, is about a meeting at night of a couple
who are in love with each other. To meet the
woman, the man should do a very long journey
through the sea with his boat, walking through
three fields, until he arrives at a farm. Still, he
has to be very careful when meeting her
because exactly they are not allowed to meet
each other. That’s why the man comes at night
and they should talk with a very soft voice.
Deep meaning:
This poem is telling us about the process of a
relationship. When someone could not find his
love, he would feel so lonely in life. Robert
Browning represented it with the phrase “the
grey sea and the long black land”. Love can be
aimed to someone or dream. Then, to be able to
reach his love, he passed trough many
challenges and restrictions. However, he did it
happily since he has a big optimistic. After all
the hassles, he succeed to find what he’s been
looking for. The loneliness then is gone and
turned into brightness (“And blue spurt of a
lighted match”). Finally, he got what he had
been dreaming about.
Themes:
 Love is something that needs a hassle
and sacrificial to be gotten.
 A success will be reached if someone
has a big motivation and works hard
pass trough many challenges and
restrictions.
Messages:
To reach our love/dream, we have to work hard
and enjoy the process. By doing it, we will find
the real happiness of our success.
Summary
The speaker is at sea at night, heading towards the black land in the distance. He briefly paints a
picturesque image of night at sea but moves forward until he pulls his vessel up on to the sand.

He walks a mile along the beach and then across three fields until he approaches his goal, a farm. He
taps at the window, sees the lighting of a match, and then is overwhelmed by the beating of his and his
lover's hearts as they reunite.

Analysis
A short and relatively simple love poem, this piece still presents the subtext of the importance of
movement in life, and of the dichotomy between the stasis of art and the action of life.

The entire poem has a sense of movement to it that reflects the speaker's desire to reunite with his love.
The poem's meter and sound clearly denote a sense of pressing intent. Read it aloud to sense how the
language is pushing ever forward, with three lines in the first stanza alone beginning with "And," as
though to suggest that what is on the speaker's mind is never the moment he is in but rather the next
thing, since the latter gets him closer to his lover. Technically, the meter is iambic tetrameter, though it
is hardly strict, as should be expected in a poem that puts movement over order and contemplation.

This sense of movement is particularly interesting when compared to what is usually expected of a
poem of this sort. The imagery, especially in the first stanza, is extremely picturesque and pastoral, the
type of landscape that readers often expect poets to spend time contemplating and describing. Poetry,
after all, often attempts to capture the complexities and beauty of particular moments, diving deeply
into one image to discover all of its profundity.

This speaker, however, is uninterested in the magnificence of "the yellow half-moon large and low."
Instead, his focus is on bypassing such elements so as to get to the beach, so he can get to the fields, so
he can get to farm. The message here from Browning, who as usual makes no attempt to place himself
directly into the work, seems to be that he chooses life rather than art, that for him the goal is
movement and energy rather than static contemplation.

But when the speaker arrives to his love the poem abruptly ends. The fact that attainment itself does
necessitate a third stanza can imply one of two things: either we can believe that the next action would
be further movement of this sort, or we can believe that once he has attained his happiness, he has no
further need for writing. He has achieved the unspeakable beauty of love, but as we see in the poem, he
as speaker is not interested in plumbing the depths of beauty. Therefore, once he achieves such beauty
and happiness for himself, he needs not write but rather can simply live.
It's worth noting the implications of secrecy in the poem. First, the journey and reunion happen at
night, suggesting a veil of transgression that in the Victorian age would likely be linked to sexuality.
Perhaps there is autobiographical impetus in exploring the theme from this angle, considering that
Browning had only recently wed Elizabeth Barrett Browning after a courtship that they had to keep
secret from her oppressive father. Many scholars see in it a representation of this courtship, though
Browning's general eschewal of autobiography in his poetry makes it hard to imagine he would pursue
that so explicitly. Regardless, the sexuality does add a certain sense of danger to the poem. Not only is
sexuality implied in the clandestine meeting, but the image of the boat charging into the beach, where
it can "quench its speed I' the slushy sand" is easy to interpret as a metaphor along these lines.

Overall, the poem is not subtle in its themes. The speed with which it can be read, since it is only
twelve lines long, is the final implication that for he who loves, there is no cause for stopping to
admire surrounding beauty, at least not until the supreme beauty of his beloved can be realized.

In the first stanza, the speaker is in a boat at sea beneath the half-moon noticing the way the little
waves move: 'in fiery ringlets from their sleep.' The image of fiery ringlets can be seen in our mind;
therefore this is an example of imagery. The speaker's lantern shines on the little waves, making them
seem fiery, and fire is often seen as a symbol or representation of passion and love. Colors also help
create imagery, and Browning mentions gray, black and yellow in the first stanza to help create images
in the reader's mind. Another example of imagery is when the speaker comes ashore by mentioning the
prow or the nose of the boat above the water. He gets closer and closer to the cove until he arrives in
the 'slushy sand'. We can imagine the slushy sand, and this uses our sense of touch, since we know
what watery sand feels like. Because this detail uses one of our senses, it is called a sensory detail.

In the second stanza, he mentions the 'sea-scented beach,' which ties to our sense of smell, reminding
us of the smell of the salty air by the beach. The speaker goes on to describe how he travels on the
beach then through fields where he arrives at a farm and taps on the window, mentioning a 'quick
sharp scratch,' which we can almost hear by reading those words. A 'blue spurt of a lighted match' is
clearly seen by mentioning the color blue, and an excited though startled voice is heard, which is said
to be softer than their beating hearts. If this poem is indeed about Elizabeth Barrett, which historians
assume, the mention of fear could be hinting at the fact that Elizabeth's father, who disliked Robert
Browning, could find out about this secretive meeting. The poem conveys their stealthy secrecy
through details such as: the poem is set at night, the speaker travels alone, he taps at her window pane
and she quietly speaks to him.

Not only does Browning use symbolism, imagery and powerful sensory details, but he also uses the
rhyme scheme or rhyming pattern of ABCCBA ABCCBA. The first and last lines of each stanza rhyme
together: 'land' with 'sand' in the first stanza and 'beach' with 'each' in the second stanza. The second
and fifth lines in each stanza rhyme together too, which further enclose the two middle lines, which
rhyme with each other: 'leap' with 'sleep' in the first stanza and 'scratch' with 'match' in the second
stanza. This rhyme scheme creates an interesting rhythmic flow that seems to sway the reader back
and forth, much like the rhythm of the waves mentioned in the beginning of the poem.