Life In A Love Poem by Robert Browning

Life In A Love

Rating: 3.3


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 chace 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!

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Cs Vishwanathan 08 December 2010

Browning is rarely at his best in these short pieces. He doesn't have the rhythmic fluidity and lyrical limpidity of Tennyson to impart to his poetic statements the semantic and emotive clarity of meaning required in such short non-discursive non-dramatic sketches.Even here Browning's quality of many-leveled meaningful interpretations and references are quite noticeable.. In this he excels all others in his full length works.

6 18 Reply
Ben G 14 August 2011

This is an emotive and beautiful poem. When I first read it I didn't think too much of it to be honest, however after a few readings it grew very much on me! Without being as verbose as others in this thread, I'd like to say it is really very good, very sad, very true to life and the pursuit of unacquainted love.

8 15 Reply
Justin Gonzalez 08 December 2012

Robert really hit the nail on the head with this poem, brilliant.

10 11 Reply
Ramesh T A 08 December 2009

This poem is an example of his philosophy that arc in the world becomes full circle in heaven! Nice and wonderful, simple, typical poem of Browning you have given an opportunity to read and enjoy once again!

7 12 Reply
Emma Adamyan 08 December 2009

love collects many notions... maybe it was created just not to name each alone. although each person has one`s set of the notions... as for me love is a deep respect and trust towards a person i feel sexual attraction. and all the emotions can be found in this poem

5 14 Reply
Sylvia Frances Chan 17 February 2023

Love to read Robert Browning, sure! Top Marks

0 0 Reply
Sylvia Frances Chan 17 February 2023

FOUR: a quest he vows to renew for 'as long as the world contains them both.' Browning published 'Life in a Love' in his collection Men and Women, a volume dedicated to his wife, the poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

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Sylvia Frances Chan 17 February 2023

THREE: speaker vows to endlessly pursue his beloved even in the face of seemingly relentless failure. The form of the poem, in which the last three lines mirror the first three, reflects the circular nature of the poet's quest to reunite with his lover—

0 0 Reply
Sylvia Frances Chan 17 February 2023

TWO: The Victorian poet Robert Browning's 'Life in a Love, ' first published in 1855, explores the often obsessive, irrational nature of unrequited love. The poem's

0 0 Reply
Sylvia Frances Chan 17 February 2023

First to my Favourites! Then my Top Marks for tyhis poem about Life in a Love.Robert Browning is oft excellent in poems about love.

0 0 Reply
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Robert Browning

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