By the Fireside by Robert Browning
Watching his wife Leonor by the fire, a speaker recalls their November walk to a chapel in an Italian Alpine gorge, where her response dissolved the barrier between them. He finds their later life richer than youth, imagines their companionship continuing in heaven, and plans to return to these memories in future autumn evenings.
By Robert Browning · Genre: Love Poetry, Lyric Poetry, Philosophical Poetry · 2,849 words
First lines
How well I know what I mean to do / When the long dark autumn evenings come; / And where, my soul, is thy pleasant hue? / With the music of all thy voices, dumb / In life's November too!
I shall be found by the fire, suppose, / O'er a great wise book as beseemeth age, / While the shutters flap as the cross-wind blows, / And I turn the page, and I turn the page, / Not verse now, only prose!
What this Textopian page supports
By the Fireside is listed on Textopian as a poem by Robert Browning, dated Date unknown.
This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.
- Work type: Poem
- Author: Robert Browning
- Date: Date unknown
- Language: English
- Genres: Love Poetry, Lyric Poetry, Philosophical Poetry
- Length: 2,849 words
- Structure: 1 section, 53 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)
Good citation fit
- Work identity for By the Fireside by Robert Browning
- Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
- Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
- Readability and classroom-planning context
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Genres
- Love Poetry — The speaker addresses his wife, recalls her answering his love, and describes their growing emotional and spiritual union.
- Lyric Poetry — Rhymed five-line stanzas carry a husband's intimate address, moving between fireside contemplation and a remembered woodland walk.
- Philosophical Poetry — The speaker considers how a decisive act of love completes his life and how individual actions contribute to humanity.
Tags
marital love · memory · aging · autumn · Italian Alps · spiritual companionship