Meeting at Night by Robert Browning
A speaker brings a boat into a sandy cove beneath a low half-moon, then crosses a beach and three fields to a farm. A tap at a window is followed by a struck match and a quiet voice, less loud than the two lovers’ beating hearts.
By Robert Browning · Genre: Love Poetry, Lyric Poetry · 136 words
First lines
The gray 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, through its joys and fears, / Than the two hearts beating each to each!
What this Textopian page supports
Meeting at Night 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
- Length: 136 words
- Structure: 1 section, 2 paragraphs
Good citation fit
- Work identity for Meeting at Night by Robert Browning
- Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
- Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
- Readability and classroom-planning context
- Passage-specific claims should cite the exact /read/ URL for the relevant chapter or paragraph
Genres
- Love Poetry — The journey ends in an intimate meeting, with a voice expressing joys and fears and two hearts beating each to each.
- Lyric Poetry — Two rhymed stanzas present the speaker’s nighttime journey through immediate sights and sounds, ending with the lovers’ heightened feelings.
Tags
love · nighttime travel · boat journey · seashore · romantic meeting