Robert Browning: Analysis of 'The Last Ride Together'

Robert Browning, an English poet and playwright, well-known for his dramatic monologues is one of the foremost Victorian poets, whose poems are known for their irony, characterization, dark humour, social commentary, historical settings and challenging vocabulary and syntax. “In 1846, he married the older poet Elizabeth Barrett, and went to live in Italy. By the time of her death, in 1861,he had published the crucial collection Men and Women,” one of which is The Last Ride Together, published in 1855, is one of the finest dramatic monologue by Browning. “The title represents the last time the former couple take a ride together. Although the narrator does grieve the end of his romance, his wishes to reflect his appreciation for the time they had together and the love he experienced. The poem has an overall bittersweet tone, balancing sadness and optimism.The theme of the poem is love and the speaker might be described as a triumphant obsessive and could ostensibly suggest the importance of striving through, riding which was often important stimulus for Browning. “Though many readers take it as a love poem, actually it shows the philosophical revelation of the poet on love and life, success and failure.” The poem is full of prodigal use of similes and metaphors with vibrant imagery, rhythm throughout is fractured but the rhyme scheme is consistent in each stanza. It’s a first person narrative encapsulating and focussing on the wishes of a man for a last ride together with his beloved but she does not reciprocate. “Some critics see Freudian symbols within the poem, the title in particular interpreted as a metaphor for the sexual act. Suffice to say, as the poem progresses, it does become clear that this is no ordinary horse ride through gentle countryside. This is a journey that takes place in heart and mind.” The lover is being rejected and completely dejected but he resigns to his fate and do not murmur and grumble against his beloved. He also compares himself with the poet, the sculptor and the musician who aim at an ideal attempt to reach sublimate, but remains unsuccessful. He feels gratitude towards his beloved for fulfilling his last wish, though being rejected by her. “He consoles himself by saying that it is not only he who is suffering because of the indifference and ingratitude of his beloved but there are others also who have met with the same fate in their lives with their own sweethearts.” He is contented to cherish her memory. “He has attained heavenly glory and divine bliss through human agency.” The poem revolves around Browning’s principal philosophies-life is always greater than art and love is the best thing life can bring. “Experience here on earth is the ultimate and one doesn’t have to wait to have a blissful life in the here and now.”

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Talking about the stanzas a little bit, in the first one, he is traumatized and blames fate for his destiny and the end of his romance. He only relies on the memory that he shared with his beloved and despite the end of the love affair, he blesses her name. He further talks about the woman’s reaction in the second stanza, as she surveys him with pride tempered with pity. Here we can see the narrator comparing her answer with life or death, accentuating the emotional stakes that are always at play when it comes to love and passion. The third one focusses on the ecstatic feeling of the last ride by focussing on the beauty of the surroundings, the passion he feels and the blissful feeling that he had with her touching him. In the fourth one, the speaker want to enjoy the present moment of being with her and lets go of the past hopes which could either be better or even worse. In the sixth stanza, we get the philosophical idea that a life of contemplation in love is far better than any pleasures that the material world can provide. It contains many allusions and analogies, such as comparing the greatest joys of life to a crown that one can reach and comes firmly on the idea that the lover’s life is superior. Seventh and eighth stanzas focus on comparisons of love to a poet and a sculptor as mentioned earlier. In the last stanzas, the narrator wonders what fate has in store for them and then shifts his focus on his beloved and her being silent all the while and on a wistful note, imagines for the moment’s eternity.

In Victorian times, people rode horses and to go riding together was seen as a romantic and appropriate thing for lovers to do. But there is an ambiguity related to the mention of horse throughout the poem, except in the fifth stanza, “we rode… either side”, but that too conveys far more than a simple physical journey on horseback. The poem ends on a positive note, with the poet imagining the eternity in the moment where he could get on the ride forever with his beloved. It, instead, leaves up to the reader to decide whether or not the poem is successful as a sexual metaphor.