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The Last Ride Together Critical appreciation.
The Last Ride Together Critical appreciation.
The Last Ride Together is a poem by English poet Robert Browning, first
published in his 1855 collection Men
and Women. His first major work released after his marriage to
Elizabeth Barrett, it consisted of fifty-one poems, each by a different
narrator. It is considered one of the most important works of poetry in the
Victorian era. The Last Ride Together is
a ten-stanza poem primarily focused on themes of love and loss. It takes the
form of a monologue by a rejected lover reflecting on the end of a love affair.
The title represents the last time the former couple takes a carriage ride
together. Although the narrator does grieve the end of his romance, he 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.
In the first stanza, the narrator blames the end of his
romance on fate. He bemoans that everything he has tried has failed, and it
seems the end of his love affair is set. Despite this, he expresses his love
and appreciation for the woman he has spent years with, and blesses her name.
He asks only for her the memory of the time they shared together, and one last
ride with her before she goes.
The second stanza focuses on the woman’s reaction, as she
surveys him with pride tempered with pity. The narrator compares waiting for
her answer with life or death, accentuating the emotional stakes that are
always at play when it comes to love and passion. In the end, they say yes, and
the parting couple embarks on their final ride together.
The third stanza focuses on the blissful feeling of that
last ride, with the narrator waxing poetic about how wonderful the time
together feels. He focuses on the beauty of the surroundings, the passion he
feels, and the ecstatic feeling that he feels when she touches him. She has
provided him with more than he asked for, and he is filled with gratitude for
this.
The fourth stanza focuses on Browning’s philosophy of the
passing nature of life. The narrator begins to let go of what was and begins to
enjoy what is. He describes his soul as smoothing out as he lets go of past
hopes. He knows that there’s no point to speculating what could have been.
Things could be better or worse, and instead he chooses to simply enjoy the
moment that they are sharing together.
The fifth stanza continues the themes in the fourth, with
the narrator contrasting himself with men who strove for other things, and
those who have failed. He does this to hide his personal anguish over the end
of his affair. He accepts his defeat and expresses his hope for a better future
in heaven at the end of his life.
The sixth stanza presents the philosophical idea that a
life of contemplation in love is far better than any pleasures that the
material world can provide. This stanza contains many allusions and analogies,
such as comparing the greatest joys of life to a crown that one can reach. It
compares the life of a love with that of a statesman and a soldier, and comes
down firmly on the idea that the lover’s life is superior.
The seventh and eighth
stanzas focus on comparisons of the love to a great poet and later a great
sculptor. The narrator describes the talents of these artists – the poet’s work
being defined by how they create rhyme and rhythm, while the sculptor devotes years to a
chunk of rock and carves something spectacular out of it. He later does the
same with a composer, stringing notes together. He compares these arts to the
years of his life he gave to his love, attempting to create something beautiful
out of their union.
In the ninth stanza, the narrator wonders what fate has
in store for them, and admits he has no idea what would have transpired had
they remained together. He expresses his regret that it has to end here, but
admits that there is nothing he can do and chooses to let go, stating that his
life with his lover is now as far away from him as heaven.
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The final stanza has him turn his focus back to his
lover, as he observes her and notes that she hasn’t said anything in a while.
He wonders what would happen if they simply rode forever, together, and this
instant they shared was made eternity. That is where the poem ends, on that
wistful note for an eternity of this moment, without the future apart that
awaits them when the ride ends.
Robert Browning published
thirty-one major works of poetry in his life, and is considered today to be one
of the most important poets of Victorian England. Despite this, during his lifetime
he was heavily overshadowed in fame by his poet wife Elizabeth Barrett. Men and Women and the
book-length epic poem The
Ring and the Book were the two works that elevated his
reputation and led to him being regarded as one of the defining poets of the
era, and today they remain widely read along with the rest of his work,
although many of his earlier works remain fairly obscure. Perhaps his largest
influence on pop culture is Stephen King’s The Dark Tower, which was inspired by Browning’s
poem Childe Roland to the Dark Tower
Came.
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