Love in a Life, Robert Browning, Analysis, Summary, Themes
"Love in a Life" is a dramatic monologue by Robert Browning, a celebrated English poet of the Victorian era. The poem explores the narrator's search for his lover throughout their shared home, and his eventual realization that their love transcends the physical space they occupy. Through the use of rich imagery and evocative language, Browning presents a portrait of love that is at once intimate and universal. The poem is divided into two parts, each building upon the other to create a poignant and complex meditation on the nature of love.
Love in a Life I
Room after room,
I hunt the house through
We inhabit together.
Heart, fear nothing, for, heart, thou shalt find her—
Next time, herself!—not the trouble behind her
Left in the curtain, the couch's perfume!
As she brushed it, the cornice-wreath blossomed anew:
Yon looking-glass gleamed at the wave of her feather. II
Yet the day wears,
And door succeeds door;
I try the fresh fortune—
Range the wide house from the win…