Love Among the Ruins is an 1855 poem by Robert Browning. It was included in his collection Men and Women, published that year. It is the first poem in the book.

Below is the first stanza:

Where the quiet-coloured end of evening smiles,Miles and milesOn the solitary pastures where our sheepHalf-asleepTinkle homeward thro' the twilight, stray or stopAs they crop---Was the site once of a city great and gay,(So they say)Of our country's very capital, its princeAges sinceHeld his court in, gathered councils, wielding farPeace or war.

Browning here employs an unusual structure of rhyming couplets in which long trochaic lines are paired with short lines of three syllables. This may be related to the theme of the poem, a comparison between love and material glory. The speaker, overlooking a pasture where sheep graze, recalls that once a great ancient city, his country's capital, stood there. After spending four stanzas describing the beauty and grandeur of the ancient city, the speaker says that "a girl with eager eyes and yellow hair/Waits me there", and that "she looks now, breathless, dumb/Till I come." The speaker, after musing further on the glory of the city and thinking of how he will greet his lover, closes by rejecting the majesty of the old capital and preferring instead his love:

Oh heart! oh blood that freezes, blood that burns!Earth's returnsFor whole centuries of folly, noise and sin!Shut them in,With their triumphs and their glories and the rest!Love is best.

[edit]In culture

Browning's poem inspired or gave its title to many subsequent works, including a painting by Edward Burne-Jones, a 1975 TV-movie with Katharine Hepburn and Laurence Olivier, an episode of the American TV series Mad Men, and an album and song by the band 10,000 Maniacs.

The poem is quoted by the character Rupert Birkin in Women in Love, a novel by D. H. Lawrence.

The title of the poem is also made the title of a novella by the British satirist Evelyn Waugh.

Note: First published in volume I of Men and Women, 1855, in fourteen six-line stanzas; changed to present seven twelve-line stanzas in 1863. Written in January 1852. There has been much learned and irrelevant argument [nicely put - martin] about the supposed location of the ruins Browning is describing. -- RPO (http://eir.library.utoronto.ca/rpo/display/poem283.html)

A charming and somewhat quirky poem, though the quirkiness lies more in the

form than in the content. The tripping metre, with its interspersed long andshort lines, is a bold but successful experiment; it is in a sense a littletoo obtrusive, in that it draws attention away from what the poem isactually saying, but once the initial novelty wears off, it fits the tone ofthe poem nicely, and adds greatly to the reader's pleasure in the pure soundof the words.

Apart from the poem's beautiful imagery, I love the way in which Browningweaves the narrator's twin reveries together. In particular, I love thesequence

When the king looked, where she looks now, breathless, dumb Till I come.

But he looked upon the city, every side...

with its altogether unexpected segue from love back to history. Indeed,although the narrator wraps up the poem with a very final "love is best", hespends far more time musing about the ruins than about his waiting love, sothat when he says "love is best" he is making a passionate choice, not justmouthing an idle platitude.

The other thing I love about the poem is its extravagaince - Browning couldbe a beautifully controlled poet, but he was seldom a restrained one. Ofcourse, extravagance by itself is more likely to produce a bad poem than agood one; it is the mixture of extravagance and perfect control that makesBrowning one of the greats.

A beautifully lyrical pastoral poem, not in pure classic vein since it introduces dramatic scenes from the past instead of contrasting with a corrupt present. It opens with quiet rustic sounds of tinkling bells and cropping of grass the metre contributing to a very melodic poem.The peacefulness contrasts with former pride and power now ruined and laid low like Shelley's statue of Ozymandias,the dereliction intensified by weeds creeping through chinks and the solitary tower. The shepherd is intent on his tryst with the girl with 'yellow hair 'a phrase which struck me as so simple compared with the gleaming gold and burning flames of the past, as is her gaze, so breathless and dumb, unlike the proud king and the noise of war, the busyness of glades and colonnades and multitudes of men at arms ,centuries of war and lust now laid to dust.Her quietness blends with the soft fading of the evening scene and I loved the slow savouring of the lovers' meeting.First the silence,then the quiet gaze, the slow mutual appreciation before 'we rush...each on each'Make love not war could be a clear moral if we need one.Thanks Scott for the choice. Fear to say more in case of being accused of over analysis. I agree with you here Mandala. I think one clear message that I took from this poem is that material possesions are but temporary, such as this once great city, but emotions and love is eternal. This contrast I conclude from the cities destruction and then the woman who is stood

amongst the ruins, impliedheavily to be his lover. The rhyme scheme and structure is something that I don't know if I like or not. The rhythm is very good, it has a dream like quality to it with a bouncy, softer ending to lines which all continue onto one blur, but does it get repetitive is what I am asking myself. I do like this poem alot, but my mind is in two regarding this fact.

Robert Browning is one of the most important and studied Victorian writers. Nevertheless, he has been discovered after his death, because, when he was alive, he was known as Elizabeth BarrettBrowning’s husband. Robert Browning’seducation was influenced by his parents: his father was interested in esoteric literature, while his mother was a nonconformist follower. For this reason he could not apply for one of the two most renowned universities, Cambridge and Oxford,since they were Catholic, but he could only attend one year at London University. In 1846 he marriedElizabeth Barrett, a popular poet, and after they moved to Italy, living in Florence. Browning came back to England when his wife died, in 1861, and visited Italy again seventeen years later. One of his most important works, Men and Women, was inspired by his sojourn in Italy and the poems are dedicated to his wife.       Men and Women was published on 17th November 1855. This collection is considered one of the most successful works by Browning and both audience and critics received it positively when it came out. Indeed,Browning wrote these poems in his happiest years of life, during is stay in Florence.       The collection is formed by two volumes: the first contains twenty-seven poems, and Love Among the Ruins was but at the beginning; the second is formed by twenty-four lyrics, starting from Andrea del Sarto. Some of the poems were written before 1852. The first was The Guardian Angel, which was written in July 1848 while the poet was in Ancona (W. C. DeVane, A Browning Handbook; New York: Appleton-Century Crofts, 1963, p. 187.). However, most of the poems were composed between 1852 and the date of  publishing. Love Among the Ruins is an example: it was probably written on 3 January 1852 in an apartment in the Champs Elisées in Paris, even if the setting is probably Italian (DeVane, p. 191). Indeed, the poet had decided to write a poem every day and he could have composed Childe Roland anWomen and Roses the two previous days.       The poem, as it appeared in the collection published in 1855, was formed by fourteen stanzas of six lines each. A line of six feet was followed by a rhyming line of two feet.       Notwithstanding, in 1863 Robert Browning resolved to put this poem among the Dramatic Lyrics, along with other lyrics belonging to Men an Women. Moreover, he “reduced the number of stanzas to seven, by making each stanza twelve line long” (DeVane, p. 191). Despite these changes, the structure of the poem and the treatment of the theme are unchanged. The protagonist is a shepherd who is walking in the evening through the Italian countryside toward his beloved waiting for him. During the journey, he stares to the flock and to the landscape thinking that in the past on those very hills a glorious city rose. Now, of “the domed and daring palace” (l. 19) remain on the plain but a “single little turret” (l.37) and some unnoticeable ruins. The view of his beloved interrupts for a moment his meditation, but he immediately superimposes again the past on the present, condemning vehemently the corruption of the city, which is now buried by grass. The lyric finishes with the consideration that “Love is best”. The entire poem is a speech pronounced by a shepherd, so it is a kind of monologue, as Percy Lubbock observed (Percy Lubbock, ‘Robert Browning’, in Robert Browning: a collection of critical essays, ed. by Philip Drew; London: Methuen, 1966, pp. 47-48). Robert Browing is known for his wide use of the “dramatic monologue”, for instance in poems like Fra Lippo Lippi, My Last Duchess and Porphyria’s Lover. In Lubbock opinion, the monologue “stands for the pleasant hour of rumination, an hour which certainly

has as good a claim to be translated into art as any of the twenty-four” (Lubbock, p. 48). A monologue is usually directed to a listener, but here the shepherd is alone in the immensity of the plain, except after meeting the girl. In fact, it is rather a silent and inner speech, pronounced in the mind. A characteristic of the monologue, indeed, is its artificiality, which is nevertheless hidden, “so that, while we feel the presence of the silent partner in the debate, we may not be embarrassed by his lack of response” (Lubbock, p. 48).       As far as the general structure of the present poem is concerned, it is visible that the first four stanzas present a break in the middle: the first halves contain the description of the landscape as it appears in the present, while the second parts are dedicated to the past and its glorious city. In the fifth stanza the shepherd meets his beloved, so that only lines 57-58 are devoted to the past. However, the first half of the following stanza is entirely dedicated to the description of the town and the whole last stanza, except the final line, as well (Ian Jack, Browning’s Major Poetry; London: Oxford University Press, 1973, p. 141).       The characteristic which catches the attention in this poem is the metre. It is Browning’s own invention: each stanza is formed by six rhyming couplets in which the first line is six feet long and the second two feet long. The long lines are formed by trochees (a stressed plus an unstressed syllable), while the short ones by cretics (a foot of three syllables where the first and the last are stressed). The use of this original metre creates a peculiar melody, since the rhythm is similar to a singsong. In this way the reader become engrossed in meditation together with the protagonist, sharing his thoughts and his vision both of the countryside landscape and of the imposing city. In Ian Jack’s words, “Initially the troches seem reflective, if not hesitant. The effect of the long lines, each followed by a short line consisting of a single cretic, is curiously hypnotic, and the whole poem leads to the unanswerable affirmation in the final line” (I. Jack, p. 140). However, from the point of view of grammar, the short lines do not have an important function, since the meaning of most sentences do not change if we delete the short lines, Loy D. Martinclaims (Loy D. Martin, Browning’s dramatic monologues and the post-romantic subject; Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1985, pp. 114-115). This does not mean that they are useless; on the contrary, “the short lines emphasize the distance between the tranquil present and a turbulent past that, since its events transpired so many “ages since”, is known only in the tenuousness of legend” (L. D. Martin, p. 115).       The title of the poem, Love Among the Ruins, suggests a pastoral setting and conveys the idea of a contrast between something fresh and new, typical of youth, and death, symbolized by the ruins. I will return on this point later, after the analysis of the poem.       The lyric begins with the description of the setting: the shepherd is walking homeward with his flock of sheep, which sometimes stop to crop the grass. The evening is coming, so that the light is suffused. The end of the day is personified (“the quiet-coloured end of evening/smiles”) and the setting is clearly bucolic, as suggested by the title. The first second line, besides rhyming with the previous line, contains also an internal rhyme with the repetition of a word. This poetic device will be used again only at the end of the sixth stanza. Here it contributes to create a peaceful atmosphere in which both the shepherd and the reader can meditate about past glory. In l.5 the alliteration of the sound /t/ reproduces the tinkling of the bells of the flock. The pastoral and lonesome landscape is the opposite of the “city great and gay” (l.7) which once rose in that plain. The clarification in l.8 makes us think that the speaker has never seen the city personally and gives the story a fairy-tale tone (Eleanor Cook, Browning’s lyrics: an exploration; Toronto; Buffalo: University of Toronto Press, 1974, p. 164). The central figure of the last lines is the prince, described while wilding his power. In the second stanza the present and the past are set into opposition in terms of

horizontal and vertical contrast, as Eleanor Cook noticed: there are no trees in the plain, but only streams and “slopes of verdure” (l.15), while the town is characterised by its tall palace and its huge walls. Moreover, the colour of the country is green (“verdure”), in contrast with the fire attributed to the city. The third stanza delves into the power of nature of erasing even the most resistant and imposing palaces built by men. The poet also alludes to the corruption of the capital, connoted as a place of ill repute. The symbol of sin, lust and corruption is gold, which will reappear in l.78. In the fourth stanza the focus is on a turret, the most visible remain of the city. Nevertheless, nature has taken possession of its walls by means of a caper, a gourd and a houseleek. The presence of chinks suggests that the turret is going to fall as well. The tower is part of Browning’s imagery. As Barbara Melchiori noticed, “the round, squat, blind tower is a symbol of fear in Childe Roland. A tower appears also at Goito in Sordello, and then, ruined, to the protagonist. In Melchiori’s opinion, it is the same tower which appears in the Roman countryside in The Ring and the Book, and “the stress is laid on its harmlessness” (Barbara Melchiori, Browning’s poetry of reticence; London, Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd, 1968, pp. 136-137). In l. 45 the theme of the fire, symbol of the town, reappears (“a burning ring”). At the beginning of the following stanza the evening is personified again; nonetheless, in Cook’s words, “its smile now no evening benison, but an enigmatic, silent leave-taking” (E. Cook, p. 165). It is getting dark and the sixth stanza contains a disturbing statement: “There is somehow awkwardness in thinking of those men who ‘breathed joy and woe/Long ago’. Then there was a multitude, full of its passion and its goal; now there is one pair” (E. Cook, p. 166). While the king is turned to his dominions, the lovers, embracing themselves, form a little silent world of peace and purity. Notwithstanding, not even the embrace with his beloved erases the thought of the city from the shepherd’s mind. On the contrary, he describes war-time with more and more violent images, until resuming all the glory in this terse sentence: “Earth’s returns/For whole centuries of folly, noise and sin!”. To the last short line is entrusted the sense of the poem: while human glory is sinful and ephemeral, love is eternal, pure and everlasting. The conclusion had been anticipated, after all, in the title. The poem emphasizes the contrast between pastoral love, characterized by freshness and harmony with nature, and ruins, symbol of corruption and human vanity. Despite these elements typical of pastoral poetry, Love Among the Ruins is original: the subject of the poem is usually love and the beauty of the lover. On the contrary, here the mind of the shepherd is focused on the past city. In Eleanor Cook words, “the closer he comes to his beloved, the greater his vehemence grows, as if the city posed a direct personal threat to the lovers […] Shut in by an embrace, he will be able to shut out the city” (E. Cook, p.168). Moreover, the poem was originally entitled Sicilian Pastoral. Cook noticed also that the present setting and the past city are represented like two different words. The world of the city is characterized by action (of building, warring, etc), far horizons and bright colours, while the world of love is grey and “moving inward toward a central enclosure, a world of steady anticipating movement toward the beloved” (E. Cook, p. 101). Regarding the landscape, Browning drew on Italian countryside, since a lot of lyrics composed in that period are set in Italy (Two in the Campagna, De Gustibus, Fra Lippo Lippi, Andrea del Sarto, The Englishman in Italy, etc) but he is also thought to have been inspired by some pictures seen in the Louvre. There are a lot of hypothesis about the model of the city. It might be an Italian city; nevertheless, Professor Bernhard Fehr noticed that Browning’s description is very similar to Herodotus’ Babylon (both towns have a hundred gates) and there are some elements borrowed from the Apocalypse of St. John (DeVane, pp. 191). Mr Robert Adger Law suggested that the ruins are “a composite picture of Babylon and

Jerusalem fused by the poet’s imagination” (DeVane, pp. 192). Indeed, the city of the poem is, like Babylon and Sodom, characterised by sin and corruption.     Using different sources, the poet created a vivid setting, which is important for the representation of the characters. William O. Raymond claims thatBrowning, besides being more interested in individuals than in groups, does not conceive his characters “in abstraction from their environments” (William O. Raymond, “‘The jewelled bow’: a study in Browning’s imagery and humanism”, in Robert Browning: a collection of critical essays, ed. by Philip Drew; London: Methuen, 1966, p. 117). In his opinion, Browning’s characters “are representative of their eras and reflect the milieu – political, artistic and religious - of the times in which they live” (W. O. Raymond, p. 117). Indeed, the shepherd and his beloved are symbols of that pure and peaceful landscape. Traditionally, in poetry ancient times are characterised by virtue and are opposed to the corrupted present. On the contrary, the author connotes negatively the past. Although the protagonists of this poem are individuals, the conclusion is rather general, as Brooke observed (Stopford A. Brooke, The poetry of Robert Browning; London, 1902, p. 253). For this reason too Love Among the Ruins grows away from the traditional pastoral poetry. Thanks to its originality, Love Among the Ruins has fascinated directors and other writers, besides the pre – Raphaelite painter Edward Burne-Jones.

A Comparison of "Love Among the Ruins" and "Dover Beach"

by Sean Lowe

Robert Browning and Matthew Arnold, two poets of the mid-19th century, both

express pessimism about human nature in their respective works, “Love Among the Ruins”

and “ Dover Beach .”  The poems examine the value of love among the turmoil of

humanity.  Although the two poets’ conclusions about love are slightly different, the poems

share many similarities in theme and style.

            “ Dover Beach ”’s theme is that society is losing religious faith, but solace and moral

support can still be found in love.  Arnold uses imagery and metaphor to build the mood of

calm melancholy, echoing the poem’s sad theme.  Tranquility is expressed by imagery,

as Arnold writes, “The sea is calm tonight / The tide is full, the moon lies fair” (1, 2) and that

“the Cliffs of England [are]  / Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay” (4, 5).  The

speaker’s melancholy mood is expressed through an implied metaphor.  “Listen! You hear

the grating roar…With tremulous cadence slow, and bring / The eternal note of sadness in”

(10, 13-14).  The sound of the ocean’s waves are likened to a sad song, serving as a prelude

for Arnold ’s sad conclusions about humanity.  Arnold uses metaphors to express the

speaker’s dismay with society.  He compares faith to a sea, stating that “now I only hear / Its

melancholy, long, withdrawing roar, / Retreating to the breath” (25, 26).  He feels that the sea

of faith is descending, and society is losing its faith in God or religion.  He uses anaphora to

emphasize this unfaithfulness, writing, “the world...Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor

light, / Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain” (30, 34-35). Finally, Arnold uses dramatic

monologue to expresses love’s role in these dark times.  “Ah, love, let us be true / To one

another!” (29), the speaker says.  The speaker wishes to be faithful to his lover so they may

strengthen each other.   Therefore, toArnold , companionship serves as a strengthening moral

bond “on [the] darkling plain” (35) of society.

Browning expresses a similar theme in “Love Among the Ruins.”  Browning’s poem

displays how the value of temporal human accomplishment pales in comparison to that of

transcendent love.  Browning uses an ancient Roman city as symbolic of human

accomplishment and values.  The Roman buildings, for example, represent human

accomplishments.  Arnold juxtaposes images of these buildings and their inhabitants with the

pastoral scene that marks their former site.  “Where the domed and daring place shot its

spires / Up like fires” (19, 20) the speaker says, “Now…does not even boast a tree”

(13).  Browning continues, writing that “Such a carpet [of grass]as, this summertime,

o’erspreads / And embeds / Every vestige of the city” (27-30).  Browning juxtaposes the

images of Rome and the pastoral scene in order to display how the grand valor of Rome has

faded to an unmarked grassy area.  Thus, the juxtaposition reveals the fleeting nature of

seemingly grand and mighty human accomplishment.  Browning ends the poem with further

criticism of the Romans, writing,

O heart! O blood that freezes, blood that burns!

Earth’s returns.

For whole centuries of folly, noise and sin!

Shut them in,

With their triumphs and their glories and the rest!

Love is best (79-84).

The speaker realizes that while the temporal achievements of the Romans are impressive,

“Lust of glory pricked their heats up, dread of shame / struck them tame; / And that glory and

that shame alike, the gold bought and sold” (31-36), he seems to have achieved transcendent

happiness with the woman he loves.  Even though he is apparently poor, living in a “single

little turret that remains / On the plains” (37, 38), he is sublimely fulfilled by love.  Compared

to the “centuries of folly, noise and sin” (81) that mark “earthly” (80) efforts, “love is best”

(84). The structure of the poem also reinforces Browning’s theme.  In the first five stanzas,

Browning being each line by describing the current day pastoral scene, and then flashes back

to the ancient Roman city.  But in the last two stanzas, he switches the structure, first

describing the Roman city, then moving to the present day.  This new structure facilitates the

speaker’s dismissal of the Roman scene.  The Roman city is replaced by a love scene, one

that depicts a passionate kiss between the speaker and his lover.  This structure parallels

Browning’s theme that ultimately love is what prevails as love is what has the closing note in

the last two stanzas. 

Similarities between both poems are plentiful, but there are key differences as

well.  Both authors use imagery in their creation of calm scenes, Arnold painting a gentle

ocean and Browning painting a pastoral countryside.  Thematically, the poems are also linked

by their criticism of humanity.  Arnold , however, specifically criticizes a loss of faith while

Browning finds fault with human nature in general.  The authors’ speakers also appreciate

love for different reasons.  Arnold need for love is almost desperate, as he needs a companion

in the face of the unfaithful world, while Browning’s love is calm and eternal.

Ultimately, both have more in common than they do in conflict.  Both

poets criticize the world and its evil nature.  Each poem also sets love

against tumultuous images of the world.  And, both poems feel love is a

positive force in the face of a pestilent world.

An Analysis of Robert Browning’s “Love Among the Ruins”

A reading of the poem “Love Among the Ruins” by Robert Browning draws the reader into a visual of a city in ruins and the contrast that can be found in the land where the city used to be. Though a majestic city existed then, the speaker clearly prefers the love found on the site compared the earlier glories that were found in the city. Browning manages to use imaginative language to conjure up the fallen city and the heart that drove the city. In addition the current landscape before the speaker’s eyes and the potential expressed in the love the speaker shares with a girl is brought out well.

The poem is a closed poem where the Browning effectively uses twelve lines in each stanza to bring the contrasts to life. This type of form works well in giving the poem a moderate pace that allows the speaker to narrate. The stanzas are then divided into long and short lines alternating giving the poem a rhythm and beat that allows the narration to flow freely and create a meditative feel.

The short lines are made up of three syllables while long lines are made up of eleven syllables. The poem reveals a pastoral style in the informal reflective style Browning uses as it gives contemplations from the speaker’s view. The poem is set on the vast hills amid the ruins of a former city as the speaker clearly tells of the sight in the evening as the day comes to a close and the night beckons. There in the ruins he contemplates the past of the area in the face of its present.

The poem expresses the contrast between the historical past of the area in which the speaker finds himself and its present condition. Then it was lively with men who sacrificed so much for glory and war “Where a multitude of men breathed joy and woe” (31). Now it is none the less lively with sheep that graze in peace “ On the solitary pastures where our sheep/Half asleep/ Tinkle homeward thro the twilight, stray or stop/As they crop” (3,4,5 and 6).

 In looking to its past the speaker expresses how much better it is now than it was in the past. That is because before, the city that rose in the area was filled with “folly, noise and sin” (81). Now the area is filled with love and innocence which is infinitely better and has the power to endure “ With their triumphs and their glories and the rest!/Love is best.” (83 and 84). Browning thus introduces the main theme of the poem which is a comparison of the contrast of the fallen city and the serene, pure productive landscape.

One of the interesting elements of the poem is the very informal voice that Browning writes in. The words of the speaker introduce an element of conversation which draws the reader as he contemplates. This can be shown by the conversational words he chooses to use in “(so they say)” (8) and “And such plenty and perfection, see, of grass” (25). Browning uses words that give negative connotation to the “glory and shame” (33) of the former city”s men which he terms as “gold” corrupting them because they were up for sale (35). On the other hand he employs positive connotation when associates the comfort of the grass with a spread carpet.

The words Browning chooses convey rhythm by repetition as seen in lines 2 “miles and miles”. Other phrases repeated are “glory and shame” which bring out the key contrast between the old city and the new land. The glorified city is contrasted with dignified habitation among the ruins, the shame of the men in the former city is contrasted with the purity of the love the speaker finds in the girl with “eager eyes and yellow hair” (55). The rhythm is also enhanced by the interchange between the long lines and the short lines give the poem a constant beat. The shorter lines that Browning uses create a break from the longer lines and gives the words of the speaker almost a quality of an after thought underscoring the meditative narrative style of the poem. The closed stanzas work quite well for the poem.

There is a rhyme in every stanza with couplets line sharing syllables line one and two, three and four, five and six, seven and eight, nine and ten, eleven and twelve. This enhances the rhythm of the poem. In several lines Browning uses alliteration as in “Tinkle homeward thro’ the twilight, stray or stop” (5). “Made of marble, men might march on nor bepressed” (23). There is repetition which communicates Browning’s emphasis “Lust of glory pricked their hearts up, dread of shame/struck them tame. “And that glory and that shame alike, the gold” (33-35).  The use of the voice in the poem from a speaker is effective in giving the poem an interesting view. The speaker in the poem narrates the way the city was before and the current land where the city once lay. This is even as the speaker infers that what he says is not first hand information or his experience “(so they say)” (8). This makes the poem flow as ordinary narration would with an aside. The city was reduced to ruins but another quiet life exists

that is peaceful and love the better than material glory exists. This information is in contrast to line eight as the speaker shares his experience of love form a girl and as such the speaker attests to the validity of his claim that “love is best” (84).

Browning does not use extensively use similes except in line 19 and 20 “Where the domed and daring palace shot itsspires/up like fires” (19-20) and “And they build their gods a brazen pillar high/as the sky” (75 and 76). For the most part Browning instead employs quite a number of metaphors in the poem making the poem vivid. Some examples are the grass that he calls a carpet (27), the men breathing “joy and woe” (31), the “blood that freezes, blood that burns” (79). Personification in poem where Browning refers to the capital city as the prince (9), the city is also given the character of being gay (7).

There are symbols that Browning infused in the poem that bring out the contrast between the past and the present. The sheep for one are concerned with eating and getting home safely. They are at peace and concerned with the most basic of things. They symbolize the contentment that the present gives in contrast to the vanities of glory that men of the city sort out. Browning in line 13 mentions that “the country does not even boast a tree” a symbol of the countries inability to sustain itself.

The smiling, quiet evening is a symbol of the peace and renewal that has taken place and the overall happiness that befits the country side. While the city had been gay before because of the men it seems nothing compares to the happiness that can even be seen to endure in nature. “Where the quiet-colored end of evening smiles” (1) and again in “And I know, while thus the quiet-colored eve/Smiles to leave” (49-50). 

The theme of the poem is that love is preferable to material glory. The city which had stood in majesty does not compare to the love that has the heart of the speaker. According to the speaker, what drove the men in the ruined city was not love but “lust of glory” (33). The events that took place in the palaces, in the tower and within the city were driven by fear of shame (33). However the speaker and the girl he will meet are driven by love which will be enough unlike the King who feasted his eyes on so many sights (61-72).

Browning uses various elements of imagery to depict the undesirable life in the old city and the attractiveness of the new land amid the ruins. Though the city had its moment and those who lived in its time had their glories, it would be undesirable for the speaker to have the old city back at the expense of the new life the speaker experiences in the current land.

ReferenceLee. Li-Young. “ Love Among the Ruins” Literature: Craft and Voice. Eds. Delbanco, Nicolas and Cheuse, Allan. New York: McGraw-Hill,2009. Print.

First Published 1855, in Men and Women.

In Ian Jack’s words, regarding the meter: “Initially the troches seem reflective, if not hesitant. The effect of the long lines, each followed by a short line consisting of a single cretic, is curiously hypnotic, and the whole poem leads to the unanswerable affirmation in the final line”

- This is a poem with a quirky form and conventional content.- The ruins may be those of such cities as Babylon and Ninevah or the site of the Circus Maximus in Rome.- Enduring love vs. Temporal nature of political/material power- Dreamlike structure (almost fairytale style story) spoken from the place where a once great city was built; all that is left is ‘the single little turret’. If the poem seems almost dreamlike, due to the fact that the speaker seems to be recounting a myth or legend, then how reliable is the narrator?- Browning mocks people who value material possessions and wealth over true values such as love. This could have contextual links to the contrasting social classes that Browning and Barrett were part of.- Here Browning uses long, trochaic lines, paired with unusual, three syllable lines. These sound like metrical ‘wheels’ found in medieval narrative poems about acts of chivalry, like ‘The Green Knight’.

That said, Browning has been credited with inventing a new verse form for modern English in this poem.- How does the Verse Form differ from other poems (look at the content and structure of each line)?- Browning later changed the structure of the poem from fourteen six line stanzas to seven twelve line stanzas. What is the effect of this decision to no longer begin the stanza talking about the past and move to discussing the present? Should the past and present be separate ideas?Points for Consideration- Part of the collection ‘Men and Women’ that attempted to seek out the truth in: Art, religion and love. This was mainly due to how disillusioned Browning had become with Politics.- Spoken from the point of view of a young man (a shepherd?) but with a strongly autobiographical voice.- The first half of each stanza focuses on the power of nature until stanza 6 when the structure shifts. Why would Browning shift the focus?- Material wealth vs power of love- Temporal Political Power vs Enduring Power of Nature/Love- Why does the speaker seem to prefer the girl of the present to the recollection of times gone by?- The speaker claims that the great city ‘sent a million fighters forth South and North’ and that they had a ‘thousand chariots’; does this seem realistic or is it Browning exaggerating to prove a point? Does it make the poem sound more or less like a myth or even a fable?- How key to the poem is the parenthesis ‘(so they say)’?- What do you take from Browning’s final line ‘Love is best’? What other poems could you link this to?- How powerful is the speaker’s idea of love if he allows her to ‘give her eyes the first embrace of my face’? Think about the physical and emotional aspects of love.- ‘Love among the Ruins’ – what various meanings could this have, especially contextually for Browning (ruined empire, ruins of politics etc.)- Is there a moral? ‘Love conquers all’?Poems for Comparison- Toccata of Galuppi’s – comparison of various forms of love- A woman’s last word – relationship of two characters/aspects of love- Love in a Life/Life in a Love – aspects of Love and the barriers surrounding it.- Women and Roses – Enduring love vs decaying imagery of love.- Bishop – comparison of materialistic desires vs enduring love of God- Lost Leader – Disillusionment with politics/ ‘sell-outs’