Life in a Love by Robert Browning

Escape me?

Never —

Beloved!

While I am I, and you are you,

So long as the world contains us both,

Me the loving and you the loth,

While the one eludes, must the other pursue.

My life is a fault at last, I fear:

It seems too much like a fate, indeed!

Though I do my best I shall scarce succeed.

But what if I fail of my purpose here?

It is but to keep the nerves at strain,

To dry one’s eyes and laugh at a fall,

And, baffled, get up and begin again, —

So the chase takes up one’s life, that’s all.

While, look but once from your farthest bound

At me so deep in the dust and dark,

No sooner the old hope goes to ground

Than a new one, straight to the self-same mark,

I shape me —

Ever

Removed!

Analysis

Imagery :

“To dry one’s eyes and laugh at a fall,

And, baffled, get up and begin again, —” (Line 13 – 14)

Makes me imagine the cliché one person wiping another’s tears when they’re sad and laughing at the small things. A happy couple deeply in love.

Imagery :

“Me the loving and you the loth,” (Line 6)

I imagine someone being in love with someone who doesn’t want to be loved or someone who doesn’t reciprocate the feelings.

Lyric device :

There is a rhyme scheme A, B, B, A. It changes later in the poem to A, B, A, B

I think when the rhyme scheme changes so does the mood of the poem. It goes from this loving mood to doubt.

Lyric device :

My life is a fault at last, I fear: (Line 8)

Alliteration, I think its used to emphasize that he’s worried he’s wasted his life.

Figurative device :

Cliché

“To dry one’s eyes and laugh at a fall,

And, baffled, get up and begin again, —” (Line 13 – 14)

This is the typical thing someone would think of when they think of a sweet boyfriend. This shows how committed he is to the other person.

Figurative device :

Syntax

While the one eludes, must the other pursue. (Line 7)

The poet used a syntax to make the line fit into his rhyme scheme.

Theme :

From the title alone you can tell that this poem is about being in love, as though his love is more than his life.  Throughout the poem he seems like he has so much love for someone who is not as in love as he is. That he is willing to do anything for his love whether they reciprocate his feelings the same way.