Questions and answers of Meeting at Night

Meeting At Night broad / long / descriptive important questions and answers for Class - 11th ( WBCHSE and other board ) -

Q.Summarize the poem Meeting at Night.

Ans:-The Robert Browning’s poem, as the title shows it, is about a meeting at night of a couple who are in love with each other. To meet the woman, the man should do a very long journey through the sea with his boat, walking through three fields, until he arrives at a farm. Still, he has to be very careful when meeting her because exactly they are not allowed to meet each other. That’s why the man comes at night and they should talk with a very soft voice.This poem is telling us about the process of a relationship. When someone could not find his love, he would feel so lonely in life. Robert Browning represented it with the phrase “the grey sea and the long black land”. Love can be aimed to someone or dream. Then, to be able to reach his love, he passed trough many challenges and restrictions. However, he did it happily since he has a big optimistic. After all the hassles, he succeed to find what he’s been looking for. The loneliness then is gone and turned into brightness (“And blue spurt of a lighted match”). Finally, he got what he had been dreaming about.

Q. Write the substance of the poem Meeting at Night.

Ans:-The speaker is at sea at night, heading towards the black land in the distance. He briefly paints a picturesque image of night at sea but moves forward until he pulls his vessel up on to the sand.He walks a mile along the beach and then across three fields until he approaches his goal, a farm. He taps at the window, sees the lighting of a match, and then is overwhelmed by the beating of his and his lover's hearts as they reunite.

Q. Analyse the poem Meeting at Night.

Ans:- The journey and reunion happen at night, suggesting a veil of transgression that in the Victorian age would likely be linked to sexuality .Perhaps there is autobiographical impetus in exploring the theme from this angle, considering that Browning had only recently wed Elizabeth Barrett Browning after a courtship that they had to keep secret from her oppressive father. Many scholars see in it a representation of this courtship, though Browning's general eschewal of autobiography in his poetry makes it hard to imagine he would pursue that so explicitly. Regardless, the sexuality does add a certain sense of danger to the poem. Not only is sexuality implied in the clandestine meeting, but the image of the boat charging into the beach, where it can "quench its speed I' the slushy sand" is easy to interpret as a metaphor along these lines.

Overall, the poem is not subtle in its themes. The speed with which it can be read, since it is only twelve lines long, is the final implication that for he who loves, there is no cause for stopping to admire surrounding beauty, at least not until the supreme beauty of his beloved can be realized.