3ºESO English Literature - Poetry Corner

Life in a Love - Robert Browning

Escape me?
Never
Beloved!
While I am I, and you are you,
so long as he 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 to 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 hop drops to ground
than a new one, straight to the selfsame mark,
I shape me
Ever
Removed!

A poem can stir all of the senses, and the subject matter of a poem can range from being funny or to be sad. This poem to us is about someone being in love with someone and pursuing but the person is not interested in the least, “me the loving you the loth”. Love is complicated. This poem is about how he lived in the shadow of his love.

Robert Browning was born on May 7, 1812, in Camberwell, England. He was already proficient at reading and writing by the age of five, and he learned Latin, Greek, and French by the time he was fourteen. From fourteen to sixteen he was educated at home, attended to by various tutors in music, drawing, dancing, and horsemanship. At the age of twelve he wrote a volume of Byronic verse entitled Incondita, which he published. The random nature of his education later surfaced in his writing, leading to criticism of his peoms' obscurities.
Linda Camblor, Ana Remolina & Sol Lozano.