Love over Material Glory

Robert toasting lived and wrote during a time of radical changes. England was becoming a large metropolis and the Origin of Species of Darwin had make a penetrate of people question the old bases of morals. The increa wrong-doingg wealth, product of the industrial revolution, boil down to consumerism and materialism. Although numerous people became wealthy many more were in deep p on the whole everyplacety. Robert Browning explored these issues in his poetry. ? heat Among the ruins,? for instance, criticizes the morality of a metropolis of magnificence and superposes the overthrowurance of cognize over it. The metrical composition has a very witty structure. It is do of s horizontaltiden stanzas. Each stanza is do of six couplings and solely(prenominal) match is make of abundant iambic lines that alternate with short leash syllabus ones. The short lines non only rhyme round up the pas de deux but alike point up or underline the idea started in the previous l ine. The Sapphic fluently provided by the very ingenious rhymes make this poesy easy to guess and pleasant to read. This made the content of the meter easy to translate in the readers? mind. Browning contrast by historical and present ambits all along the meter. The offset printing lines, for instance, set a fair rural persona of the eye relish when the sun is setting, secure of color with the function rays of day?s light. ?Where the quiet-colored end of counterbalance smiles, / Miles and miles...? (1-2) then the set becomes pleasantly calm and peaceful. ?On the lonesome(a) pastures where our sheep / half asleep / Tinkle homeward? (3-5). separately this nap contrasts with the noise of a crowded disappeargond city ? great and man being? (7) that once stood at the same place where directly spirit has taken over. ?The contrast between past and present, which is the total of the poem, is strengthen by devoting one half of each stanza to the past and the ot her(a) half to the present.? (Abrams: 1365)I! n the uphold and deuce-ace stanza, the poet emphasizes the description of the disappeared city as magnificent, and contrasts it with the simplicity of nature that prevails. In line (13), nature ?does non even boast a three? where a decent and warm city had a ?domed and daring palace that diagonal its spires / up like fires? (19-20). Moreover, the first couplet of the third stanza bu blazeess leader profusey reduces much(prenominal) city to a carpet of supergrass. ?And such plenty and perfection, see, of grass / Never was!? (25-6)Also in the third stanza the poet criticizes the society of the city in a moral religious context. ? workforce breathed ecstasy and woe?? (31). People who lived in sin could only go out superficial satisf human actionion and pleasure in their pur typesetters case for honor and wealth but that pleasure was every bit see as woe. ?Lust of distinction pricked their hearts, dread of shameStruck them work;And that glory and that shame alike, the g oldBought and sold.? (33-6)These two locomote couplets of the third stanza raise the mortal sins of lust and greed and how they corrupted the hearts of extend tos in large cities and empires such as capital of Italy and unify Kingdome. regular though it is not specified, there are several(prenominal) references that point capital of Italy to be the city in ? adore Among the Ruins.? The poem begins with an image of a sunset in the horizon; this image is unremarkably seen in areas near the ocean, the Mediterranean sea for instance. ?The poem?s setting presumably is Italian.? (Bloom: 1293) In the second stanza, the description of the city fits the main characteristics of one of the roughly heavy building of the past Rome, The Pantheon. ?Where the domed and daring palace shot its spiresUp like firesO?er the hundred-gated circuits of a wallBounding all,Made of marble? (19-23)The Pantheon was built by Marcus Agrippa in 27 BC, it had a dome that symbolizes the vault of nirvana and was mainly made of marble. In the poop stanza, ! the poem mentions capers which are a aboriginal plant of the Mediterranean area. ?By the caper overrooted, by the ground.?(39)Also from the fourth stanza, monarchs in Rome used to uprise chariot races for their amusement. ?And a burning ring, all round, the chariots tracedAs the race,And the monarch and his minions and his damesViewed the games? (45-8)Finally in the sixth stanza there are undeniable elements that point Rome; such as temples on top of hills, colonnades, bridges and aqueducts. ?All the mountains topped with temples, all the glades?Colonnades,All the causeys, bridges, aqueducts,-and then,All the men! (63-6)Bridges and aqueducts and a combination of some(prenominal) were as important as common in the papist Empire. The use of color in provides dissimilar effects in the poem. The prior image of a chromatic sunset in the first stanza changes into a scene where colors are fading ?quite-coloured eve / smile to leave? (49-50) and the landscape is turning rather gre y. ?And the slopes and rills in undistinguished grey / pass a means.? (53-4) This change of color evokes the scarper of time as the poem goes by for the sun is setting. It in any case sets an opaque environment to emphasize the introduction of a girlfriend with ?yellow? hair; a color that connotes brilliance and majesty. ?A girl with eager globe and yellow hair / waits me there.? (55-6) the poem consolidates the importance of the noblewoman by placing her as an equal with a king in a juxtaposed image. ?When the king looked, where she looks now, breathless, vague / Till I come.

? (59-60)Furthermore, the poet contrasts the i mage of the lovers when they meet with that of the gr! eat city; This image in the last couplet of the fifth stanza continues in the sixth one by describing what both the king and the lady see. On the one grant the king sees his kingdom ? just he looked upon the city, every status / far and wide? (61-2) small-arm on the other hand the lady is careless almost the surroundings and only is waiting anxiously for his beloved one. ?When I do come, she will declare not, she will stand,Either handOn my shoulder, give her eyes the first embraceOf my face, (67-70)The last couplet of the sixth stanza draws an image of a passionate encounter that supposes the act of sex as the doing of love. ?Ere we rush, ere we extinguish sight and speech / each on each (71-2). The title of the poem can be resumed in this stanza. In the ruins of a great city that long time agone was ?great and gay,? (7) two lonely lovers make whoopie love. Adding to the critical context, the poem ridicules and condemns the pagan city and superposes love over it. In the 7th and final stanza, the poet brings up the impressive achievements that millions of warriors had and the way they praised their deities. ?And they built their gods a brazen pillar high / As the sky.? Moreover, he remarks their great richness. ?Yet reserved a one thousand chariots in wide of the mark force- / Gold, of course,? (77-8) but just then, as if he were a priest, he condemns such achievements. ?Oh heart! Oh crosscurrent that freezes, blood that burns! priming coat?s returnsFor whole centuries of folly, noise, and sin!Shut them in, (79-82)The exclamation signs not only evoke untiring disapproval, but also rejection towards the honcho civilization, which is rounded with at the end of line 83; ?the rest.? The last lines of condemnation set up for the final and forceful shutdown statement. ?Love is best? (84)By secernate past and present images, Robert Browning compares material glory with the survival of love. Such images of the past suit well the city where he lived. Ther efore, by criticizing the ancient city in his poem, h! e also criticized London without being moralistic or overly strident. However, the most attractive issue in ?Love Among the Ruins? is how well crafted it is. Bibliography:Abrams, M.H. and Stephen Greenlatt, ed. The Northon Anthology of position Literature. 7th ed. Vol. II. new-sprung(prenominal) York: W.W. Norton, 2000Bloom, Harold, Martin value et al. The Oxford Anthology of English Literature. Vol. II. New York: Oxford University Press, 1973Browning, Robert. ?Love Among the Ruins.? The Oxford Anthology of English Literature. Bloom, Harold, Martin Price et al.ed. Vol. II. New York: Oxford University Press, 1973 If you want to get a full essay, order it on our website: OrderCustomPaper.com

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