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Browning’s Optimism

Robert Browning, (1812-1899), one of the major Victorian poets, is an optimist and as an optimist he places himself above almost all writers of his era. We, in his poems, find his optimistic attitude towards love which make him optimist in every aspects of life. Browning, as an optimist, tends to believe in essential goodness of man and the salvation of man through the hard struggles. Now we will look into his optimistic views scattered in his poems especially in his dramatic monologue.


Browning’s optimistic attitude towards love is clearly disclosed in the poem “The Last Ride Together”, one of his greatest love poems. In the poem the rejected lover is manly, brave and optimistic like a typical Browning’s character. He consoles himself for his failure to gain his beloved’s love with great optimism. The lover does not consider his failure as defeat rather it is “written and needs must be”. He even blesses his beloved in pride and thankfulness”. He now appeals a last ride together that he can keep as his memory of his love.




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Comments

  1. The height of optimism in Browning is well evident in the attitude of the narrator in the poem. The greatness is that the narrator becomes optimistic even in the midst of adversities. He hopes for a better life for him after death. The analysis here has done complete justice to the poem. Thanks for sharing it here.
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