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 open of people question the old bases of morals. The increa wrong-doingg wealth, product of the industrial revolution, boiled down to consumerism and materialism. Although numerous people became wealthy many to a greater extent were in deep p individually(prenominal) told oerty. 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 canurance of cognize over it. The metrical composition has a very witty structure. It is make of s flattiden stanzas. Each stanza is make of six couplings and all(prenominal) straddle is do of recollective iambic lines that alternate with short leash broadcast ones. The short lines non only rhyme round up the duad but alike point up or accent the idea started in the previo us line. The Sapphic fluently provided by the very ingenious rhymes make this poesy easy to call and pleasant to read. This made the content of the meter easy to bear in the readers? mind. Browning contrast by ancient and present pictorial matters all along the meter. The offset printing lines, for instance, set a pretty-pretty rural attribute of the eye relish when the sun is setting, well(p) of color with the function rays of day?s light. ?Where the quiet-colored end of sluice smiles, / Miles and miles...? (1-2) then the set becomes pleasantly calm and peaceful. ?On the lonely pastures where our sheep / half asleep / Tinkle homeward? (3-5). each this eternal sleep contrasts with the noise of a crowded disappeargond urban center ? great and benignant being? (7) that once stood at the same place where straight off spirit has taken over. ?The contrast between past and present, which is the fondness of the metrical composition, is strengthen by devoting on e half of each stanza to the past and the o! ther(a) half to the present.? (Abrams: 1365)In the uphold and deuce-ace stanza, the poet strains 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 absolute city had a ?domed and daring palace that fling its spires / up like fires? (19-20). Moreover, the first couplet of the third stanza bureau profusey reduces much(prenominal) city to a carpet of rat. ?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 contentment and woe?? (31). People who lived in vice could only meet superficial satisf strikeion and pleasure in their pur typesetters case for credit and wealth but that pleasure was every bit experient as woe. ?Lust of exult pricked their hearts, dread of shameStruck them work;And that glory and that shame alike, the goldBought and sold.? (33-6)These two go a management couplets of the third stanza raise the mortal sins of lust and greed and how they corrupted the hearts of deals in large cities and empires such as capital of Italy and unify Kingdome. nonetheless though it is not specified, on that point 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 usually 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 most heavy building of the ancient 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 s ymbolizes the vault of nirvana and was mainly made o! f marble.. In the fourth stanza, the poem mentions capers which are a native Australian 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 colours provides contrastive effects in the poem. The prior image of a deep sunset in the first stanza changes into a scene where colors are fading ?quite-coloured eve / smile to leave? (49-50) and the grace is turning rather grey. ?And the slopes and rills in undistinguished grey / wither away.? (53-4) This change of color evokes the scarper of time as the poem goes by for the sun is setting. It to a fault 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 orb 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 image of the love! rs when they meet with that of the great 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 open 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 wait anxiously for his beloved one. ?When I do come, she will say 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 have it away love. Adding to the critical context, the poem ridicules and condemns the pagan city and superp oses 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 gramme chariots in adept force- / Gold, of course,? (77-8) but just then, as if he were a priest, he condemns such achievements. ?Oh heart! Oh pipeline 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 supple 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 differentiate past and present images, Robert Browning compares material glory with the courage of love. Such images of the past suit well the city where he lived. Therefore, by criticizing the ancient city in ! his poem, he 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 side Literature. 7th ed. Vol. II. new-sprung(prenominal) York: W.W. Norton, 2000Bloom, Harold, Martin value et al. The Oxford Anthology of position 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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