Lyric Poem · Love
Meeting at Night
by Robert Browning · 1845
The grey sea and the long black land;
And the yellow half-moon large and low;
And the startled little waves that leap
In fiery ringlets from their sleep,
As I gain the cove with pushing prow,
And quench its speed i' the slushy sand.
Then a mile of warm sea-scented beach;
Three fields to cross till a farm appears;
A tap at the pane, the quick sharp scratch
And blue spurt of a lighted match,
And a voice less loud, thro' its joys and fears,
Than the two hearts beating each to each!
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“Meeting at Night” by Robert Browning — quilloak.com/poems/meeting-at-night
Quick facts
- Poem
- Meeting at Night
- Poet
- Robert Browning
- Published
- 1845
- Length
- 12 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem, Rhyming Poems
- Themes
- Love, Short
Craft notes
How this poem works
Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.
- Shape
- 12 lines · 2 sestets
- Line length
- Lines run 8-9 syllables (median 9). No single length dominates, which is normal once elision and contraction are in play.
Want the rules this form is measured against? Read what makes a lyric poem, or run your own draft through the form checker to see the same measurements on your lines. How we measure · Report a mistake
Text, source & rights
A traceable edition
Full-text display is based on a United States term-expiry review; status can differ elsewhere.
- Author record
- Robert Browning1812–1889
- Source record
- QuillOak curated editionMeeting at Night (1845) by robert-browning
- Display decision
- Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
- Publication record
- 1845
- Text fingerprint
- SHA-256 c15fc8bb8f7023eb…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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