"Love Among the Ruins" by Robert Browning (poetry reading)

This poem was written in 1852 in Paris, first published in 1855. Browning at the time was resolved to write a poem every day, so it might be just a day's work. Nobody knows to which ruined city it refers, but it's probably in Italy.

"The protagonist is a shepherd who is walking in the evening through the Italian countryside toward his beloved waiting for him. During the journey, he stares to the flock and to the landscape thinking that in the past on those very hills a glorious city rose. Now, of the domed and daring palace remain on the plain but a single little turret and some unnoticeable ruins. The view of his beloved interrupts for a moment his meditation, but he immediately superimposes again the past on the present, condemning vehemently the corruption of the city, which is now buried by grass. The lyric finishes with the consideration that Love is best."
http://www.spigolature.net/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&view=artic...


Here's a long analysis:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb6560/is_4_45/ai_n29405552/
The painting of the same name was by Sir Edward Burne-Jones in 1893

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• the
• Ruins
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• Browning

[nutherefurlong]

Is it Browning or Browing?  The title has an "n", the keyword does not.

I've always had a particular fondness for Browning's Romanticism.

Does this poem follow a particular form?

[SpokenVerse]

Thanks for pointing out the mistype, I fixed it.

I added a reference to a longer analysis of the poem to the notes.

[krane121]

@abrandnewman but not the beatles' 'all we need is love' love.

[abrandnewman]

love is best.

[malma1]

I love the opening lines: Where the quiet coloured end of evening smiles.. miles and miles...

D.H. Lawrence quotes them in Women in Love

[nutherefurlong]

No problem (check the title, too). Yours has to be one of my favorite subscriptions on Youtube :)

Any chance for Childe Roland, or would that be too long?

[TheWisemonkey8]

beautiful.