Robert Browning (1812 – 1889) was one of the most popular writers of the Victorian era. He was best known for his dramatic monologues. He perfected this genre through his poems such as My Last Duchess, Fra Lippo Lippi and Porphiria's Lover, etc. Browning is best known for the optimism of his poetry. Although he belonged to a time of uncertainty and doubt, his poems reflected unwavering faith, hope and happiness. Most of his poems are based on love. He believed that love could unite all beings. Some of his works are obscure and this has been pointed out by many critics. Browning was an unblemished romantic. Romantic traits are visible in his poems. He was strongly influenced by Italian writers. This influence can be seen in his poems like Sordello, The Ring and the Book etc. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay The Last Ride Together is a beautiful love poem by Robert Browning. It is in the form of a dramatic monologue. This poem focuses on complete surrender to love. The speaker strikes a tragic note regarding his lost love life. He begs his beloved to take one last ride together. She accepts his call and they go for a ride with him. The title The Last Ride Together itself is problematic. Some critics had interpreted it as The Last Ride "To Get Her". Besides being a love poem, some sexual implications can be seen in this poem. Browning points to many connotative meanings through the brilliant use of certain words like "ride" since such sexual connotations were considered taboo according to Victorian morality. The poem The Last Ride Together is about a journey. We can therefore consider it as a travel poem. The great anthropologist says that travel literature “preserves the illusion of something that no longer exists.” In travel literature, the boundaries between reality and fiction will be blurred. Travel writing has the ability to take the reader with the writer to places the reader has never visited. Travel writing generally follows a third-person narrative, but there are a few exceptions in which the travel story begins with "I." In analyzing travel literature, the reader must have knowledge about the speaker, his intention, the time of the trip and his situation. The description of landscape is yet another characteristic of travel writing. Poems that usually talk about travel and travel are known as travel poems. The Road Not Taken' by Robert Frost, Questions of Travel by Elizabeth Bishop, Food in Travel by Goethe, Swallows Travel To and Fro by RL Stevenson, etc. are some examples of travel poems. Besides the usual journey, many other forms The journey can be seen in this poem like the psychological journey, the spiritual journey, the journey of emotions, the implication of death as a journey, the sexual act as a journey, the journey through the speaker's thoughts, the journey to the past then to the future, etc. The speaker describes his journey with his beloved. On the way he sees many new places and cities and he reports the things he sees: He saw other regions, new cities, while the world rushed on either side. (49-50) He also describes the beauty of the landscape, of the sun. , moon, evening star, etc. in the lines: Shh! If you saw a cloud from the west, all swollen, with its bosom bent, with many blessings - the sun, the moon and the evening star all at once........ (24-27) The poet also evokes time travel. He thinks about death. He is not sure of thedate when the world will end. He enjoys extreme happiness with his beloved and he doubts whether it is paradise in itself or whether it is better than that. It is not certain that the end of the world will happen that night. This symbolizes death and this journey can be interpreted as a journey towards death. In the ninth stanza, the speaker thinks of a journey to heaven which actually means death. When the speaker rides with his loved one, he feels like the world is moving on either side. This expression shows the freezing of the moment by lovers. It also talks about the journey of life where dreams come true. The psychological journey can be seen in this poem. The poet in the fourth stanza says that his soul is moving towards the freedom of a more circumscribed situation. He considers his ride a psychological journey and says his mind flies. The poet travels in his own mind. This is shown in the lines: If I had said that, if I had done that, I could win, then I could miss. (40-41) The speaker travels from past hopes to current reality. The speaker travels to the future. He ponders his fate. He also compares his walk to poetry, sculpture and music. He says the poet only sings about the joy of riding a horse, but the speaker lives the ride. The speaker says that poets have spent years and years creating their piece of poetry and he wants to create something great at the end of this journey. He also considers his journey an achievement that is more valuable than the achievements of statesmen and soldiers. The speaker also travels into the mind of his beloved. Thus he understands the passions in the mind of his beloved. He also thinks that his beloved would have loved or hated him and finally he comes to the conclusion that no one can talk about it. With the characters, their emotions also travel. This journey of emotions is also found in this poem. At the beginning of the poem, the speaker is so desperate and desires to take one last ride with his beloved. When he rides with her, he is so happy and he is ecstatic. This shows the journey of his mind from one emotion to another. In the first stanza, the change of emotion in the eyes of the loved one is described as he asks for one last ride. He says that pity enters the dark eyes where pride dwells. This is another example of a journey of emotion in the poem. The entire poem The Last Ride Together can be analyzed in a sexual context. The term “riding” can have the meaning of a sexual act. The speaker invites his beloved for one last “walk.” He enjoys the ride with her. From this point of view, this poem has many sexual connotations. In this aspect, the journey can be seen as a journey through the body of his lover and there he discovers new cities. The same form of comparison can be seen in John Donne's poem To His Mistress Going To Bed, where the speaker calls his beloved's body "my America, my Newfoundland" (27). The landscape and beautiful scenes explained in the poem can be seen as the description of his beloved's body. During the sexual act, the two lovers have the impression that they are pausing time and that only the world around them is moving forward. In the tenth stanza, the speaker views sexual pleasure as a journey toward eternity: The moment makes eternity (109) The poem also brings out a notion of a journey toward spirituality. The term “blessing” used in the third stanza symbolizes a journey toward spirituality. The western cloud is endowed with beauty by the sun, the moon and the evening star. This cloud can be compared to the speaker's beloved, who possesses the natural elements of beauty. This line can also be considered a spiritual journey. Travel from a state of pleasure..