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Comprehensive O/A Level notes

Love in a Life by Robert Browning

Line-by-Line Analysis:
Stanza 1
Stanza 2
Analysis:
Title
Themes
Literary Devices
Structure
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Room after room,

I hunt the house through

We inhabit together.

Heart, fear nothing, for, heart, thou shalt nd her—

Next time, herself!—not the trouble behind her

Left in the curtain, the couch’s perfume!

As she brushed it, the cornice-wreath blossomed anew:

Yon looking-glass gleamed at the wave of her feather.

II

Yet the day wears,

And door succeeds door;

I try the fresh fortune—

Range the wide house from the wing to the centre.

Still the same chance! she goes out as I enter.

Spend my whole day in the quest,—who cares?

But ’tis twilight, you see,—with such suites to explore,

Such closets to search, such alcoves to importune!

Line-by-Line Analysis:
Stanza 1:
Room after room, / I hunt the house through / We
inhabit together.
The repetition of ‘room’ creates a frantic sense of emergency
Analysis on the symbolism of the rooms can be found below
There is a contrast between ‘hunt’ and ‘inhabit together’
Hunting is a violent action as juxtaposed to living together, which implies love
and interdependence
The fact that he is using violent means on someone so close to him suggests
that, despite how infatuated he is with her, the relationship isn’t as close at
loving as he wants to portray it as

Heart, fear nothing, for, heart, thou shalt nd her

—
He is seen as reassuring himself here. This is evidence of his uncertain mental state,
and a rst hint into the suggestion that he is not a reliable narrator
He is seen as reassuring not his mind, which is generally associated with logic, but
his heart (generally associated with emotions)
This suggests that there is no intellect involved in this endeavour – it is just an
effort purely to assuage his feelings of turmoil
His heart is also personi ed here as a being capable of fear

Next time, herself!—not the trouble behind her

He recognizes the fact that he has not yet been successful in his search but decides
to go on anyways, showing his obsession
What is the ‘trouble’ she leaves behind her?
Could it be the painful memories of a lost love?
Is he actually searching for her, or what he perceives to be as her personality?

Left in the curtain, the couch’s perfume! / As she

brushed it, the cornice-wreath blossomed anew: /
Yon looking-glass gleamed at the wave of her
feather.
All of the marks she leaves behind are overwhelmingly positive
He idolizes her – he has placed all his mental stability on the notion of her
existence and wonderfulness
There is very staunch imagery of the effect she has
It is overwhelming a cleansing, life-bringing effect. This suggests that he views
her role in his life as similar – wiping away his mental turmoil and bringing to
light his positive aspects
Furthermore, these effects are all very recent – perfume doesn’t linger for long,
looking-glasses quickly grow dusty. Due to this, it seems like the author has
tricked himself into thinking that he is right on her trail in order to give himself
motivation

Stanza 2:
Yet the day wears, / And door succeeds door;
For the rst time, the passage of time has been referenced in this poem
He regrets it – does every passing second put a barrier between him and his
lover?
‘Wear’ also suggests exhaustion
Now, ‘door’ has been repeated instead of ‘rooms’. This creates a more accessible,
open effect – as if the house is opening up
Thus, it is suggested the house has been searched through completely – every
room looked into, due to which the doors are already open.
This also creates the imagery of an in nite hallway, presenting it an in nite
search

I try the fresh fortune—

Fresh fortune:
Despite any signs that he should be positive in his search, his hope is still
renewed. This shows he obsessed he is
The use of alliteration places stress on this

Range the wide house from the wing to the

centre. / Still the same chance! she goes out as I
enter.
He has here, for the rst time, actually described the house
He seems to be overemphasizing its vastness as if trying to convince himself
that he still has places to look, areas where she could be hiding.
The exclamation point (Still the same chance!) suggests that he is getting frustrated
with how tantalizingly close she seems to be
Before, he has described some of the speci cs of the house and his lover. Now, he
seems to be referring to both as a whole instead
This suggests that he is no longer searching for a speci c person but rather love
itself, for something to of oad his emotional wellbeing on to.

Spend my whole day in the quest,—who cares?

He has dropped nay pretences of a stable state of mind that he was trying to
portray earlier
Instead, he gives in to the fact that he is obsessed

But ’tis twilight, you see,—with such suites to

explore, / Such closets to search, such alcoves to
importune!
The repetition of ‘such suites … such closets, such alcoves’ again seems like he is
trying to overemphasize how large the house is
Furthermore, he again seems to be focusing on larger areas – the rooms as a
whole rather than the furniture within them as before, leading into our previous
analysis about lover vs love itself
Furthermore, the usage of ‘importune’ suggests that the house is intentionally
hiding his lover from him
This again stresses his frustration – he is now scolding the house instead of just
searching through it
Furthermore, the fact that he is scolding these inanimate objects suggests that,
in the back of his mind, he knows that she is gone. However, he cannot deal with
this and thus has to of oad his anger onto something else

Analysis:
Title:
The title stresses the importance of love – it is like oxygen, sustaining life.

Themes:
Love and Obsession:
The love we see here seems not to be the pure, mutual kind. Instead, the author
seems to be using his lover as a means to keep his mind stable
Furthermore, she seems to be prey rather than a partner

Separation:
We see how devastating separation can be for someone’s mental state – so much so,
in fact, that they fall into denial.

Deteriorating Mental State:

We see how the author’s mental state seems to decline as the poem goes on:
The rise of his franticness:
In the beginning, he tries to create a false sense of collectedness. However,
this verbal reassurance he offers himself only suggests to the reader that
something isn’t right
However, as the poem goes on, he gets more and more frustrated and sinks
further into denial – probably because he has placed somuch of his psyche
on her presence
How much he depends on his lover:
When he lists the positive effects she has, it becomes evident that he is
delusional. Furthermore, it also shows how much he idolizes her, viewing her
as the bastion of his stability
As the poem goes on, he gets less obsessed with the speci cs of her but
rather starts searching for love itself. This suggests that he cares not about
her but rather just for having something to place the responsibility of his
wellbeing on
Due to this, the reader starts to wonder whether he is a reliable narrator
Does the ‘trouble behind her’ actually exist? Is he intentionally making the
house seem larger than it is?

Literary Devices:
Symbolism:
Room:
They could represent the distance between him and his lover
The walls of each room and the fact that they never stay in one together
shows the distance between them
They appear outwardly close – living together in the same house – but are
in reality very far apart
They could also create a trapped atmosphere that represents his internal
con ict
It is a con ned, enclosed space, inhabited by a frantic man. Similarly, his
mind is like a con nes in which his thoughts frantically wonder
It could also be a labyrinth of his desires completely separated from the outside
world
His lover
Is she someone he just relies on domestically? She does seem to have a
cleansing effect.
She could also be someone he just relies on to assuage his fears
She could also just represent love in itself

Repetition:
The repetition of words such as ‘room’, ‘heart’, and ‘door’ creates a frantic atmosphere
Furthermore, they emphasize the repetitiveness of his search

Assonance:
There is consistent assonance of the ‘oo’ sound: ‘room’, ‘through’, ’bloomed’
This creates a spooky atmosphere

Alliteration:
There is a repetition of the ‘h’: ‘hunt’, ‘house’, ‘her’, ‘heart’ etc.
This sounds like a man panting from a hunt

Imagery:
The imagery of the effect she has on the room helps emphasize her importance

Structure:
The rhyme scheme is ABCDDABC
This emphasizes the circular nature of his search
The two rhyming lines are sandwiched, contributing to the ‘trapped’ atmosphere
The two stanzas have a similar structure
This again emphasizes the repetitive nature of his search.
Tercets are groups of three lines connected by rhyme
The rst tercet in each stanza has fewer words. This creates a feeling of
distortion

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