❐ Examine The Last Ride Together as a dramatic monologue or a dramatic lyric.
Ans. :- Browning wrote plays. These include Strafford (1837), Pippa Passes (1841), The Return of the Druses (1843), A Soul's Tragedy (1846), In a Balcony (1853). But in spite of his 'unquenchable appetency for drama,' he did far better in his dramatic monologue than in his plays. The dramatic monologue is a little drama. It is not the 'drama of the outer world of events, but of the inner world of the soul, where nothing is of importance until it is transfused into a form influencing mind and character.' The men and women here are usually in a state of mental disturbance or conflict; the particular situation and particular moments and lays bare the inner mind of the character. Hence the dramatic monologue is often called a kind of 'comprehensive soliloquy.'
The Last Ride Together is a perfect example of the dramatic monologue. Notice its abrupt beginning: 'I said - Then, Dearest, since 'tis so'...." The situation just before the lover begins to speak is not mentioned but sufficiently suggested dramatically. The young man had long intimacy with his sweet-heart and had supposed the intimacy had ripened into love. They used to ride together day after day. Then one day the girl tells him that she cannot love him. The man discovers his error. Browning seizes upon this situation and depicts the emotion evoked in the heart of the rejected lover." The very soul of the rejected lover is laid bare and his temperament disclosed. The complex feeling of the lover - his disillusionment in love, spiritual exaltation, etc. find fullest expression. The rejected lover accepts his fate in a spirit of tacit resignation. His heart rises up to bless the beloved:
... ... ... since 'tis so
Since now at length my fate I know,
Since noting all my love avails,
Since all, my life seemed meant for, fails,
Since this was written and needs must be -
My whole heart rises up to bless
Your name in pride and thankfulness!
However, the rejected lover gathers his heart together and prays :
... ... ... "if you will not blame,
Your leave for one more last ride with me."
The lady-love waited for a moment. The lover awaits in suspense :
'Fixed me a breathing-while or two
With life or death in the balance:
With the grant of the prayer, he enthusiastically consoles himself :
I and my mistress, side by side
Shall be together, breathe and ride,
So, one day more am I deified -
Who knows but the world may end to-night?
The ride begins. The rush of the wind soothes his soul. He dismisses all thoughts of what might have happened if he had said or done this or that. He is fortunate enough that they are riding together. He consoles himself saying that he does not alone fail in his pursuit of love. He finds all men strive in the world but few succeed. Our execution falls far short of our conception. The achievements of the statesman, the soldier, the poet and the sculptor are nothing in comparison with his partial success in love. He consoles himself with the thought that had he achieved what he aspired for he would have nothing to hope for in heaven. He reaches the culmination of his arguments. He indulges in fond fancy that they may be thus riding side by side for ever remain fresh and new. Their life will not be changed in its nature but only in its intensity of love.
What if we still ride on, we two,
With life for ever old yet new,
Changed not in kind but in degree,
The instant made eternity,-
And Heaven just prove that I and she
Ride, ride together, for ever ride?