Robert Browning was an English poet and a playwright. He was gifted with the talent of writing that by the age of twelve he had written a book of poetry, which unfortunately he destroyed as he did not find any publishers. By the age of fourteen, he was very fluent in Greek, French, Italian and Latin.
Probably from 1853, Browning worked on poems that ultimately comprised his two-volume Men and Women, for which he is famously known now, but had little impact when it was published in 1855. His reputation started to take off, only after he came back to London after his wife’s death. Among his works, the best received is the “Red Cotton Night cap country” which was published along with a series of poem in 1870.
This poem, “A Woman’s Last Word” is a lyric poem in a dramatic mode, which explains the emotions after a quarrel with her lover. As Browning is a romantic poet, he has expressed the feelings of love, making up and all that is in making up a relationship.
In this poem, it explains that the narrator is a lady and she wishes to patch up with her lover after a quarrel. She just wants him to be silent and hold her in his arms and lie down for some time.
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The poem initially describes about a quarrel, for which the woman feels it was for no reason was just like the twittering of birds. Later on, she says about being tempted in a symbolic manner, just like how Adam and Eve were tempted to have the apple. This might be showing that she wanted to or was tempted to shout back at the man.
But then, the poem is followed by saying that she asks her lover to teach her, where she says that she will speak his speech and think the way he thinks. This shows that she would like to patch up and move on in a loving manner.
Lastly she says that she is his in all spirit and flesh and she would love to be in his hands and share their love eternally. For the very moment she just wants to lay in his arms and feel the secure that he is with her.
In this poem, the poet explains about the relationship between a man and woman and no matter what the difference of opinion would be, at the end it is a beautiful relationship and lying eternally in a man’s hand is what every woman would love to be.