20 pages 40 minutes read

Robert Browning

The Last Ride Together

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1855

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Symbols & Motifs

The Ride

When the speaker requests one last ride with his mistress, he refers to a ride in a horse-drawn carriage, which they have probably enjoyed many times in the past. That situation would bring them close together, sitting next to each other and perhaps exchanging intimate words and gestures that he might remember after they part. Thus, the ride symbolizes the intimacy and affection that still exists between them. He wants to experience them once again, this time knowing that he is about to lose them, which makes this last ride exceptionally important. He commits to the moment, fully enjoying all that it offers and forgetting all else, so that the ride also symbolizes his embrace of Carpe Diem, living for the moment. To a contemporary ear, his ecstatic references to this intimate ride easily conjure up sexual connotations. There is no evidence that Browning did or did not intend a sexual implication, but the thematic context (two lovers’ final time together) and the vehement repetition of the motif throughout the poem invite such a reading. The sexual act, especially the orgasm, is traditionally understood as a moment of special intensity when one forgets about everything else, and thus it fits the Carpe Diem theme.

Related Titles

By Robert Browning

Study Guide

logo

Fra Lippo Lippi

Robert Browning

Fra Lippo Lippi

Robert Browning

Plot Summary

logo

Meeting at Night

Robert Browning

Meeting at Night

Robert Browning

Study Guide

logo

Porphyria's Lover

Robert Browning

Porphyria's Lover

Robert Browning

Study Guide

logo

The Pied Piper of Hamelin

Robert Browning

The Pied Piper of Hamelin

Robert Browning