Poem Analysis : 'Evelyn Hope' by Robert Browning

 ☆ Abstract : 

'Evelyn Hope' comes from the anthology 'Men and Women' composed by the renowned Victorian Era poet Robert Browning in 1855. The anthology contains 51 poems in two volumes.

'Evelyn Hope' is a poem of profusion and emotional culmination of the speaker who laments on the corpse of a 16-year-old girl Evelyn. The speaker is thrice her age, although he loves her, but unfortunately is unable to express his love to her as she is no more now; but the speaker dreams and hopes - as title itself infers - that in next birth the God will let them unite and thus goes on in dreaming and bewailing upon the corpse of his cherished girl for an hour.

George Saintsbury writes in his "History of Nineteenth Century Literature,"

"It is as a lyric poet that Browning ranks highest; and in this highest class it is impossible to refuse him all but the highest rank, in some few cases the very highest. He understood love pretty thoroughly; and when a lyric poet understands love thoroughly there is little doubt of his position." In the list of Browning's best love lyrics, Evelyn Hope (first published in "Men and Women", 1855) takes a very high rank as one of the most musical and tender. The theme is that of a love which, from its conditions, could not be reciprocated, yet would prove undying."

Let us divide the poem in two parameters to understand and analyze it well :

(1) Technicality or Formation
(2) Insight or Idea, Tone, and Mood

Let us go with the first one, for 'insight is the soul, then form is the body of the work.'

☆ (1) Technicality or Formation :

This poem consists of seven stanzas and each in each stanza there are 8 lines.

☆ (2) Insight or Idea, Tone, and Mood :

The poem ‘Evelyn Hope’ narrates the optimistic attitude of the speaker who is shocked at the sudden demise of his beloved. He is sitting beside her dead body for last one hour. He observes her personal belongings like her bed, book self. She plucked a Germanium flower in the glass which seems to dead. He
doesn’t find any major differences there except the shutters of window which are completely closed.

"Beautiful Evelyn Hope is dead!
Sit and watch by her side an hour
That is her book-self, this her bed;
She plucked that piece of geranium –flower, Beginning to die too, in the glass;"

He reveals that at the time of death she was sixteen years old. She might not have heard his name. She was too young to fall in love. She might have her dreams and aims. He loved her but he could not propose her because she was too young. He was thrice of her age. She had little care from anyone, she had high
expectations and many duties to perform.

"Sixteen years old, when she died!
Perhaps she had scarcely heard my name;
It was not her time to love; beside,
Her life had many a hope and aim,"

The poet asks himself if it is too late to propose her. He praises her innocence and chastity. He says that
her horoscope had good stars that is why she left the world too early. The poet was thrice of her age .That is
why they could not love each other. He is aware that they are nothing to each other but they are mortals on
the earth for a short time.

"Is it too late then, Evelyn Hope?
What, your soul was pure and true,
The good stars met in your horoscope,
Made you of spirit, fire and dew---"

He says that God has created human beings for a noble cause. He created the world to love one another. He confesses that he still loves her. It does not matter that he fails to realize his love to her. He got delayed. He is still optimistic to find her in the next world. He will forget past life’s happening till then and will learn something new.

"No, indeed! For God above
Is great to grant, as mighty to make,
And creates the love to reward love:
I claim you still, for my own love’s sake!"

He is hopeful to find her in the next world. In their future life, when they will meet, he will find her body
and soul pure and gay as earlier. He will discover her same amber hair and geranium like red lips at the time of
her death.

"But the time will come, ---at last it will,
When, Evelyn Hope, what meant (I shall say)
In the lower earth, in the years long still,
That body and soul so pure and gay?"

When they will meet again in the next world, he will tell her about his past experiences and revelations.
How many times, he left the world and took birth. During this wandering, he would have missed only one thing
that is desire to meet Evelyn Hope. He always missed her.

"I have live (I shall say) so much since then,
Given up myself so many times,
Gained me the gains of various men,
Ransacked the ages, spoiled the climes;
Yet one thing, one, in my soul’s full scope,
Either I missed or itself missed me:"

He reveals that he loved her all the time. He loved her frank young smile, red young mouth and golden
hair. Finally he put a leaf in Evelyn’s hand so that they can recognize each other whenever they meet.

"I loved you, Evelyn all the while.
My heart seemed full as it could hold?
There was place and to spare for the frank young smile,
And the red young mouth, and the hair’s young gold.
So, hush, ---I will give you this leaf to keep:"

☆ Conclusion :

Browning has attached mystic significance to his love poetry by talking of love and God as two interconnected realities. His love is not confined to the body or to this world alone. It is his faith that true lovers meet in the next world after their death. So love is not an end itself. It is a means towards attainment of heavenly bliss. Even when Browning is portraying cases of failure in love, he has a word of hope for them. He believes that true lovers meet in the next world. This faith is clearly visible in ‘Evelyn Hope’.

(Source : TREATMENT OF LOVE IN ROBERT BROWNING’S “EVELYN HOPE”
Dr. GAJENDER KUMAR
Assistant Professor of English, Govt. College for Women, Ateli
M/Garh (Haryana) )

☆ Informative Video on the Poem 'Evelyn Hope:'

Thank you!

○ References :

http://victorian-era.org/robert-browning-detailed-biography/evelyn-hope.html

http://www.ijelr.in/7.2.20/226-228%20Dr.%20GAJENDER%20KUMAR.pdf

¤ (Word Count : 1096)