Robert Browning's short poem, "Meeting at Night," Browning uses both imagery and figurative language to entice the audience into the image Browning is creating. The poem is about a man traveling to meet his lover after a long period of time. On the mans trip to see his lover, he describes the scenery as he passes it and what he is feeling on the way.
As the man travels, he recounts his journey as he undertakes it, briefly describing the scenery as he passes it. He only merely notes them as if they as if they are of no significance to him. Browning offers no reason of why the man is traveling or any background information on him or his lover, only the mans perceptions and observations on his travels.
If you notice, Browning never uses the word, love, in the poem. He wants the audience to see the romantic way the scenery is being described and to realize that the poem is about love, even though Browning does not use love in the context of the poem. He uses imagery to let the audience see the romantic scenery and realize that Browning is describing love, without using the actual word.
In the beginning of the first stanza, Browning describes the "yellow half-moon" while the man is traveling on the ocean. Browning uses the moon to show the little light there is on the mans travel and at what time of day it will be when he sees his lover.
Browning uses symbolism with the waves being used as a characteristic to the mans lover. The wave look startled when the moonlight hit them, just as the lover was startled out of her sleep when the man arrived home. Browning also uses the word 'pane' to either represent the window pane or actual pain. Browning uses symbolism to create different views and meanings for the audience to interpret. He also uses personification in his poem when he describes the waves being "startled from their sleep." He gives the waves human characteristics when him gives them the action to sleep, which everyone knows, waves can not do.
Every line in Robert Browning's poem, "Meeting at Night," is filled with images of the scenery surrounding the man on his journey home. The imagry, symbolism, and personification are all used in "Meeting at Night." All the devices used by Robert Browning intice the audience into his poem, "Meeting at Night."