The
poem _In a Gondola_, which has been more often translated into
foreign languages than perhaps any other of Browning's works, gives
us a picture of a night in Venice. The fluent rhythms of the verse
indicate the lazy glide of the gondola through the dark waters of the
canal. The lovers speak, sing, and muse; and their conversation is
full of the little language characteristic of those who are in
complete possession of each other, soul and body. They delight in
passionate reminiscences: they love to recall their first chance
meeting:
Ah, the autumn day
I, passing, saw you overhead!
The wind blew out the curtains of her apartment, and her pet parrot
escaped, giving the man his opportunity. They rehearse over again
the advancing stages of their drama. She asks him to kiss her like a
moth, then like a bee--in the attempt to recapture the first shy
sweetness of their dawning passion. They play little love-games. He
pretends he is a Jew, carrying her away from her family to a tribal
feast; then that they twain are spirits of stars, meeting in the
thin air aloft.
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