The poem is written in two stanzas of six lines each. The first stanza describes the excitement of a secret journey by a boat on the sea. The second stanza describes the fulfilment of the meeting of the two lovers.
Like its sister poem "Parting at Morning" which uses pronominal reference to attribute the gender of the person in the boat (as male), the poem never reveals the identity of the two lovers.[3] It follows the rhyme scheme abccba and deffed.[4]
Reception[edit]
There are two published accounts of this poem: one by F. R. Leavis[5] and another by Ronald Carter and Walter Nash.[6] Kennedy and Hair explain that Browning's urgent love for Elizabeth Barrett had led him to write "the most sensual poem he had yet created.