The Last Ride Together

The poem opens in medias res (in the middle of action), with the speaker reacting to the news, presumably announced by his mistress, that their love affair is over. His response is structured as anaphora (repetition of the same word in several consecutive phrases or clauses): “Since” now he knows her decision (Line 2), “Since” all his love cannot help him (Line 3), “Since” the very purpose of his life is lost (Line 4), and “Since” the breakup appears inevitable (Line 5), he accepts it calmly, neither distraught nor angry, but with “pride and thankfulness” (Line 7). He gives up his hope for a lasting relationship but wishes to preserve the memory of it (Lines 8-9). He asks her for one more favor: a final ride together (Line 11).

His mistress stares at him for a couple of breaths; her pride makes her hesitate and weakens her pity (Lines 12-15). Her answer is a matter of life or death for the speaker; when she agrees, he acknowledges it with the joyful “right!” (Line 16). The speaker feels relief when she grants his final request (Lines 17-18), and they will share another experience, which will make him feel like a god (Lines 19-21). The stanza ends with a rhetorical question, which does not require an answer but makes a dramatic point: He would not mind if the world ended tonight because his last moments would be spent with the woman he loves (Line 22).

In the third stanza, the speaker addresses someone directly, whether his mistress or another listener. He might be responding to the other person’s objection that the speaker’s previous words were overblown. The first word—“Hush!”—pleads for quiet patience as the speaker uses an elaborate metaphor to help the listener (“you”) understand the intensity of his feelings. They are like a turbulent cloud, heavy with the blessings of day and night (Lines 23-26), powerful and unstoppable. If the listener felt such passion pulling the whole world closer and closer (Lines 27-30), they would see that such passion of the flesh can turn into pure heaven (Line 31). Perhaps in response to his words, his mistress leans closer and pauses, creating “joy and fear” as he waits for her reaction (Line 32). Finally, she rewards him by putting her head on his breast (Line 33).

As the ride begins, the speaker feels revitalized. In a simile, his soul is compared to a scroll that was tightly rolled up for a long time but now freely unfurls in the wind (Lines 34-36). The speaker puts his lost hopes behind him because trying to fix what has gone wrong seems pointless (Lines 37-38). He could have tried this or that, but there is no way to tell if such actions would have been beneficial or harmful (Lines 39-40). His mistress might have ended up loving him or hating him (Lines 41-42). In the worst-case scenario, he might not even have the pleasure of this last ride, which means so much to him (Lines 43-44).

Through another pair of rhetorical questions, the speaker asserts that his failure is not unique but common to all people whose success is always smaller than their aspirations (Lines 45-47). Everyone strives and must face defeat (Lines 50-51). Reflecting on life reveals that things undone far outnumber things completed and that the reality of the present moment does not match the hopes of the past (Lines 52-54). The speaker applies this general idea to his own situation in an antithesis, a figure of speech in which the two parts of a parallel structure express opposing ideas: “I hoped she would love me; here we ride” (Line 55). This final ride occurs precisely because she does not love him enough for a lasting relationship.

The speaker develops these thoughts through another use of anaphora (“What” in Lines 56-59), strengthened with parallelism, a series of related ideas, which in this case are opposing concepts. He concludes that there is always a gap between wish and fulfilment (Line 56: “brain” versus “hand”; Line 57: “conceived” versus “dared”; Line 58: “thought” versus “act”; Line 59: “will” versus “fleshly screen,” i.e., the body). In each case, the first term, representing people’s aspirations, fails to be fulfilled by the second term, representing actual deeds. Even those who achieve something great (“reach a crown,” Line 61), like a statesman or a soldier, will end up with only a few lines and a flag on their graves, or at best be buried in Westminster Abbey (Lines 62-65). For him, the joy and intensity of this ride is worth more than that (66).

Using apostrophe (addressing a person who is not present, or a personified object or abstract entity), the speaker addresses the generic poet, who employs rhythm and rhyme to express thoughts and feelings and create something beautiful (Lines 67-71). There is value in that (Line 72), but it may not be worthwhile to dedicate one’s whole life to it (Lines 73-74) and still not come closer to what is sublime in life than those who never wrote a line (Lines 75-76). The poet would sing that riding is a joy, but the speaker rides (Line 77). The joy is in the doing, not in writing about it.

In the same vein, the speaker apostrophizes the sculptor, who dedicates his life to art and loves the female artistic ideal (“Venus”), while other men turn to an actual woman (“yonder girl”) who “fords the burn,” i.e., repairs the injury or, metaphorically, satisfies their romantic yearning (Lines 78-81). Similarly, the musician spends his life preoccupied with musical notes (Lines 83-84), yet he receives only feeble praise: His artistic intention is grand, but the realization is predictably limited (Lines 85-87). Just like these artists dedicate their lives to what they love, the speaker gave his youth to his love, but he does not regret it because they still ride (Line 88). More than art, he cherishes lived experience, embodied in this moment of riding with a woman he loves.

The speaker then wonders about the proper fate for mankind (Line 89). Even if his fate limited his whole existence to this earthly bliss he found with his mistress (Lines 89-91), he should believe in something beyond this life, even if just “dim-descried,” i.e., barely glimpsed (Lines 92-93). Otherworldly bliss was once his goal, and his faith in it encircled his soul like a garland (Lines 94-95). Unsure if he can still “descry” (detect) such faith, he tries but gives up because his earthly joy is so powerful that it is hard to imagine that heavenly joy would be stronger (Lines 96-98). Both heaven and “she” (what he could have had with her in the future) are “beyond” (irrelevant for) “this ride” (Line 99). All that matters to him now is current experience, this very moment.

The speaker’s final thought is that perhaps this moment, this ride, is heaven, in which he and his mistress will always be “fair and strong” as they are right now, at the peak of life, looking at that which first opened their eyes to life’s pleasure (Lines 101-04), presumably their love for each other. Perhaps the two of them will ride forever, this moment remaining forever the same “in kind” but growing “in degree” to subsume eternity (Lines 105-08). Then it would turn out that heaven is nothing else but their everlasting ride (Lines 109-10).