The Last Ride Together

When the speaker requests one last ride with his mistress, he refers to a ride in a horse-drawn carriage, which they have probably enjoyed many times in the past. That situation would bring them close together, sitting next to each other and perhaps exchanging intimate words and gestures that he might remember after they part. Thus, the ride symbolizes the intimacy and affection that still exists between them. He wants to experience them once again, this time knowing that he is about to lose them, which makes this last ride exceptionally important. He commits to the moment, fully enjoying all that it offers and forgetting all else, so that the ride also symbolizes his embrace of Carpe Diem, living for the moment. To a contemporary ear, his ecstatic references to this intimate ride easily conjure up sexual connotations. There is no evidence that Browning did or did not intend a sexual implication, but the thematic context (two lovers’ final time together) and the vehement repetition of the motif throughout the poem invite such a reading. The sexual act, especially the orgasm, is traditionally understood as a moment of special intensity when one forgets about everything else, and thus it fits the Carpe Diem theme. However, the symbolic significance of the ride is the same whether one gives it a sexual slant or not: it stands for the moment of sweeping and extraordinarily potent experience in which earthly joy feels otherworldly.