In all of them their aim is beyond the love of which they speak.
_Love among the Ruins_ tells of a lover going to meet his sweetheart.
There are many poems with this expectant motive in the world of song, and no motive has been written of with greater emotion.

If we are to believe these poems, or have ever waited ourselves, the hour contains nothing but her presence, what she is doing, how she is coming, why she delays, what it will be when she comes--a thousand things, each like white fire round her image.

But Browning's lover, through nine verses, cares only for the wide meadows over which he makes his way and the sheep wandering over them, and their flowers and the ruins in the midst of them; musing on the changes and contrasts of the world--the lonely land and the populous glory which was of old in the vast city.

It is only then, and only in two lines, that he thinks of the girl who is waiting for him in the ruined tower.

Even then his imagination cannot stay with her, but glances from her instantly--thinking that the ancient king stood where she is waiting, and looked, full of pride, from the high tower on his splendid city.