troubled wanderings: “...neither pride/ Nor hope rekindling at the end descried, / So much as gladness that some end might be.” Fearing he has travelled too far to return from his journey, Roland seems to long primarily for resolution rather than for victory. He travels alone, for his companions have all failed in their quest. He cannot bear to look to the future because he believes that he will never reach his destination. The bleakness of his present surroundings horrifies him, so he tries to find refuge in a happier past. Trying desperately to escape the present that threatens him from without, he seeks to look into himself and remember brighter times. Perhaps some pleasant memories, sipped and tasted like wine, can bring him a few drops of solace and numb his anxiety. Then he can “play [his] part” and move onward. His recollections of his former companions, however, rapidly turn bitter: “Poor traitor, spit upon and curst!”Looking back does not help; it only serves to remind him how the past became the terrible and lonely present. His old companions failed in one way or the other, only he remains. Severed from his past, afraid of the future, the bleakness consumes him from without and within. He can only continue. Upon reaching his destination, the phantom memories of his comrades surround him and “one moment knell[s] the woe of years”. They view him for the last time, but he cannot go back. He must release the past and move on, into the unknown future. Bringing the horn to his lips he blows his song, announcing his intention to charge. Through the plaintive song of the knight, Browning paints the picture of a depressed personality. Browning uses the form of dramatic monologue, which creates a sense of isolation; Roland is utterly alone, and we imagine him voicing his misery to himself as he traipses through the wasteland, with the ethereal reader as his only audience. It is as if we,...
