The poem "Meeting at Night" by Robert Browning tells of a person's journey at night to meet a loved one. In each of the two stanzas of the poem, the poet describes a leg of the journey. The first part of the journey is by sea and the second part by land. In the poem, the gender of the narrator is not given, but we'll assume for the simplicity of our description here that the poet is a man.

Considering that in the first stanza the poet is traveling by sea, if you read the poem carefully line by line, you'll find several examples of what he observes. He sees the "grey sea," the "long black land," and the "yellow half-moon." As he nears shore, he notices waves and the "slushy sand," or soft wet sand, in which the boat comes to rest.

Now read the second stanza to discover what the poet observes as he journeys by land. He walks along "a mile of warm sea-scented beach" and then crosses three fields until he comes to a farmhouse. When he reaches the farmhouse, he taps on the windowpane, and inside he sees his loved one lighting a match. We assume that then his lover opens the window and they embrace.