In the poem, the speaker is in urgency to meet his beloved and for this he has to travel through the sea at night to reach the beach where his lover is waiting.

The poem (like others of the 1845 collection) was written during the courtship period of Browning with his future wife Elizabeth Barrett.

Browning, discovering his name in print in the poem volume, wrote a letter to Barrett on January 10, 1845.

They are described by Kennedy and Hair as "a compact dramatic narrative reflecting a decidedly masculine attitude toward love.

[6] Kennedy and Hair explain that Browning's urgent love for Elizabeth Barrett had led him to write "the most sensual poem he had yet created.