The Reader Response

In literary studies, the reception theory originated from the work of Hans-Robert Jauss (1960s). Reception refers to the sense that people actually make of texts. Reception theory is a part of reader response literary theory that emphasizes the reader's reception of a literary text. By using those questions above, the student tried to find five readers to be taken their response related to Meeting at Night poem by Robert Browning an then try to analyze them. The responses readers of those five students are as follows: On the question number one, those readers have same reception that the theme of Meeting at Night poem is about Love. Two lovers were meeting in the night. The guy

traveled by boat, walked across a beach and fields, and finally passed a farm until he reached his He was very much determined and anxious to get to his final destination. Through the theme it explains that love will practically make a person do anything. Those same receptions of those five responses can be assumed that those responses are objective response. Objective response is a respond that which is a response that analyzes the text of the literature which emphasizes the relationship between the element of the text and the meaning of the text. Furthermore, this kind of literary reception element, objective response refers to the intrinsic element of the literary work, such as the theme itself. Based on the reception theory elements, the second question includes in the element of literary reception called interextual (Mimetic) response. Mimetic response focuses on the content of the literary itself. Moreover, Mimetic response also describes about the response of the readers through the reality or event related to the human being activity that means to the reader. This type of response refers to the background of the story and also the environment since the story is created. By answering the second number question about what the poem tells about, we know that this poem tells about the journey of a guy to meet his beloved girlfriend at night on the beach. Their love is a forbidden love. They met on the beach at night after all of the people in their village slept. That guy struggled hard to meet his beloved girlfriend. He passed many of barriers on his journey to the beach. By analyzing those five responses related to the second number question, those readers have same receptions toward the poem tells about. From the first respondents to the fifth respondents, they answered that

the poem tells about the couple who was falling in love and they have already planned to meet on the beach at night. Moreover, there were so many obstacles to them in the journey of its meeting. The third question related to Meeting at Night by Robert Browning can be included the objective response of reception theory element. On the previous question, about theme of the poem, it has already explained that, this kind of literary reception element refers to the intrinsic element of the literary work. It emphasizes the relationship between the element of the text and the meaning of the text. Talking about the imagery which exists on the poem, there are some imageries that were used by the poet as follows: 1. Gray Sea, fiery ringlets, and startled little waves are visual imagery. The sea that is lighted by the moon it is the beginning of his journey toward his beloved and also gray is a symbol of passion and sexual attraction. Fiery ringlets describes her anxious hair, the beloved is mentioned by part of her and the poet tells us her that she is missing her beloved f boy friend also. Startled little waves tells about that that guy is so in love that he feels the waves around him are eager to wake his beloved like him. 2. Slushy sand is tactile imagery, the sign that he arrived to shore and part of the journey had ended, the tactile imagery used her gives more relief because it gives sense of closeness more than the other kinds of imageries. 3. Three fields to cross tell farm appears his walk toward the farm where his beloved lives, it shows how far she is and he is walking toward her. 4. Voice less loud: auditory imagery, the beloved is whispering but her voice is full of joy mixed with fear sign that they are meeting in secret.

If we take a look at on the responses from the readers, the first and third readers responded that the yellow half moon large and low includes the imagery of sight. Its describes the joyful feeling of the couple. On the other hand, the second, fourth, and the fifth readers had same reception that gray sea, fiery ringlets, slushy sand, fields, and voice loud includes in the imagery of the poem.