R 4238 W7 opy 1 (BuiUta to CtiffUtflb Cla00t(£( ^eriefii OWNING'S POEMS (Selected) BY AUSTIN MELVIN WORKS, B.A., MA. iNSTiRucroR 0-F English, De Witt Clinton High Scitoot, New York City NEW YORK GLOBE BOOK COMPANY Flatiron Building 175 FIFTH AVENUE GUIDES TO ENGLISH CLASSIC^ Genuine aids to the study of English classics in secondar;/ schools and^in colleges. Include outlines, summaries, explana tory notes, biography, bibliography and recent examination questions. Compiled by New York City high school teachers of undisputed fitness and ability. Speech on Conciliation— Burke As You liiKE It— Shakespeare Tale of Two Cities— Dickens Julius Caesar Macbeth Shakespeare Essay on Burns— Carl yle Life of Johnson — Macaulay Silas M.arner — Euot Idylls of the King— Tennyson Merchant of Venice— Shakespeare Browning*s Poems (Selected) Mabel F. Brooks, B.A., MA Theodore Roosevelt High School Alfred A. May, M.A. High School of Commercr Edith C. Younghem, B.A, Helen H. Crandell, B.A. Washington Irving High Schooi Helen M. Roth, B.A. CirW Commercial High School B. J. R. Stolper, B.Sc. Stuyvesant High School Thomas L. Doyle, M.A. Boys' High School Edith C. Younghem, B.A. Helen H. Crandell, B.A. Washington Irving High School Mabel E. Wilmot, B.A. Bryant High School R. L. Noonan, B.S. Commercial High School A. M, Works, B.A.,M.A. De Witt Clinton High ScIwgI LIBERAL DISCOUNTS ON CLASS ORDERS GLOBE BOOK COMPANY FLATIRON BmLDING 176 FIFTH AVENUE NEW YORK CITY 0nint& to Ciislt0[) CIa60ic0 ^tvits BROWNING'S POEMS (Selected) BY AUSTIN MELVIN WORKS, B.A., M.A. Instructor of English, De Witt Clinton High School New York City NEW YORK GLOBE BOOK COMPANY 175 FIFTH AVENUE Flatiron Building Copyright, 1921 GLOBE BOOK COMPANY FEB 26 1921 ©CU605913 'W^ BROWNING'S POEMS (Selected) General Nature of Work The eleven minor poems of Robert Browning to be considered here are, with the exception of One Word More, so many examples of dramatic or objective poetry. As soon as the personality of an author obtrudes itself into his work, that work ceases to be dramatic and be- comes subjective or lyrical, as in the case of the poem mentioned above, in which we hear Browning himself in his own person addressing his beloved wife, Elizabeth Barrett. Subjective poetry, in the strictest sense of the term, is very unusual with Browning, although his intense personality is always to be felt, yet seldom seen or heard, in "all he has written. Of the various forms of dramatic poetry Browning is most interested in the dramatic monologue, which we shall describe at some length when we come to discuss the construction of his verse. Preparatory Information Browning lived and wrote in England during the Vic- torian period, but his writings are historically and geo- graphically broader than his time and his country. They treat of many ages and many climes ; he was, however, especially fond of the m)s4ie.val period and of Italy, where he lived for many years and where, in 1889, he died. 4 BROWNING'S POEMS In a literary sense Browning's work had very little effect upon the writers of his time. He did, however, impress upon later poets the value of his favorite poetic form, the dramatic monologue, which since his day has come to be more and more frequently met with in liter- ature, and it is evident that his f r,iend and contemporary, Tennyson, appreciated the effectiveness of this form, as he too made use of it in such poems as Ulysses, Rizpah, and The Northern Farmer. Politically also Browning exerted little or no influence upon his time. He was in- deed an ardent liberal, but his interests lay in other fields of activity and with the exception of the poem Why I am a Liberal, he wrote nothing that concerned itself directly with the political issues of his day. Socially, however. Browning's influence was immense. His courage, his optimism, his serene conviction that the soul or spirit is separate from and greater than all ma- terial forces opposed to it, and his reasoned faith in the splendid goal of human life and the ultimate triumph of love, constituted a direct challenge to much of the mate- rialistic, philosophical and scientific thought of his age. With the passing of years he has drawn to an acceptance of his views of Hfe and death an ever increasing number of admirers in all civilized countries. SYNOPSES Cavalier Tunes r The three dramatic lyrics comprehended under this title are meant to give us a vivid idea of the narrow but BROWNING'S POEMS 5 whole-hearted enthusiasm of the CavaUers, as typified by Sir Byng, for the cause of King Charles, and their su- preme contempt for Pym and the other "Roundhead" followers of Cromwell. The Lost Leader This poem expresses Browning's sorrow over the de- fection of Wordsworth from the cause of liberalism to that of conservatism and Toryism, of which offense Browning felt that his brother-poet had made himself guilty by his acceptance of the Poet Laureateship made vacant by the death of Southey, such a position naturally entailing upon. the holder the obligation to support gov- ernment policies even at the expense of his own convic- tions. The poem is full of tender regret rather for the wrong the great "lost leader" has done to his own moral nature, than for the injury he has inflicted upon his followers ; it is therefore written in a strain similar to that of Whittier's Ichabod, occasioned by a speech of Daniel Webster which the Quaker poet interpreted as an indication that Webster was inclined to compromise with the Southern slave-holders. Browning later came to the conclusion that he had wronged Wordsworth in these verses and frankly apologized to the latter for the real or fancied injustice. How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix This dramatic romance is entirely imaginary, but loses nothing in force by not being based upon historical facts. 6 BROWNING'S POEMS It is a vivid picture of three horsemen who gallop from moonset to sunrise and from sunrise to noonday, carry- ing the news that shall save Aix from some fate not explained, probably self-imposed and possibly a shame- ful and unnecessary surrender to the enemy. One horse drops dead on the way; the second within sight of Aix; but the third, staunch Roland, nobly answering to his rider's impassioned pleadings — ^his nostrils filled with blood and his eyes rimmed with red — gallops on into the market-place where he falls to the ground exhausted, to be revived by the last measure of wine left in the city, voted by all to be only the just due of the noble animal. N Evelyn Hope This beautiful romantic lyric represents the speaker as standing beside the coffin of the young girl whom he has long loved, vainly and in silence. The lover was much older than Evelyn and was even a stranger to her. Now she lies before him, forever deaf to his words of affec- tion. But he is sure that God puts into the hearts of human beings no desires or needs which He will not eventually satisfy for them, and he feels confident that no matter what worlds he must first traverse nor how many lives he must live before that divine moment arrives, Evelyn Hope will ultimately be given to him. Home Thoughts, from Abroad This descriptive poem pictures an Englishman in a foreign land fondly recalling an English spring with its BROWNING'S POEMS 7 budding leaves and opening blossoms, its sunshine and dew, its bird-songs thrilled through with rapture. To the disadvantage of the alien clime, he compares its "gaudy melon-flower" now blowing at his feet with the simple English buttercup he remembers and loves so well. Home Thoughts from the Sea This is one of Browning's few poems of patriotism. The sight of Trafalgar, the scene of Nelson's great vic- tory over the French, illumined by the blood-red glow of the setting sun, arouses national pride and gratitude in the mind of an English traveler at sea, and he wonders what he can do for England to prove that gratitude sincere. Incident of the French Camp This dramatic romance tells the story of a boy soldier in the army of Napoleon. While planting the Imperial flag within the walls of Ratisbon, he has been mortally wounded. But by a mighty effort of the will he manages to gallop out to the spot — a mound situated about a mile or two from the town — from which the Emperor has been watching the storming of Ratisbon. He flings him- self from his horse and by clinging to its mane contrives to hold himself erect long enough to announce to Napo- leon the victory of his arms. He gives no outward sign of his agony, but when the Emperor suddenly espies the blood upon his breast and cries, "You are wounded !" his soldier's pride is touched and with the words, "Nay, 8 BROWNING'S POEMS Sire, I'm killed," upon his lips, still smiling, he falls dead at the feet of his chief. Although the hero of this story of the triumph of will or spirit over matter was not a boy but a grown man, this incident did actually occur in about the manner described by the poet. The Boy and the Angel This poem, a legend of Browning's own invention, pre- sents the poet's conviction — even more beautifully ex- pressed in his Pip pa Passes — that all things, even the humblest, have their place and their work in God's uni- verse; that, as Emerson says: There is no great and no small To the Soul that maketh all. Theocrite w^as a poor boy who, as he toiled at his humble task, praised God daily and wished that he might become Pope in order to praise Him the better. Theo- crite fell sick and appeared to die. Awakening he found himself a priest, and, in the course of time Pope. But God longed for the simple sort of praise that the boy Theocrite had been wont to^ give Him, and the angel Gabriel descended from Heaven to take the lad's place. Still, God was not satisfied. The angel's praise could not replace the praise of that simple human heart. 'The silencing of that one weak voice had stopped the chorus of creation." Therefore Theocrite returned to his humble self of earlier days, and the angel Gabriel ruled in his stead at Rome. BROWNING'S POEMS One Word More This is a lyrical love poem expressive of the poet's own feelings. After Browning had completed his Men and Women, a volmiie of verse in which he had spoken dramatically through the mouths of fifty different char- acters, he concluded the work with this lyrical tribute to his wife. Most men bestow upon their beloved the gifts of their finest and most finished talents, but Browning feels that such gifts have often become too common through contact with the sordid world. He says that every artist therefore has longed to express himself at least once and for one only in a language distinct from his art, in order that his gift to his love may be unique, may be different from his gift to the rest of the world. In bestowing such a gift he obtains the "man's joy" with- out the "artist's sorrow." Thus Raphael the painter wrote a book of sonnets to be read by his love only, and Dante, the great Italian poet, once drew an angel in mem- ory and in honor of his beloved Beatrice. Browning, ht)wever, has nothing but his verse to offer. Still as a fresco painter may take a hair brush to paint flowerets on the margin of his lady's prayer-book — as "he who blows through bronze may also breathe through silver" for the purpose of a serenade — so he too may put his gift to a different use. In the volume he has just com- pleted and dedicated to his wife — his Alen and Women — he has spoken dramatically through fifty different char- acters : he will now in One Word More speak as a lyric poet to her alone. At the end of the poem he compares both himself lO BROWNING'S POEMS and his wife to the moon which presents always the same surface to the earth, but to the loved one, to the moon- struck mortal, shows another side unseen by ordinary human beings. Herve Rial This dramatic romance celebrates the courage, the skill, and the simplicity of heart of a Breton sailor, who after the defeat of the French fleet at Cap la Hogue and while the whole squadron was still fleeing before the victorious English in a supreme effort to reach the land- locked harbor of St. Malo, guided all the vessels safely through tjie shadows of the river Ranee, although the natives of St. Malo themselves had declared such a feat through the shallows of the river Ranee, although the simple reward. When asked what he demanded in re- turn for his great service to France, the hero asked merely for one day's leave of absence in order that he might go home to Croisic and see his wife, La Belle Aurore. Pheidippides Pheidippides is a dramatic idyl treating of a story from legendary Greek history. When the Persian forces threatened to invade and overwhelm Athens, the Athe- nians sent a swift courier to Sparta to ask for help against the enemy. This courier, Pheidippides, was un- successful in his mission, because the superstitious Spartans refused to enter upon any warfare before the BROWNING'S POEMS ii moon was at its full, but as he was hastening back, he encountered the god Pan, who promised him to help the Athenians in the coming battle, despite the fact that of all the Greeks they alone had refused to pay him honor. After the battle of Marathon had been won by the Athenians, Pheidippides was despatched to Athens to announce the great victory. He had just strength enough left when he reached his goal to cry, ''Rejoice, we conquer !" and with these words of triumph upon his lips, fell dead. His glorious death Browning interprets as the fulfillment of a personal promise made by Pan to Pheidippides. In Browning's imaginary version of the afifair, Pheidippides is represented as relating his first adventure to the assembled archons or governors of Athens: picturing vividly his fleet course, like a running fire, over mountains and across valleys; he tells too how Pan promised that he should have as a personal reward for his great efforts final release from all toil. The hero believed this to mean that he should one day be free to return to his own home and marry the girl he loved best. Browning, however, shows that he felt the highest good the gods can grant a man is to allow him to use his best efforts to the very last of life in some great cause that is very dear to him and then to bestow upon him in the moment of triumph the release of death. STUDY OF BACKGROUND The background of Browning's poems, however varied their setting, is always to be found in the "world of men" in which he lived and worked. A great variety of inci- 12 BROWNTNG'S POEMS dent, of course, called forth his individual poems : Words- worth's defection to the cause of conservatism evoked The Lost Leader; a sudden longing, when far out at sea, for a good gallop on the back of his favorite horse, was responsible for Hozv They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Ai.v; his own great love for Elizabeth Barrett Browning brought forth One Word More; and Herve Kiel was written to help raise funds for sending food to Paris after the siege of that city by the Germans in 1870-71. But back of every such immediate outward cause was always Browning's desire to meet and grapple with the problems of his day, to oppose to the worship of mere knowledge which the scientific discoveries of the time had fostered, an appreciation of the greater value of unselfish and noble personality and service inspired by such love as that of Christ; to oppose, for example, to worldly cynicism or to the mawkish pessimism of certain authors of his day his own courage and fine optimism, his conviction that "God's in His heaven: all's right with the world," and his firm trust that no one who strives for high attainments shall be utterly defeated, for though he appear to fail here on earth, he will find his goal hereafter, since God is just and puts into human hearts no great and worthy hopes that are impossible of ful- fillment sometime, somewhere. Perhaps, then. Browning's chief importance lies in his vigorous and manly defense in an age of growing doubt of the real essentials of Christianity, a religion transcend- ing creed and dogma, based upon the love of right and the belief that this right shall ultimately be brought to BROWNING'S POEMS 13 triumph not by power and knowledge, but by the service of love taught mankind by such noble personalities as Christ. For the heroes of the poems we are here con- sidering — Theocrite, Herve Riel, Pheidippides — were not men of power and knowledge, but simple souls who in love and humility devoted themselves to the service of God and mankind. STUDY OF CHARACTERS Browning's characters are all real men and women a-thrill with life and inspired to action by very human motives, sometimes good, sometimes bad. Though of all classes, periods and climes, they are all selected for their significance in the eyes of the poet whom they always serve as a demonstration of his own philosophy of opti- mism, of struggle, and of the triumph of the spiritual over the material. Even when the hero is only a horse, as in How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix, it is still the triumph of spirit over matter, of Roland's will over his body weak and exhausted by the strain of the terrible gallop, that inspires our admiration just as in the case of the man Pheidippides or the boy soldier of Ratisbon. Very frequently the characters in Browning's poems who are inspired by the greatest nobility of heart and fineness of spirit are not powerful or prominent persons but simple souls like Theocrite or Herve Riel, who give to God and mankind, spontaneously and without thought of reward, their humble but invaluable services. Sometimes, however, the character is more complex, 14 BROWNING'S POEMS as in the case of the lover in Evelyn Hope. He has the same trust in God as has Theocrite — he says, "God above is great to grant and creates the love to reward the love." He is here using the same argument with which many- great tliinkers have defended their belief in the immor- tality of the soul; that is, that a just God would not put into the human heart so deep a longing, so serious a need for an end to which He does not intend that man- kind should ever attain. On just such a trust in God Evelyn Hope's lover, reasoning like a true philosopher, bases his belief that since he has missed the reward of his love here in this life, he w411 surely find it somewhere in the hereafter. What a difference between the trained intellect and the deep philosophical understanding of this man and the ingenuousness of Pheidippides who utterly misinterpreted the reward promised him by the god Pan ! / Time and again Browning uses his characters to inter- pret not merely a philosophical belief but a whole period of history. Ruskin admired the poet's delineation of the Middle Ages and, speaking of The Bishop Orders His Tomb at Saint Praxed's, remarked: "I know no other piece of modern English, prose or poetry, in which there is so much told, as in these lines, of the Renaissance spirit." Says Prof. Phelps in his Browning, How to Know Him, "Browning permits a delirious old Bishop to talk a few lines and a whole period of history is written." So, too. The Boy and the Angel, although the whole legend is Browning's own invention, is a rare portrayal of the medieval religious spirit, and so also in his picture of Kentish Sir Byng and his followers in Cavalier Tunes he gives us the spirit of the period when Cavalier and BROWNING'S POEMS 1 5 Roundhead were at each other's throats. Such expres- sions as, "God and King Charles," "Pym to the Devil," "Hampden to Hell," "Bid the crop-headed Parliament swing," depict thoroughly the character of the "great- hearted gentlemen" who uttered them,— their haughty feeling of superiority to the Roundheads, their narrow- ness of vision, and at the same time their loyalty to such ideals as they understood, their gallantry, and their dash- ing courage. STUDY OF CONSTRUCTION As we have already noted, almost all Browning's poems are dramatic in form. Beside his many dramatic mono- logues, he wrote other verses which he himself termed "dramatic romances'' and "dramatic lyrics/' This latter classification seems Hke a contradiction in terms until we understand that Browning gieant by it a short musical poem that is not distinctively subjective; that is, not dis- tinctly expressive of the writer's own ideas or mood. Browning called The Lost Leader and Home-Thoughts from Abroad dramatic lyrics because they embody the ideas and feelings of many persons other than the poet. Tennyson's Break! Break! Break! On Thy Cold Gray Stones, O Sea, on the other hand, is a pure lyric, not a dramatic lyric, because in it the poet himself, thinking of his own sorrow and sunk in the moment's mood of melancholy, expresses his own individuality alone. By a ''dramatic romance" Browning meant of course a poem in whicfi the narrative or story element prevails over the i6 BROWNING'S POEMS musical element; the Incident of the French Camp is a dramatic romance. Browning's most typical poetic form is, however, the dramatic monologue, a variation of the Shakespearian soliloquy, and differing from it in this respect, that while only one character is represented as speaking, this char- acter does not address his remarks to himself but to some other person or persons who never appear directly in the poem but whose very presence in the background influ- ences both the words and the mood of the speaker. One of the best examples of this form of poetry is Brown- ing's My Last Duchess, in which a proud duke is repre- sented as showing his dead wife's portrait to an envoy from a wealthy lord who is offering his daughter in mar- riage to the Duke. In this monologue the haughty noble-, man, by commenting upon the original of the portrait, lays bare all the baseness of his own heart. The dranmtic monologue possesses many advantages over the soliloquy. It has, for example, the element of naturalness utterly lacking in the representation of a man talking, often at great length, to himself as . the only listener, and it affords the author an opportunity to alter the trend of the thought as this thought is affected by objections understood, through remarks of the speaker, to have been raised by the person addressed. STUDY OF STYLE Critics have often called Browning's diction obscure, and to a certain extent the charge is justified. Brown- ing packs so much sense into so compact a measure of BROWNING'S POEMS 17 words that he often shows a tendency to use very ellip- tical expressions, such as these lines from Pheidippides : ( — Fennel — I grasped it a-tremble with dew — whatever it bode.) "While as for thee" ! But enough ! He was gone ! Sometimes, too, he omits certain elements ordinarily considered so important that they are almost never omitted by other authors. Especially is this true of the subject relative pronoun. In Pheidippides, for example, we find the phrase, 'Marry a girl I know keeps faith to the brave," for ''Marry a girl who^ I know, keeps faith to the brave." Frequently he leaves out the prepositive "to" before an infinitive in cases where such a construction seems not to be justified by present usage. In Sordello we find the phrase " 'Twas time expostulate" for " 'Twas time to expostulate." Then too the very largeness of Browning's thought leads at times to a rather complex and involved sentence-structure to bring out the relation, the interdependence of the ideas in one sentence. But once the reader has come to expect and look for these mannerisms, he will have little further difficulty, provided he has caught the spirit of Browning's phil- osophy, for his so-called "obscurity" arises rather from the depth and profundity of his thought, which admits of no rapid casual reading, than from peculiarities of dic- tion. Of course his verse does not 'in general possess the limpidity of Tennyson's, for example, as he was far more occupied with his message than with the mere musical flow of his lines. He fitted his versification to his sub- ject, When the latter was exalted in character, as in the 1 8 BROWNING'S POEMS case of Evelyn Hope, the former rose to it; when the subject was not beautiful, the poet did not mar the effect by setting it to beautiful verse. How closely Browning's versification follows and fits his subject can best be seen in How They Brought the Good News, in which the line, I galloped, Dirck galloped, we galloped all three produces exactly the effect of a galloping horse thunder- ing along a roadway. Browning's Message It is, however, on the content of his poems that Brown- ing lays stress. He has a message for the world and the giving forth of this message rather than the produc- , tion of merely musical verse seems of importance to him./ He desires most to make men believe, as he believes that truth is within ourselves rather than in outward things, even those outward things contemplated by science ; that this truth is embodied in the lives and personalities of earth's noblest men and w^omen, of w4iom the noblest is Christ; and that through such personalities men and women may become regenerated and from them may learn to strive ever onward tow^ard a new and higher existence, with the certainty that even their apparent failures here shall profit them somewhere and somehow, if their striv- ing has been for a w^orthy aim. This philosophy Browning vitalizes by his manner of presenting it. In his hands it ceases to be an abstract theory and becomes a series of concrete instances of the trials and defeats or triumphs of real human beings. BROWNING'S POEMS 19 Everywhere in his treatment of his theme Browning prefers the concrete to the abstract. Cavalier Tunes and not a dissertation upon the divine right of kings, show us what he thought of the royahst point of view in the seven- teenth century. Even his figures of speech are clear and direct. Note in One Word More, for example, his figu- rative delineation of Dante's literary attacks upon certain well-known and rather contemptible characters of his time : — his left hand i' the hair o' the wicked, Back he held the brow and pricked its stigma, Bit into the live man's flesh for parchment, Loosed him, laughed to see the writing rankle. Let the wretch go festering through Florence. With such power of vivid dramatic presentation and with so noble a philosophy to present, it is not to be doubted that though Browning's genius was unrecognized through a great part of his lifetime, he will continue to rank, as he ranks today, among the very foremost English poets. SPECIAL NOTES Cavalier Tunes 1. Pressing. Impressing, recruiting. 2. Paries. Parleys speeches. 3. Kentish Sir Byng. The Byngs of Kent were a famous fam- ily of fighters. 4. Pym. One of the leading members of the Long Parliament. 5. Hampden. The famous Buckinghamshire squire who re- fused to pay his share of the "ship-money" levied by Charles I upon the inhabitants of inland towns. 20 BROWNING'S POEMS 6. Hacelrig Fienncs. Prominent rebels against the authority of Charles I. 7. Young Harry. Sir Henry Vane, the Younger, a leader in the rebellion against Charles I. 8. Rupert. Prince Rupert, a famous cavalry commander and a nephew of King Charles. 9. Nottingham. Here in 1642 was raised the standard of King Charles, marking the opening of the Civil War. The Lost Leader 10. Shakespeare was of us. Prof. Phelps points out the care- ful choice of prepositions here : Shakespeare was of the common democratic multitude, yet not especially for it; Milton, the true- hearted defender of free speech and democracy, was indeed for the liberals ; and Burns and Shelley were actually with them, having taken part, as poets, in the first literary battles for de- mocracy fought in Browning's own century. 11. Pardoned in heaven. Note the large charity of Browning. It is his belief that even the worst of sinners is to have a chance to retrieve himself in another life. Compare with this his Apparent Failure, in which he says of the three suicides in the Paris Morgue : — what began best, can't end worst, Nor what God blessed once, prove accurst. How They Brought the Good News 12. This poem suggests comparison with Paul Revere's Ride. Browning's verses are, however, acknowledged to be more spirited, more in keeping with the subject, than those of Longfellow. Compare too the sights and sounds of the various stages of the night and early morning with those described in Paul Revere's Ride. 13. Ghent; Aix. Ghent is a city in Belgium and Aix-la- Chapelle is in Prussia. The two towns are about 90 miles apart BROWNING'S POEMS 2i and it is rather doubtful whether any horse, however staunch, could gallop such a distance. 14. Pique. Pommel. 15. Lokeren. This, like the other towns mentioned in the poem, is a real place situated on the road from Ghent to Aix. Evelyn Hope 16. Note how smooth is the rhythm of this poem. It deals with a beautiful theme, love triumphant over death, and so is free from the harshness found in other poems of Browning that deal with unlovely or ignoble traits in man. 17. Hinge's chink. It is a common mannerism with Browning to use this form of the possessive case in referring to inanimate objects. Home Thoughts from Abroad 18. Lest you should thhik he never could recapture. Only a poet entitled by virtue of his wonderful power of imagination to be numbered among the elect, could have so beautifully explained why the thrush does repeat his little song. Home Thoughts from the Sea 19. How can I help England? This is noteworthy as one of the few instances of Browning's making any display of his patriotism. The preceding verses Home Thoughts from Abroad show of course a love of English scenes and seasons which evidently his love for Italy and the South never subdued. Incident of the French Camp 20. Ratishon. A town in Bavaria which Napoleon took by storm in 1809. The incident here described has a basis in fact. See Synopsis. 22 BROWNING'S POEMS The Boy and the Angel 21. There is no doubt in it. See Rabbi Ben E::ra: Rather I prize the doubt Low kinds exist without, Finished and finite clods, untroubled by a doubt. Browning feels that doubt is essential to progress. Elsewhere he speaks of the "torpor of assurance." The angel Gabriel was a perfect being; he had no need of progress or development; therefore he did not doubt. 22. / miss my little human praise. The lesson of this poem has been well expressed in Pippa's New Year's Hymn from Pip pa Passes: All service ranks the same with God. One Word More 23. My fifty men and ivomen. The fifty characters in the volume of dramatic verses called Men and Women. This work had just been completed by Browning. 24. A century of sonnets. That is, one hundred sonnets. The verses in question are reputed to have been Vv^ritten by Raphael to a certain Margarita, daughter of a baker in Rome. A few of these sonnets still survive in their original form, evidently very hastily written on some sketches Raphael had done for a painting called the "Disputa" in the Vatican. In the British Museum is a copy of one of these sonnets, a very amateurish production. 25. Her San Sisto names attd her Foligno. The Madonna di San Sisto, otherwise known as the Sistine Madonna, now in the possession of the Dresden Gallery, derived its name from the fact that in the lower part of the picture St. Sistus appears with St. Barbara. The Madonna di Foligno is now in the Vatican. It was painted in 1512 for the Church of Ara Cceli in Rome but in 1565 was removed to Foligno. 26. Her that visits Florence in a vision. The Madonna del I BROWNING'S POEMS 23 Granduca. The suggestion of a "vision" in this painting is due to the pecuUar manner in which the figure itself stands out from the background. This painting is now in the Pitti Gallery. 27. Her that's left with lilies in the Louvre. The Madonna known as La belle Jardiniere representing the Virgin seated in a garden among lilies. 28. Guido Rent. Guido Reni was not born until 1575, fifty- five years after Raphael's death, so that the book of sonnets must have been given him by some friend of the great artist or more likely was bequeathed to him by somebody who had in his turn received it from a friend of Raphael. 29. Beatrice. Beatrice Portinari, immortahzed in Dante's Vita Nuova and in his Paradiso. Dante met her when she was a mere child and loved her faithfully but from a distance until her death at the age of twenty-four. Even after that sad event she was always present with him in imagination. 30. His left hand in the hair 0' the wicked. Dante bitterly attacked many prominent men of his time, who in his opinion were vicious or criminal. Such of them as had already died he pictured in his Inferno as suffering all manner of horrible punishment in Hell. 31. Bice. A diminutive form of Beatrice used to denote affec- tion. 32. Heaven's gift takes earth's abatement. The fineness of a talent granted by Heaven is marred by the worldly uses to which it is put. 33. He who smites the rock. As Moses did to procure water for the Children of Israel. 34. "The drought was pleasant." The Biblical account states that the Children of Israel were almost sorry to receive the water, because they thereby lost a cause for "murmuring" or complaint against Moses. 35. Sinai forehead's. See Note 16. When Moses came down from Mt. Sinai bearing the tablets containing the Law of the Covenant, the "skin of his face shone by reason of his speaking with God." 36. The right arm's rod-sweep. The sweep with which Moses : 4 BROWNING'S POEMS smote the rock and caused the water to gush forth. Numbers XX, 2. 37. Jethro's daughter. The wife of Moses, Zipporah by name. 38. Liberal. Used to a freer sweep. 39. Karshish, Cleon, ■ Norbert, Lippo, Roland, Andrea. All characters in Men and Women. 40. London. The Brownings had recently returned from Flor- ence to London. 41. Fiesole. A town three miles north of Florence situated on a height. 42. Samminiato. Colloquial form of San Miniato, an ancient church on a hill just east of Florence. 43. // that moon could love a mortal. In his poem Endymion Keats relates the story of a mortal loved by the moon. 44. Turn a new side to her mortal. The earth during one revolution about the sun turns on its axis 365 times, whereas the moon takes exactly the same time to turn around as she re- quires to circle once around the earth. For this reason we always see one and the same side of the moon. 45. Zoroaster. The founder of the Egyptian religion, a form of sun and moon-worship. 46. Galileo. The medieval scientist who discovered the fact that the earth moves about the sun. He was forced by the Church to recant and retract his statements. 47. Keats. See Note 43. 48. Portent of an iceberg. It is not always fortunate to be loved by a goddess. 49. Aaron; Nadab; Abihu. With Moses and seventy elders of the people these men went up Mt. Sinai and "saw the God of Israel and did eat and drink." Exodus xxiv, 9. Browning's description of God's appearance before the awe-struck elders follows the Biblical version very closely. Herve Riel 50. Hogne. The British and Dutch Allies defeated the forces of Louis XIV at La Hogue, off the north coast of Normandy. See Synopsis. BROWNING'S POEMS 25 51. Saint Malo. A small island at the mouth of the river Ranee, having a harbor perfectly dry when the tide is out. 52. Herve Riel. When Browning first published this poem, the story of Herve Riel was declared even by the people of Saint Malo to be pure fiction. A search through the archives of the French Admiralty later revealed the fact that it is essen- tially true. Herve Riel, however, did not demand merely one day to visit his wife La Belle Aurore but a permanent leave of absence that he might spend the rest of his days with his good spouse at Le Croisic, where Browning wrote this poem. 53. Plymouth. An important English naval station on the S. W. coast. 54. Tourville. A French admiral who two years previously had inflicted a crushing defeat upon the Allied fleet and later, in 1693, administered another severe beating to his adversaries at Cape St. Vincent. 55. Solidor. A fort on the mainland built in the 14th century. 56. Greve. This word in French means "beach" and is the term applied to the sands for miles about Mont St. Michel left bare when the tide is low. 57. Bore the hell. Won the victory. Pheidippides 58. This poem is based upon a story told by the Greek historian Herodotus. 59. Her of the aegis and spear. Athene. The aegis was a shield given to the goddess by Zeus. 60. Ye of the how and the hiiskin. Diana, goddess of the chase. 61. Pam. The god of music, dance, and pleasure. He is represented as having the thighs, legs and hoofs of a goat. 62. Archons. The nine chief magistrates who governed Athens. 63. Slave's trihute, water and earth. The Persian king, Da- rius, before his second attempted invasion of Greece in 499 B.C., sent heralds to most of the Grecian states, to demand of them earth and water as tokens of their submission to Persian rule. 26 BROWNING'S POEMS 64. No zvarfare, whatever the odds. A Spartan superstition held that no war should be entered upon before the moon was at its full. 65. Filleted victim. A little band of ribbon, called a fillet, was tied about the hair of victims about to be sacrificed to the gods. 66. Fames. Mt. Parnassus, near Thermopylae, the abode of the Muses. On its slope lay Delphi, the oracle sacred to Apollo. This was a place where it was natural Pheidippides should meet Pan. 67. Miltiades. Formerly tyrant of the Chersonesus. In the Persian Wars he showed such energy and ability that upon the approach of the Persian fleet, the Athenians elected him one of their ten commanders. Contrary to the advice of his nine col- leagues, Miltiades insisted upon meeting the Persians at once, while the war-enthusiasm of the Athenians was still high. The other nine generals, inspired by his courage, consented to his plan and, although they were expected to command the army in rotation, each for one day, all gave over to Miltiades their days of command in order to invest the whole power in a single person. The result was the great victory of the Greeks at Marathon. 68. Fennel. Symbol of Marathon, the "fennel-field." 69. So to end gloriously. As Browning believed a man's life could best end, at the moment of triumph for some great cause for which he has fought bravely throughout his life. As he says in his poem Frospice: — Let me fare like my peers The heroes of old, Bear the brunt, in a minute pay Hfe's glad arrears Of pain, darkness and cold. QUESTIONS I. What effect did the conditions of living, general public opinion, or phase in the development of English literature have upon Browning? (See Synopsis of Lost Leader, Note 19, and Biography.) BROWNING'S POEMS 27 II. With regard to two of the following points discuss a poem by Browning: (a) contents of poem; (b) interest of subject matter to you; (c) ornamentation or figurative expression. (See Synopsis, Study of Style and Note 18.) III. Imagine you are discussing with a friend the Selected Poems by Browning. Give four of your friend's comments on the poems and your replies. (Sec Study of Construction, Study of Style, etc.) IV. Write a paragraph concerning the historical accuracy or historic inaccuracy of Herve Riel, An Incident of the French Camp, or Pheidippides. (See Notes 50, 52, 20, 58, 63, 64, and 67.. Also the Synopses of all three poems.) V. Refer to a poem which in your opinion is a typical example of the work of Browning and give in your own words the meaning of the poem. (See Synopsis of Evelyn Hope and Study of Characters, Paragraph 3.) VI. What poem by Browning have you read that reflects or embodies an experience of your own? Show with some detail how this poem reflects or embodies your experience. VII. Show how Browning's poems reflect his own life and character. VIII. Write about One Word More, touching on the type that it illustrates, the thought and feeling, the rhythm, and other qualities that make it beautiful. (See Synopsis, Notes 32 and 44, and comment on One Word More in Study of Style.) IX. Quote two descriptive or figurative passages from Brown- ing's poems that seem to you particularly effective and tell why you think them so. (See Note 18 and last two paragraphs of Study of Style.) X. Show what conditions in Browning's life and character were favorable to his success. (See Biography, Paragraphs 2 and 3.) XL In what poems does Browning show that he has caught the spirit of the historical period treated of? (See concluding paragraph of Study of Background.) 28 BROWNING'S POEMS XII. Discuss Browning's attitude toward men who had proved unfaithful to their ideals. In your discussion refer to a definite poem or poems. (See Note ii and synopsis of Lost Leader.) XIII. Quote from one of Browning's poems the best example of his ability to make the rhythm of his poems fit the thought and tell why you consider the passage quoted such an example. (See Note i6 and Study of Style, Paragraph 3.) XIV. Show by reference to individual poems what Browning believed about a hereafter. (Note 11 and Study of Characters, Paragraph 3.) XV. Discuss with reference to at least two poems that you have read Browning's love for his country. (See Note 19.) XVI. Mention two poems by Browning that you have read in which the triumph of the will or spirit over the body is celebrated. Show how Browning portrays this triumph. (See Note 69 and synopsis of Incident of the French Camp.) XVII. Show by reference to a poem by Browning that you have read that Browning did not condemn men for being troubled by doubt in matters of religion and faith. (See Note 21.) XVIII. Relate the experience in Browning's life to which we owe One Word More. (See Synopsis and Biography.) XIX. (a) Prove by rather detailed reference to Browning's poems that he was essentially a dramatic poet, {h) Mention one poem of his that you have read which is purely lyrical rather than dramatic in form. (See General Nature of Work, Par. i; Study of Construction; and synopsis of One Word More.) XX. What was Browning's favorite poetic form? Compare this with the poetic form used by Shakespeare in Hamlet's speech beginning, "To be or not to be," and show what advan- tages the form preferred by Browning has over the form so much used by Shakespeare. (See last two paragraphs of Study of Construction.) XXI. Show by reference to at least two poems of Browning that he was above scorning simple-hearted men and women an4 BROWNING'S POEMS 29 considered them of as great value to the world as men and women of great intellectual attainments. (See Note 22.) XXII. Mention an experience in Browning's life that shows him to have been a man of decision in practical matters, not merely a preacher of courage and decision in his writings. (See Biography.) XXIII. Which is your favorite poem by Browning? State why you like this poem and what use you can make of its lesson in your own life. XXIV. Compare Browning with Longfellow in regard to (a) musical features of this verse, (b) value and depth of the moral truths taught by their poems. (See Note 12 and Study of Style, Paragraph 3.) XXV. To what peculiarities of diction is Browning's so-called "obscurity" due? To what qualities in his thought? (See Notes 16 and 35. Also Study of Style.) XXVI. Mention one English poet beside Browning who made use of the dramatic monologue, and name at least one of the poems written by this other poet in this particular poetic form. (See Preparatory Information, Paragraph 2.) XXVII. Discuss at some length Browning's philosophy ex- plaining why he has been called a "truly Christian poet." Illus- trate by reference to two or three of his poems that you have read. (See Study of Background.) XXVIII. Write a paragraph or two explaining what features of Browning's philosophy make him an optimist. Illustrate by a rather detailed reference to such of his poems as you have read. (See Note 11 and Study of Characters, Paragraph 3.) XXIX. Show by a reference to such of Browning's poems as you have read that the poet must have been a very well-informed man (a) as regards history, (6) as regards art, (c) as regards Biblical lore. (See Notes 2, 6, 9, 20, 24, 25, 26, 27, 29, 35, 37, 49, 52, 54, 58, 63, 64.) XXX. Write a paragraph or two to prove that Browning attached more importance to the thought and content of his 30 BROWNING'S POEMS verse than to its merely musical qualities. Illustrate by refer- ence to the poems vv^ith which you are acquainted. (Study of Style, Par. 3. See also Note 16.) XXXI, Compare Hoiv They Brought the Good News with Paul Revere's Ride by Longfellow. In your comparison answer the following questions: (a) In which poem does the rhythm suggest more vividly a horse-back ride? (6) In which poem are the descriptions of the places passed through more vivid? (c) Which poet, Browning or Longfellow, appears to know more about horses? {d) Which poem is more interesting to you? (See Note 12.) XXXII. God above Is great to grant, as mighty to make, And creates the love to reward the love. From what poem are the lines above taken and what do they mean? (See synopsis of Evelyn Hope. Also Study of Char- acters, Paragraph 3.) BIOGRAPHY Robert Browning was born at Camberwell, London, May 7, 1812, and died at Venice, Dec. 12, 1889. Browning was favored above most poets in the circumstances of his life. His father was a man of considerable means, an employee of the Bank of England, and Robert was at all times free from financial worry, so that he was always able to write what he chose and just as he chose without regard to the question of the popularity of his work with the reading public. Browning's parents did not believe in forcing their son to pursue any fixed course of study. In the Browning home was an excellent library and the boy read and studied those books which appealed to him, the father hiring private tutors in those BROWNING'S POEMS 31 subjects in which his son showed special proficiency. Nor was his physical development neglected. He had expert private in- struction in fencing, boxing and riding, of which latter exer- cise he was always passionately fond. The result of this some- what irregular method of tuition was that Browning became one of the best educated men of his time. His freedom from financial worries enabled him to follow his own literary bent to the fullest extent. For years he was prob- ably the most unpopular poet in England, but after the publi- cation of Paracelsus in 1835 his genius began to be recognized, until today he ranks among the greatest of English poets. In 1845 Browning met Ehzabeth Barrett, herself a poetess of rare genius and one of his most ardent literary admirers, and a little more than a year later the two were wedded and left for Italy despite very strong objections on the part of the bride's father, who never forgave his daughter and whose opposition to the whole afifair was so great that the two lovers actually had to run away. The Brownings spent most of their married life in Italy, where in 1861 Mrs. Browning died, leaving a young son behind. All her life she had been an invalid and the first happiness she ever knew was her love affair with her brother-poet. Her devotion to Browning is wonderfully expressed in her Sonnets from the Portuguese and the poet's devotion to her still lives in such poems as One Word More. BIBLIOGRAPHY Critical Robert Browning. Hoiv to Know Him, by Prof. William Lyon Phelps. An Intro deletion to the Study of Robert BrouWmg's Poetry, by Prof. Hiram Corson. Studies in Literature, by Edward Dowden. (Chapter on Browning.) 32 BROWNING'S POEMS Victorian Poefs, by E. C. Stedman. (Chapter on Browning.) Handbook to Robert Browning's Works, by Mrs. S. Orr. Poets and Problems, by Geo. Willis Cooke. Boston: 1886. (pp. 269-388 devoted to Browning.) Browning as a Philosophical and Religions Poet, by Henry Jones. Essays on Poetry and Poets, by the Hon. Roden Noel. Lon- don: 1886. (pp. 256-282 devoted to Browning.) Browning's Women, by Mary E. Burt. Robert Browning: Essays and Thoughts, by John T. Nettle- ship. Browning's Message to his Time: his Religion, Philosophy, and Science, by Edward Berdoe. Life and Letters of Robert Brow^iing, by Mrs. Sutherland Orr.