Select poems of Robert Browning

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SELECT POEMS

ROBERT BROWNING

Preface

IT is now generally admitted by competent students of Browning that — as a portion of his verse is so far below what is characteristic of him as a poet and artist — such a selection from his representative work in each period of the evolution of his mind and art as will present his peculiar excellencies should be made accessible both to the student and general reader. In the present volume of selections — from "Pauline" to "Asolando" — an attempt has been made to reveal the principles which formed the mind and fashioned the art of this great teacher in his happiest moments and highest ideals. The poems are arranged in chronological order ; and the notes are biographical and literary, relating each poem to the events in the author's life out of which it grew, and to the characteristic forms of art in his own career and that of his great contemporaries, Wordsworth and Tennyson. This method of study has been tested for a long time by the editor in school and college classes, and with general readers, and has been found to be stimulating and rewarding. Professor Edward Dowden closes his interesting and suggestive study of the life and work of Browning with this sentence : " Time will make its discreet selection from his writings. And the portion which seems most likely to survive is that which presents in true forms of art the permanent passions of humanity and characters of enduring interest."

viii Preface

On one occasion Browning uttered this prohibition against those who would pry into his private Ufa because he happened to be a man of genius :

" A peep through my window, if you prefer ; But, please you, no foot over threshold of mine."

During his life all self-respecting people honored this wish of his, and since his death have desired to know only such facts as influenced the development of his mind and art. In the absence of such aids we have had much glowing rhetoric and shrill panegyric, — ' in themselves somewhat repelling to the student and general reader who desired to come into close personal relations with the personahty of the poet. His nearest relatives and friends have now removed the prohibition, and have invited those who are interested in literary history to cross the threshold and sit by his fireside, and even listen to the sacred story of how he loved one only and how that love enriched and ennobled his life. In the " Life and Letters of Robert Browning," by Mrs. Sutherland Orr, " The Letters of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett," " Mrs. Browning's Letters," " Personalia," by Edmund Gosse, Mrs. Arthur Bronson's '* Browning in Venice " and " Browning, in Asolo," *' Story and his Friends," by Henry James, there have been given to us those elements of perspective necessary to a right view of works of art such as he created. With Mrs. Orr's "Handbook to Robert Browning's Works," Dr. Berdoe's " The Browning Encyclopedia," Mr. Stopford Brooke's "The Poetry of Robert Browning," and Professor Dowden's " Robert Browning," there is little reason why one should be disturbed by the spectre of Browning's obscurity.

As Browning seldom recast his lines there is little reason for introducing textual notes, and as extended

Preface ix

glossarial and explanatory notes would be out of place in a volume of this kind, — the general reader does not care for them, and the special student should prepare his own, — I have limited myself to such notes as are biographical and critical.

As the biographical notes present the main features of Browning's life, and the literary notes the leading characteristics of his art, I have devoted the Introduction to a consideration of the genesis, progress, and nature of that disposition which we call optimism in the teaching of Browning, and his great contemporary, Wordsworth.

It is impossible to ascertain the date of composition of many of Browning's poems, and therefore I have arranged them in the order of their first publication by the poet, and have placed the date of publication at the head of each poem. In every case the latest text has been given. The only poems not given entire are " Pauline," " Paracelsus," and " Pippa Passes."

I am indebted to my friend Professor Edward Dowden of Trinity College, Dublin, for helpful suggestions in regard to the list of poems here included.

I thank The Macmillan Company and the Boston Browning Society for permission to use parts of my paper now printed in the "Boston Browning Society Papers" in the Introduction to this volume.

A. J. G.

Brookline, Mass.

Sept., 1905.

Table Of Contents

Preface . .

Introduction

FIRST PERIOD — 1841.

1833- From " Pauline : A Fragment of a Confession"

A Reflection i

Early Ideals i

A Revelation 3

Imaginative Delight 4

A Crisis 4

Recovery S

1835- From " Paracelsus "

Paracelsus Aspires <> 7

Aprile's Song 9

Aprile's Revelation 10

Song: " Heap cassia, sandal-buds, and stripes " . . 12

Song: " Thus the Mayne glideth " 12

Paracelsus Attains 13

SECOND PERIOD— 1841-1868.

1 841.

From " Pippa Passes: A Drama"

New Year's Hymn 20

Song : "The year 's at the spring" 20

Song : " Give her but a least excuse to love me T' . 20

Song : " A king lived long ago " 21

Song : " Over-head the tree-tops meet " 22

The Day's Close at Asolo 23 xii Table of Contents

DRAMATIC LYRICS pack Cavalier Tunes :

I. Marching Along 25

II. Give a Rouse 26

III. Boot and Saddle 26

My Last Duchess 27

Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister 30

The Pied Piper of Hamelin : A Child's Story ... 41

DRAMATIC ROMANCES AND LYRICS

" How they brought the Good News from Ghent to

Aix" 49

The Lost Leader 53

Home Thoughts, from Abroad 54

Home Thoughts, from the Sea 55

The Bishop orders his Tomb at Saint Praxed's

Church 55

The Flower's Name 58

Fame 84

MEN AND WOMEN

Up at a Villa — Down in the City 100

^r— A Toccata of Galuppi's 115

An Epistle containing the Strange Medical Experience of Karshish, the Arab Physician 130

My Star 138

" Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came "... 141

Table of Contents xili

PAGE

The Last Ride Together 159

The Patriot 162

Andrea del Sarto (called "The Faultless Painter") 164

Saul 179

"De Gustibus " . . 195

A Grammarian's Funeral 212

"Transcendentalism: A Poem in Twelve Books " . 216

Misconceptions 217

One Word More. To E. B. B 218

DRAMATIS PERSONS

Dis Aliter Visum; or Le Byron de Nos Jours . . . 235

A Face 270