Browning's Shorter Poems Part 29

At what point in his career does the speaker give his story? What have been his motives? How was he at first treated? What indicates that the change is not in him, but in the fickle mob? How does he view his downfall? In what thought lies his sense of triumph? How does his greatness of soul appear?

THE BOY AND THE ANGEL. (PAGE 87.)

24. ="the voice of my delight"=. That is, the boy's simple praises.

What quality did the praise of the Pope and of the angel lack? What is the meaning of the legend?

MEMORABILIA. (PAGE 91.)

In Browning's early youth, while he was under the influence of Byron and Pope, he found, at a bookstall, a stray copy of Sh.e.l.ley's _Daemon of the World_. From this time on, Sh.e.l.ley's poetry was his ideal.

The term "moulted feather" has peculiar significance from the fact that this was a poem which Sh.e.l.ley afterwards rejected.

How is childlike wonder expressed in the first two stanzas? How is the difference between the speaker and his friend indicated? Why does the name of Sh.e.l.ley mean so much more to one than to the other? In the figure that follows, what do the moor and the eagle's feather stand for?

WHY I AM A LIBERAL. (PAGE 92.)

Note the essential elements of sonnet structure in metre, rhyme, and number of lines. See the Introduction to Sharp's _Sonnets of this Century_. Compare the idea of the poem with that of _The Lost Leader_.

PROSPICE. (PAGE 93.)

Written shortly after the death of Mrs. Browning.

Note the vividness of the imagery, the swiftness of the movement, the rise to the climax, the change in spirit after the climax, and the note of courage and hope that informs this poem. Compare it with Tennyson's _Crossing the Bar_. What difference in spirit between the two?

EPILOGUE TO ASOLANDO. (PAGE 94.)

Sharp's _Life of Browning_ has the following pa.s.sage: "Shortly before the great bell of San Marco struck ten, he turned and asked if any news had come concerning _Asolando_, published that day. His son read him a telegram from the publishers, telling how great the demand was, and how favorable were the advance articles in the leading papers. The dying poet turned and muttered, 'How gratifying!' When the last toll of St. Mark's had left a deeper stillness than before, those by the bedside saw a yet profounder silence on the face of him whom they loved."

What claim does Browning make for himself? Do you find this spirit in any of his poetry which you have read?

"DE GUSTIBUS--." (PAGE 96.)

Image the scene in the first stanza. Why are the poppies known by their flutter, rather than their color? Note the rhyme effect and climax in lines 11-13. What qualities predominate in the first scene?

How does the second scene differ from it? What are the characteristic objects in the second? Has it more or less of the romantic, or of grandeur? Compare the human element introduced in each scene. Note the effectiveness of the epithets _a-flutter_, _wind-grieved_, _baked_, _red-rusted_, _iron-spiked_. Show how the poem explains its t.i.tle.

THE ITALIAN IN ENGLAND. (PAGE 98.)

The setting of the story is Italy's struggle against Austria for her liberty, known as the Revolution of 1848.

8. =Charles=. Carlo Alberto, Prince of Carignano, of the house of Savoy.

19. =Metternich= (1773-1859). The Austrian diplomatist, and the enemy of Italian liberty.

25. =Lombardy=. See the Atlas.

76. =Tenebrae= = darkness. A religious service in the Roman Catholic church, commemorating the crucifixion.

MY LAST d.u.c.h.eSS. (PAGE 105.)

Ferrara still preserves the mediaeval traditions and appearance in a marked degree. The Dukes of Ferrara were noted art patrons. Both Ariosto and Ta.s.so were members of their household; but neither poet was fully appreciated by his master.

8. =Fra Pandolf=. An imaginary artist.

45-46. Professor Corson, in his _Introduction to Browning_, quotes an answer from the poet himself: "'Yes, I meant that the commands were that she should be put to death.' And then, after a pause, he added, with a characteristic dash of expression, as if the thought had just started in his mind, 'Or he might have had her shut up in a convent.'"

56. =Claus of Innsbruck=. An imaginary artist.

This poem is a fine example of Browning's skill in the use of dramatic monologue. (See Introduction.) The Duke is skilfully made to reveal his own character and motives, and those of the d.u.c.h.ess, and at the same time to indicate the actions of himself and his listener.

Construct in imagination the scene and the action of the poem. What has brought the Duke and the envoy together? What things indicate the Duke's pride? Was his jealousy due to pride or to affection? Does he prize the picture as a work of art or as a memory of the d.u.c.h.ess? What faults did he find in her? What character do these criticisms show her to have had? What did he wish her to he? Note the anti-climax in lines 25-28: what is the effect? What shows the Duke's difficulty in breaking his reserve on this matter? What motive has he for so doing?

Where does the poet show skill in condensation, in character drawing, in vividness, in enlisting the reader's sympathy?

_The Flight of the d.u.c.h.ess_ should be read as a development and variation of this theme.

THE BISHOP ORDERS HIS TOMB AT SAINT PRAXED'S. (PAGE 107.)

Ruskin gives this poem high praise: "Robert Browning is unerring in every sentence he writes of the Middle Ages.... 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--its worldliness, inconsistency, pride, hypocrisy, ignorance of itself, love of art, of luxury, and of good Latin. It is nearly all that I have said of the central Renaissance, in thirty pages of _The Stones of Venice_, put into as many lines; Browning's also being the antecedent work."

It is not, however, for its historical accuracy that a poem is mainly to be judged. The full and imaginative portrayal of a type, belonging not to one age only, but to human nature, is a greater achievement.

And this achievement Browning has undoubtedly performed.

5. =Old Gandolf=. Evidently one of the Bishop's colleagues in holy orders, and like him in holiness.

31. =onion-stone=. See the dictionary for descriptions of this and other stones named in the poem.

41. =olive-frail=. A crate, made of rushes, for packing olives.

42. =lapis lazuli=. A very beautiful and valuable blue stone.

46. =Frascati=. A town near Rome, celebrated for its villas.

56-62. Such mixture of Christian and Pagan elements was a common feature in Renaissance art and literature.

58. =tripod=. The triple-footed seat from which the priestesses of Apollo at Delphi delivered the oracles. =thyrsus=. A staff entwined with ivy and vines, and borne in the Bacchic processions.

77. =Tully=. Marcus Tullius Cicero, the Roman orator, statesman, and philosopher.

79. =Ulpian=. A celebrated Roman jurist of the third century.