An Introduction to the Study of Robert Browning's Poetry Part 48

-- St. 2. Petrarch's Vaucluse makes proud the Sorgue: Fontaine de Vaucluse, a celebrated fountain, in the department of Vaucluse, in Southern France, the source of the Sorgues.

The village named after it was for some time the residence of Petrarch.

3.

First came the silent gazers; next, A screen of gla.s.s, we're thankful for; Last, the sight's self, the sermon's text, The three men who did most abhor Their life in Paris yesterday, So killed themselves: and now, enthroned Each on his copper couch, they lay Fronting me, waiting to be owned.

I thought, and think, their sin's atoned.

4.

Poor men, G.o.d made, and all for that!

The reverence struck me; o'er each head Religiously was hung its hat, Each coat dripped by the owner's bed, Sacred from touch: each had his berth, His bounds, his proper place of rest, Who last night tenanted on earth Some arch, where twelve such slept abreast,-- Unless the plain asphalte seemed best.

5.

How did it happen, my poor boy?

You wanted to be Buonaparte And have the Tuileries for toy, And could not, so it broke your heart?

You, old one by his side, I judge, Were, red as blood, a socialist, A leveller! Does the Empire grudge You've gained what no Republic missed?

Be quiet, and unclinch your fist!

6.

And this--why, he was red in vain, Or black,--poor fellow that is blue!

What fancy was it, turned your brain?

Oh, women were the prize for you!

Money gets women, cards and dice Get money, and ill-luck gets just The copper couch and one clear nice Cool squirt of water o'er your bust, The right thing to extinguish l.u.s.t!

7.

It's wiser being good than bad; It's safer being meek than fierce: It's fitter being sane than mad.

My own hope is, a sun will pierce The thickest cloud earth ever stretched; That, after Last, returns the First, Though a wide compa.s.s round be fetched; That what began best, can't end worst, Nor what G.o.d blessed once, prove accurst.

Rabbi Ben Ezra.

1.

Grow old along with me!

The best is yet to be, The last of life, for which the first was made: Our times are in His hand Who saith, "A whole I planned, Youth shows but half; trust G.o.d: see all, nor be afraid!"

-- St. 1. Grow old along with me!: I understand that the aged Rabbi is addressing some young friend.

The best is yet to be, the last of life:

"By the spirit, when age shall o'ercome thee, thou still shalt enjoy More indeed, than at first when, unconscious, the life of a boy."

--'Saul', 162, 163.

2.

Not that, ama.s.sing flowers, Youth sighed, "Which rose make ours, Which lily leave and then as best recall?"

Not that, admiring stars, It yearned, "Nor Jove, nor Mars; Mine be some figured flame which blends, transcends them all!"

3.

Not for such hopes and fears Annulling youth's brief years, Do I remonstrate: folly wide the mark!

Rather I prize the doubt Low kinds exist without, Finished and finite clods, untroubled by a spark.

-- St. 2, 3. The construction is, I do not remonstrate that youth, ama.s.sing flowers, sighed, Which rose make ours, which lily leave, etc., nor that, admiring stars, it (youth) yearned, etc.

4.

Poor vaunt of life indeed, Were man but formed to feed On joy, to solely seek and find and feast; Such feasting ended, then As sure an end to men; Irks care the crop-full bird? Frets doubt the maw-crammed beast?

-- St. 4. Irks care: does care irk. . .does doubt fret. . .

5.

Rejoice we are allied To That which doth provide And not partake, effect and not receive!

A spark disturbs our clod; Nearer we hold of G.o.d Who gives, than of His tribes that take, I must believe.

-- St. 5. Nearer we hold of G.o.d: have t.i.tle to a nearer relations.h.i.+p.

See Webster, s.v. Hold, v.i. def. 3. {No edition is given.}

6.

Then, welcome each rebuff That turns earth's smoothness rough, Each sting that bids nor sit nor stand but go!

Be our joys three-parts pain!

Strive, and hold cheap the strain; Learn, nor account the pang; dare, never grudge the throe!

7.

For thence,--a paradox Which comforts while it mocks,-- Shall life succeed in that it seems to fail: What I aspired to be, And was not, comforts me: A brute I might have been, but would not sink i' the scale.

-- St. 7. What I aspired to be: "'tis not what man Does which exalts him, but what man Would do."--'Saul', v. 296.