Introduction to Robert Browning [118]
burned: "Dust and ashes, dead and done with, Venice spent what Venice earned. The soul, doubtless, is immortal -- where a soul can be discerned.
13.
"Yours for instance: you know physics, something of geology, Mathematics are your pastime; souls shall rise in their degree; Butterflies may dread extinction, -- you'll not die, it cannot be!
-- St. 13. The idea is involved in this stanza that the soul's continued existence is dependent on its development in this life; the ironic character of the stanza is indicated by the merely intellectual subjects named, physics, geology, mathematics, which do not of themselves, necessarily, contribute to SOUL-development. All from the 2d verse of the 12th stanza down to "Dust and ashes" in the 15th, is what the music, "like a ghostly cricket, creaking where a house was burned", says to the speaker, in the monologue, of the men and women for whom life meant simply a butterfly enjoyment.
14.
"As for Venice and her people, merely born to bloom and drop, Here on earth they bore their fruitage, mirth and folly were the crop: What of soul was left, I wonder, when the kissing had to stop?
15.
"Dust and ashes!" So you creak it, and I want the heart to scold. Dear dead women, with such hair, too -- what's become of all the gold Used to hang and brush their bosoms? I feel chilly and grown old.
Abt Vogler.
(After he has been extemporizing upon the Musical Instrument of his Invention.)
1.
Would that the structure brave, the manifold music I build, Bidding my organ obey, calling its keys to their work, Claiming each slave of the sound, at a touch, as when Solomon willed Armies of angels that soar, legions of demons that lurk, Man, brute, reptile, fly, -- alien of end and of aim, Adverse, each from the other heaven-high, hell-deep removed, -- Should rush into sight at once as he named the ineffable Name, And pile him a palace straight, to pleasure the princess he loved!
-- St. 1. The leading sentence, "Would that the structure brave", etc., is interrupted by the comparison, "as when Solomon willed", etc., and continued in the 2d stanza, "Would it might tarry like his", etc.; the construction of the comparison is, "as when Solomon willed that armies of angels, legions of devils, etc., should rush into sight and pile him a palace straight"; the reference is to the legends of the Koran in regard to Solomon's magical powers.
2.
Would it might tarry like his, the beautiful building of mine, This which my keys in a crowd pressed and importuned to raise! Ah, one and all, how they helped, would dispart now and now combine, Zealous to hasten the work, heighten their master his praise! And one would bury his brow with a blind plunge down to hell, Burrow a while and build, broad on the roots of things, Then up again swim into sight, having based me my palace well, Founded it, fearless of flame, flat on the nether springs.
-- St. 2. the beautiful building of mine: "Of all our senses, hearing seems to be the most poetical; and because it requires most imagination. We do not simply listen to sounds, but whether they be articulate or inarticulate, we are constantly translating them into the language of sight, with which we are better acquainted; and this is a work of the imaginative faculty." -- `Poetics: an Essay on Poetry'. By E. S. Dallas.
The idea expressed in the above extract is beautifully embodied in the following lines from Coleridge's `Kubla Khan': -- "It was a miracle of rare device, A sunny pleasure-dome, with caves of ice! A damsel with a dulcimer In a vision once I saw: It was an Abyssinian maid, And on her dulcimer she played, Singing of Mount Abora. Could I revive within me Her symphony and song, To such a deep delight 'twould win me, That with music loud and long, I would build that dome in air, That sunny dome! those caves of ice! And all who HEARD should SEE them there", etc.
3.
And another would mount and march,
13.
"Yours for instance: you know physics, something of geology, Mathematics are your pastime; souls shall rise in their degree; Butterflies may dread extinction, -- you'll not die, it cannot be!
-- St. 13. The idea is involved in this stanza that the soul's continued existence is dependent on its development in this life; the ironic character of the stanza is indicated by the merely intellectual subjects named, physics, geology, mathematics, which do not of themselves, necessarily, contribute to SOUL-development. All from the 2d verse of the 12th stanza down to "Dust and ashes" in the 15th, is what the music, "like a ghostly cricket, creaking where a house was burned", says to the speaker, in the monologue, of the men and women for whom life meant simply a butterfly enjoyment.
14.
"As for Venice and her people, merely born to bloom and drop, Here on earth they bore their fruitage, mirth and folly were the crop: What of soul was left, I wonder, when the kissing had to stop?
15.
"Dust and ashes!" So you creak it, and I want the heart to scold. Dear dead women, with such hair, too -- what's become of all the gold Used to hang and brush their bosoms? I feel chilly and grown old.
Abt Vogler.
(After he has been extemporizing upon the Musical Instrument of his Invention.)
1.
Would that the structure brave, the manifold music I build, Bidding my organ obey, calling its keys to their work, Claiming each slave of the sound, at a touch, as when Solomon willed Armies of angels that soar, legions of demons that lurk, Man, brute, reptile, fly, -- alien of end and of aim, Adverse, each from the other heaven-high, hell-deep removed, -- Should rush into sight at once as he named the ineffable Name, And pile him a palace straight, to pleasure the princess he loved!
-- St. 1. The leading sentence, "Would that the structure brave", etc., is interrupted by the comparison, "as when Solomon willed", etc., and continued in the 2d stanza, "Would it might tarry like his", etc.; the construction of the comparison is, "as when Solomon willed that armies of angels, legions of devils, etc., should rush into sight and pile him a palace straight"; the reference is to the legends of the Koran in regard to Solomon's magical powers.
2.
Would it might tarry like his, the beautiful building of mine, This which my keys in a crowd pressed and importuned to raise! Ah, one and all, how they helped, would dispart now and now combine, Zealous to hasten the work, heighten their master his praise! And one would bury his brow with a blind plunge down to hell, Burrow a while and build, broad on the roots of things, Then up again swim into sight, having based me my palace well, Founded it, fearless of flame, flat on the nether springs.
-- St. 2. the beautiful building of mine: "Of all our senses, hearing seems to be the most poetical; and because it requires most imagination. We do not simply listen to sounds, but whether they be articulate or inarticulate, we are constantly translating them into the language of sight, with which we are better acquainted; and this is a work of the imaginative faculty." -- `Poetics: an Essay on Poetry'. By E. S. Dallas.
The idea expressed in the above extract is beautifully embodied in the following lines from Coleridge's `Kubla Khan': -- "It was a miracle of rare device, A sunny pleasure-dome, with caves of ice! A damsel with a dulcimer In a vision once I saw: It was an Abyssinian maid, And on her dulcimer she played, Singing of Mount Abora. Could I revive within me Her symphony and song, To such a deep delight 'twould win me, That with music loud and long, I would build that dome in air, That sunny dome! those caves of ice! And all who HEARD should SEE them there", etc.
3.
And another would mount and march,