Introduction to Robert Browning [83]
and `Dictionary of Phrase and Fable'.
The Last Ride Together.
1.
I said -- Then, dearest, since 'tis so, Since now at length my fate I know, Since nothing all my love avails, Since all, my life seemed meant for, fails, Since this was written and needs must be -- My whole heart rises up to bless Your name in pride and thankfulness! Take back the hope you gave, -- I claim Only a memory of the same, -- And this beside, if you will not blame, Your leave for one more last ride with me.
-- St. 1. Browning has no moping melancholy lovers. His lovers generally reflect his own manliness; and when their passion is unrequited, they acknowledge the absolute value of love to their own souls. As Mr. James Thomson, in his `Notes on the Genius of Robert Browning', remarks (`B. Soc. Papers', Part II., p. 246), "Browning's passion is as intense, noble, and manly as his intellect is profound and subtle, and therefore original. I would especially insist on its manliness, because our present literature abounds in so-called passion which is but half-sincere or wholly insincere sentimentalism, if it be not thinly disguised prurient lust, and in so-called pathos which is maudlin to nauseousness. The great unappreciated poet last cited [George Meredith] has defined passion as `noble strength on fire'; and this is the true passion of great natures and great poets; while sentimentalism is ignoble weakness dallying with fire; . . . Browning's passion is of utter self-sacrifice, self-annihilation, self-vindicated by its irresistible intensity. So we read it in `Time's Revenges', so in the scornful condemnation of the weak lovers in `The Statue and the Bust', so in `In a Balcony', and `Two in the Campagna', with its "`Infinite passion and the pain Of finite hearts that yearn.' Is the love rejected, unreturned? No weak and mean upbraidings of the beloved, no futile complaints; a solemn resignation to immitigable Fate; intense gratitude for inspiring love to the unloving beloved. So in `A Serenade at the Villa'; so in `One Way of Love', with its "`My whole life long I learned to love. This hour my utmost art I prove And speak my passion. -- Heaven or Hell? She will not give me Heaven? 'Tis well! Lose who may -- I still can say, Those who win Heaven, blest are they!' So in `The Last Ride Together', with its "`I said -- Then, dearest, since 'tis so,'" etc.
2.
My mistress bent that brow of hers; Those deep dark eyes where pride demurs When pity would be softening through, Fixed me a breathing-while or two With life or death in the balance: right! The blood replenished me again; My last thought was at least not vain: I and my mistress, side by side, Shall be together, breathe and ride, So, one day more am I deified. Who knows but the world may end to-night?
3.
Hush! if you saw some western cloud All billowy-bosomed, over-bowed By many benedictions -- sun's And moon's and evening-star's at once -- And so, you, looking and loving best, Conscious grew, your passion drew Cloud, sunset, moonrise, star-shine too, Down on you, near and yet more near, Till flesh must fade for heaven was here! -- Thus leant she and lingered -- joy and fear Thus lay she a moment on my breast.
4.
Then we began to ride. My soul Smoothed itself out, a long-cramped scroll Freshening and fluttering in the wind. Past hopes already lay behind. What need to strive with a life awry? Had I said that, had I done this, So might I gain, so might I miss. Might she have loved me? just as well She might have hated, who can tell! Where had I been now if the worst befell? And here we are riding, she and I.
5.
Fail I alone, in words and deeds? Why, all men strive and who succeeds? We rode; it seemed my spirit flew, Saw other regions, cities new, As the world rushed by on either side. I thought, -- All labor, yet no less Bear up beneath their unsuccess. Look at the end of work, contrast The petty done, the undone vast, This present of theirs with the hopeful
The Last Ride Together.
1.
I said -- Then, dearest, since 'tis so, Since now at length my fate I know, Since nothing all my love avails, Since all, my life seemed meant for, fails, Since this was written and needs must be -- My whole heart rises up to bless Your name in pride and thankfulness! Take back the hope you gave, -- I claim Only a memory of the same, -- And this beside, if you will not blame, Your leave for one more last ride with me.
-- St. 1. Browning has no moping melancholy lovers. His lovers generally reflect his own manliness; and when their passion is unrequited, they acknowledge the absolute value of love to their own souls. As Mr. James Thomson, in his `Notes on the Genius of Robert Browning', remarks (`B. Soc. Papers', Part II., p. 246), "Browning's passion is as intense, noble, and manly as his intellect is profound and subtle, and therefore original. I would especially insist on its manliness, because our present literature abounds in so-called passion which is but half-sincere or wholly insincere sentimentalism, if it be not thinly disguised prurient lust, and in so-called pathos which is maudlin to nauseousness. The great unappreciated poet last cited [George Meredith] has defined passion as `noble strength on fire'; and this is the true passion of great natures and great poets; while sentimentalism is ignoble weakness dallying with fire; . . . Browning's passion is of utter self-sacrifice, self-annihilation, self-vindicated by its irresistible intensity. So we read it in `Time's Revenges', so in the scornful condemnation of the weak lovers in `The Statue and the Bust', so in `In a Balcony', and `Two in the Campagna', with its "`Infinite passion and the pain Of finite hearts that yearn.' Is the love rejected, unreturned? No weak and mean upbraidings of the beloved, no futile complaints; a solemn resignation to immitigable Fate; intense gratitude for inspiring love to the unloving beloved. So in `A Serenade at the Villa'; so in `One Way of Love', with its "`My whole life long I learned to love. This hour my utmost art I prove And speak my passion. -- Heaven or Hell? She will not give me Heaven? 'Tis well! Lose who may -- I still can say, Those who win Heaven, blest are they!' So in `The Last Ride Together', with its "`I said -- Then, dearest, since 'tis so,'" etc.
2.
My mistress bent that brow of hers; Those deep dark eyes where pride demurs When pity would be softening through, Fixed me a breathing-while or two With life or death in the balance: right! The blood replenished me again; My last thought was at least not vain: I and my mistress, side by side, Shall be together, breathe and ride, So, one day more am I deified. Who knows but the world may end to-night?
3.
Hush! if you saw some western cloud All billowy-bosomed, over-bowed By many benedictions -- sun's And moon's and evening-star's at once -- And so, you, looking and loving best, Conscious grew, your passion drew Cloud, sunset, moonrise, star-shine too, Down on you, near and yet more near, Till flesh must fade for heaven was here! -- Thus leant she and lingered -- joy and fear Thus lay she a moment on my breast.
4.
Then we began to ride. My soul Smoothed itself out, a long-cramped scroll Freshening and fluttering in the wind. Past hopes already lay behind. What need to strive with a life awry? Had I said that, had I done this, So might I gain, so might I miss. Might she have loved me? just as well She might have hated, who can tell! Where had I been now if the worst befell? And here we are riding, she and I.
5.
Fail I alone, in words and deeds? Why, all men strive and who succeeds? We rode; it seemed my spirit flew, Saw other regions, cities new, As the world rushed by on either side. I thought, -- All labor, yet no less Bear up beneath their unsuccess. Look at the end of work, contrast The petty done, the undone vast, This present of theirs with the hopeful