Introduction to Robert Browning [89]
Of the land once. Who can tell?
9.
What if a certain soul Which early slipped its sheath, And has for its home the whole Of heaven, thus look beneath,
10.
Thus watch one who, in the world, Both lives and likes life's way, Nor wishes the wings unfurled That sleep in the worm, they say?
11.
But sometimes when the weather Is blue, and warm waves tempt To free one's self of tether, And try a life exempt
12.
From worldly noise and dust, In the sphere which overbrims With passion and thought, -- why, just Unable to fly, one swims!
13.
By passion and thought upborne, One smiles to one's self -- "They fare Scarce better, they need not scorn Our sea, who live in the air!"
14.
Emancipate through passion And thought, with sea for sky, We substitute, in a fashion, For heaven -- poetry:
-- St. 14. for: instead of.
15.
Which sea, to all intent, Gives flesh such noon-disport As a finer element Affords the spirit-sort.
16.
Whatever they are, we seem: Imagine the thing they know; All deeds they do, we dream; Can heaven be else but so?
17.
And meantime, yonder streak Meets the horizon's verge; That is the land, to seek If we tire or dread the surge:
-- St. 17. We can return from the sea of passion and thought, that is, poetry, or a deep spiritual state, to the solid land again, of material fact.
18.
Land the solid and safe -- To welcome again (confess!) When, high and dry, we chafe The body, and don the dress.
-- St. 18. Man, in his earth life, cannot always be "high contemplative", and indulge in "brave translunary things"; he must welcome again, it must be confessed, "land the solid and safe". "Other heights in other lives, God willing" (`One Word More').
19.
Does she look, pity, wonder At one who mimics flight, Swims -- heaven above, sea under, Yet always earth in sight?
-- St. 19. does she: the "certain soul" in 9th St., "which early slipped its sheath".
James Lee's Wife.
I. James Lee's Wife speaks at the Window.
-- * In the original ed., 1864, the heading to this section was `At the Window'; changed in ed. of 1868. --
1.
Ah, Love, but a day, And the world has changed! The sun's away, And the bird estranged; The wind has dropped, And the sky's deranged: Summer has stopped.
-- St. 1. Ah, Love, but a day: Rev. H. J. Bulkeley, in his paper on `James Lee's Wife' (`Browning Soc. Papers', iv., p. 457), explains, "One day's absence from him has caused the world to change." It's better to understand that something has occurred to cause the world to change in a single day; that James Lee has made some new revelation of himself, which causes the wife's heart to have misgivings, and with these misgivings comes the eager desire expressed in St. 3, to show her love, when he returns, more strongly than ever.
2.
Look in my eyes! Wilt thou change too? Should I fear surprise? Shall I find aught new In the old and dear, In the good and true, With the changing year?
3.
Thou art a man, But I am thy love. For the lake, its swan; For the dell, its dove; And for thee -- (oh, haste!) Me, to bend above, Me, to hold embraced.
II. By the Fireside.
1.
Is all our fire of shipwreck wood, Oak and pine? Oh, for the ills half-understood, The dim dead woe Long ago Befallen this bitter coast of France! Well, poor sailors took their chance; I take mine.
2.
A ruddy shaft our fire must shoot O'er the sea; Do sailors eye the casement -- mute Drenched and stark, From their bark -- And envy, gnash their teeth for hate O' the warm safe house and happy freight -- Thee and me?
3.
God help you, sailors, at your need! Spare the curse! For some ships, safe in port indeed, Rot and rust, Run to dust, All through worms i' the wood, which crept, Gnawed our hearts out while we slept: That is worse.
4.
Who lived here before us two? Old-world pairs. Did a woman ever -- would
9.
What if a certain soul Which early slipped its sheath, And has for its home the whole Of heaven, thus look beneath,
10.
Thus watch one who, in the world, Both lives and likes life's way, Nor wishes the wings unfurled That sleep in the worm, they say?
11.
But sometimes when the weather Is blue, and warm waves tempt To free one's self of tether, And try a life exempt
12.
From worldly noise and dust, In the sphere which overbrims With passion and thought, -- why, just Unable to fly, one swims!
13.
By passion and thought upborne, One smiles to one's self -- "They fare Scarce better, they need not scorn Our sea, who live in the air!"
14.
Emancipate through passion And thought, with sea for sky, We substitute, in a fashion, For heaven -- poetry:
-- St. 14. for: instead of.
15.
Which sea, to all intent, Gives flesh such noon-disport As a finer element Affords the spirit-sort.
16.
Whatever they are, we seem: Imagine the thing they know; All deeds they do, we dream; Can heaven be else but so?
17.
And meantime, yonder streak Meets the horizon's verge; That is the land, to seek If we tire or dread the surge:
-- St. 17. We can return from the sea of passion and thought, that is, poetry, or a deep spiritual state, to the solid land again, of material fact.
18.
Land the solid and safe -- To welcome again (confess!) When, high and dry, we chafe The body, and don the dress.
-- St. 18. Man, in his earth life, cannot always be "high contemplative", and indulge in "brave translunary things"; he must welcome again, it must be confessed, "land the solid and safe". "Other heights in other lives, God willing" (`One Word More').
19.
Does she look, pity, wonder At one who mimics flight, Swims -- heaven above, sea under, Yet always earth in sight?
-- St. 19. does she: the "certain soul" in 9th St., "which early slipped its sheath".
James Lee's Wife.
I. James Lee's Wife speaks at the Window.
-- * In the original ed., 1864, the heading to this section was `At the Window'; changed in ed. of 1868. --
1.
Ah, Love, but a day, And the world has changed! The sun's away, And the bird estranged; The wind has dropped, And the sky's deranged: Summer has stopped.
-- St. 1. Ah, Love, but a day: Rev. H. J. Bulkeley, in his paper on `James Lee's Wife' (`Browning Soc. Papers', iv., p. 457), explains, "One day's absence from him has caused the world to change." It's better to understand that something has occurred to cause the world to change in a single day; that James Lee has made some new revelation of himself, which causes the wife's heart to have misgivings, and with these misgivings comes the eager desire expressed in St. 3, to show her love, when he returns, more strongly than ever.
2.
Look in my eyes! Wilt thou change too? Should I fear surprise? Shall I find aught new In the old and dear, In the good and true, With the changing year?
3.
Thou art a man, But I am thy love. For the lake, its swan; For the dell, its dove; And for thee -- (oh, haste!) Me, to bend above, Me, to hold embraced.
II. By the Fireside.
1.
Is all our fire of shipwreck wood, Oak and pine? Oh, for the ills half-understood, The dim dead woe Long ago Befallen this bitter coast of France! Well, poor sailors took their chance; I take mine.
2.
A ruddy shaft our fire must shoot O'er the sea; Do sailors eye the casement -- mute Drenched and stark, From their bark -- And envy, gnash their teeth for hate O' the warm safe house and happy freight -- Thee and me?
3.
God help you, sailors, at your need! Spare the curse! For some ships, safe in port indeed, Rot and rust, Run to dust, All through worms i' the wood, which crept, Gnawed our hearts out while we slept: That is worse.
4.
Who lived here before us two? Old-world pairs. Did a woman ever -- would