Life of Robert Browning [50]
tidal ebb and flow may be observed with singular aptness
in Browning's life-work -- the tide that first moved shoreward
in the loveliness of "Pauline", and, with "long withdrawing roar,"
ebbed in slow, just perceptible lapse to the poet's penultimate volume.
As for "Asolando", I would rather regard it as the gathering of a new wave --
nay, again rather, as the deep sound of ocean which the outward surge
has reached.
But for myself I do not accept "The Inn Album" as the first
hesitant swing of the tide. I seem to hear the resilient undertone
all through the long slow poise of "The Ring and the Book".
Where then is the full splendour and rush of the tide,
where its culminating reach and power?
I should say in "Men and Women"; and by "Men and Women"
I mean not merely the poems comprised in the collection so entitled,
but all in the "Dramatic Romances", "Lyrics", and the "Dramatis Personae",
all the short pieces of a certain intensity of note and quality of power,
to be found in the later volumes, from "Pacchiarotto" to "Asolando".
And this because, in the words of the poet himself when speaking of Shelley,
I prefer to look for the highest attainment, not simply the high --
and, seeing it, to hold by it. Yet I am not oblivious of the mass
of Browning's lofty achievement, "to be known enduringly among men," --
an achievement, even on its secondary level, so high, that around
its imperfect proportions, "the most elaborated productions of ordinary art
must arrange themselves as inferior illustrations."
How am I to convey concisely that which it would take a volume
to do adequately -- an idea of the richest efflorescence of Browning's genius
in these unfading blooms which we will agree to include in "Men and Women"?
How better -- certainly it would be impossible to be more succinct --
than by the enumeration of the contents of an imagined volume,
to be called, say "Transcripts from Life"?
It would be to some extent, but not rigidly, arranged chronologically.
It would begin with that masterpiece of poetic concision,
where a whole tragedy is burned in upon the brain in fifty-six lines,
"My Last Duchess". Then would follow "In a Gondola",
that haunting lyrical drama `in petto', where the lover is stabbed to death
as his heart is beating against that of his mistress; "Cristina",
with its keen introspection; those delightfully stirring pieces,
the "Cavalier Tunes", "Through the Metidja to Abd-el-Kadr",
and "The Pied Piper of Hamelin"; "The Flower's Name";
"The Flight of the Duchess"; "The Tomb at St. Praxed's", the poem
which educed Ruskin's enthusiastic praise for its marvellous apprehension
of the spirit of the Middle Ages; "Pictor Ignotus", and "The Lost Leader".
But as there is not space for individual detail, and as many
of the more important are spoken of elsewhere in this volume,
I must take the reader's acquaintance with the poems for granted.
So, following those first mentioned, there would come
"Home Thoughts from Abroad"; "Home Thoughts from the Sea";
"The Confessional"; "The Heretic's Tragedy"; "Earth's Immortalities";
"Meeting at Night: Parting at Morning"; "Saul"; "Karshish";
"A Death in the Desert"; "Rabbi Ben Ezra"; "A Grammarian's Funeral";
"Love Among the Ruins"; Song, "Nay but you"; "A Lover's Quarrel";
"Evelyn Hope"; "A Woman's Last Word"; "Fra Lippo Lippi";
"By the Fireside"; "Any Wife to Any Husband"; "A Serenade at the Villa";
"My Star"; "A Pretty Woman"; "A Light Woman"; "Love in a Life";
"Life in a Love"; "The Last Ride Together"; "A Toccata of Galuppi's";
"Master Hugues of Saxe Gotha"; "Abt Vogler"; "Memorabilia";
"Andrea Del Sarto"; "Before"; "After"; "In Three Days"; "In a Year";
"Old Pictures in Florence"; "De Gustibus"; "Women and Roses";
"The Guardian Angel"; "Cleon"; "Two in the Campagna"; "One Way of Love";
"Another Way of Love"; "Misconceptions"; "May and Death"; "James Lee's Wife";
"Dis Aliter Visum"; "Too Late"; "Confessions"; "Prospice"; "Youth and Art";
"A Face"; "A Likeness"; "Apparent Failure". Epilogue to Part I. --
"O
in Browning's life-work -- the tide that first moved shoreward
in the loveliness of "Pauline", and, with "long withdrawing roar,"
ebbed in slow, just perceptible lapse to the poet's penultimate volume.
As for "Asolando", I would rather regard it as the gathering of a new wave --
nay, again rather, as the deep sound of ocean which the outward surge
has reached.
But for myself I do not accept "The Inn Album" as the first
hesitant swing of the tide. I seem to hear the resilient undertone
all through the long slow poise of "The Ring and the Book".
Where then is the full splendour and rush of the tide,
where its culminating reach and power?
I should say in "Men and Women"; and by "Men and Women"
I mean not merely the poems comprised in the collection so entitled,
but all in the "Dramatic Romances", "Lyrics", and the "Dramatis Personae",
all the short pieces of a certain intensity of note and quality of power,
to be found in the later volumes, from "Pacchiarotto" to "Asolando".
And this because, in the words of the poet himself when speaking of Shelley,
I prefer to look for the highest attainment, not simply the high --
and, seeing it, to hold by it. Yet I am not oblivious of the mass
of Browning's lofty achievement, "to be known enduringly among men," --
an achievement, even on its secondary level, so high, that around
its imperfect proportions, "the most elaborated productions of ordinary art
must arrange themselves as inferior illustrations."
How am I to convey concisely that which it would take a volume
to do adequately -- an idea of the richest efflorescence of Browning's genius
in these unfading blooms which we will agree to include in "Men and Women"?
How better -- certainly it would be impossible to be more succinct --
than by the enumeration of the contents of an imagined volume,
to be called, say "Transcripts from Life"?
It would be to some extent, but not rigidly, arranged chronologically.
It would begin with that masterpiece of poetic concision,
where a whole tragedy is burned in upon the brain in fifty-six lines,
"My Last Duchess". Then would follow "In a Gondola",
that haunting lyrical drama `in petto', where the lover is stabbed to death
as his heart is beating against that of his mistress; "Cristina",
with its keen introspection; those delightfully stirring pieces,
the "Cavalier Tunes", "Through the Metidja to Abd-el-Kadr",
and "The Pied Piper of Hamelin"; "The Flower's Name";
"The Flight of the Duchess"; "The Tomb at St. Praxed's", the poem
which educed Ruskin's enthusiastic praise for its marvellous apprehension
of the spirit of the Middle Ages; "Pictor Ignotus", and "The Lost Leader".
But as there is not space for individual detail, and as many
of the more important are spoken of elsewhere in this volume,
I must take the reader's acquaintance with the poems for granted.
So, following those first mentioned, there would come
"Home Thoughts from Abroad"; "Home Thoughts from the Sea";
"The Confessional"; "The Heretic's Tragedy"; "Earth's Immortalities";
"Meeting at Night: Parting at Morning"; "Saul"; "Karshish";
"A Death in the Desert"; "Rabbi Ben Ezra"; "A Grammarian's Funeral";
"Love Among the Ruins"; Song, "Nay but you"; "A Lover's Quarrel";
"Evelyn Hope"; "A Woman's Last Word"; "Fra Lippo Lippi";
"By the Fireside"; "Any Wife to Any Husband"; "A Serenade at the Villa";
"My Star"; "A Pretty Woman"; "A Light Woman"; "Love in a Life";
"Life in a Love"; "The Last Ride Together"; "A Toccata of Galuppi's";
"Master Hugues of Saxe Gotha"; "Abt Vogler"; "Memorabilia";
"Andrea Del Sarto"; "Before"; "After"; "In Three Days"; "In a Year";
"Old Pictures in Florence"; "De Gustibus"; "Women and Roses";
"The Guardian Angel"; "Cleon"; "Two in the Campagna"; "One Way of Love";
"Another Way of Love"; "Misconceptions"; "May and Death"; "James Lee's Wife";
"Dis Aliter Visum"; "Too Late"; "Confessions"; "Prospice"; "Youth and Art";
"A Face"; "A Likeness"; "Apparent Failure". Epilogue to Part I. --
"O