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Life of Robert Browning [51]

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Lyric Voice", etc., from end of First Part of "The Ring and the Book".
Part II. -- "Herve Riel"; "Amphibian"; "Epilogue to Fifine";
"Pisgah Sights"; "Natural Magic"; "Magical Nature"; "Bifurcation";
"Numpholeptos"; "Appearances"; "St. Martin's Summer"; "A Forgiveness";
Epilogue to Pacchiarotto volume; Prologue to "La Saisiaz";
Prologue to "Two Poets of Croisic"; "Epilogue"; "Pheidippides";
"Halbert and Hob"; "Ivan Ivanovitch"; "Echetlos"; "Muleykeh";
"Pan and Luna"; "Touch him ne'er so lightly"; Prologue to "Jocoseria";
"Cristina and Monaldeschi"; "Mary Wollstonecraft and Fuseli"; "Ixion";
"Never the Time and the Place"; Song, "Round us the wild creatures";
Song, "Wish no word unspoken"; Song, "You groped your way"; Song, "Man I am";
Song, "Once I saw"; "Verse-making"; "Not with my Soul Love";
"Ask not one least word of praise"; "Why from the world";
"The Round of Day" (Pts. 9, 10, 11, 12 of Gerard de Lairesse);
Prologue to "Asolando"; "Rosny"; "Now"; "Poetics"; "Summum Bonum";
"A Pearl"; "Speculative"; "Inapprehensiveness"; "The Lady and the Painter";
"Beatrice Signorini"; "Imperante Augusto"; "Rephan"; "Reverie";
Epilogue to "Asolando" (in all, 122).

But having drawn up this imaginary anthology, possibly with
faults of commission and probably with worse errors of omission,
I should like to take the reader into my confidence concerning
a certain volume, originally compiled for my own pleasure, though not
without thought of one or two dear kinsmen of a scattered Brotherhood --
a volume half the size of the projected Transcripts, and rare as that star
in the tip of the moon's horn of which Coleridge speaks.

`Flower o' the Vine', so it is called, has for double-motto these two lines
from the Epilogue to the Pacchiarotto volume --

"Man's thoughts and loves and hates!
Earth is my vineyard, these grew there ----"

and these words, already quoted, from the Shelley Essay,
"I prefer to look for the highest attainment, not simply the high."

I. From "Pauline"*1* -- 1. "Sun-treader, life and light
be thine for ever!" 2. The Dawn of Beauty; 3. Andromeda; 4. Morning.
II. "Heap Cassia, Sandal-buds," etc. (song from "Paracelsus").
III. "Over the Sea our Galleys went" (song from "Paracelsus").
IV. The Joy of the World ("Paracelsus").*2* V. From "Sordello" --
1. Sunset;*3* 2. The Fugitive Ethiop;*4* 3. Dante.*5*
VI. Ottima and Sebald (Pt. 1, "Pippa Passes"). VII. Jules and Phene
(Pt. 2, "Pippa Passes"). VIII. My Last Duchess. IX. In a Gondola.
X. Home Thoughts from Abroad (1 and 2). XI. Meeting at Night:
Parting at Morning. XII. A Grammarian's Funeral.
XIII. Saul. XIV. Rabbi Ben Ezra. XV. Love among the Ruins.
XVI. Evelyn Hope. XVII. My Star. XVIII. A Toccata of Galuppi's.
XIX. Abt Vogler. XX. Memorabilia. XXI. Andrea del Sarto.
XXII. Two in the Campagna. XXIII. James Lee's Wife. XXIV. Prospice.
XXV. From "The Ring and the Book" -- 1. O Lyric Love (The Invocation:
26 lines); 2. Caponsacchi (ll. 2069 to 2103); 3. Pompilia (ll. 181 to 205);
4. Pompilia (ll. 1771 to 1845); 5. The Pope (ll. 2017 to 2228);
6. Count Guido (Book 11, ll. 2407 to 2427). XXVI. Prologue to "La Saisiaz".
XXVII. Prologue to "Two Poets of Croisic". XXVIII. Epilogue to
"Two Poets of Croisic". XXIX. Never the Time and Place.
XXX. "Round us the Wild Creatures," etc. (song from "Ferishtah's Fancies").
XXXI. "The Walk" (Pts. 9, 10, 11, 12, of "Gerard de Lairesse").
XXXII. "One word more" (To E. B. B.).*6*

--
*1* The first, from the line quoted, extends through 55 lines --
"To see thee for a moment as thou art." No. 2 consists of the 18 lines
beginning, "They came to me in my first dawn of life." No. 3,
the 11 lines of the Andromeda picture. No. 4, the 59 lines beginning,
"Night, and one single ridge of narrow path" (to "delight").
*2* No. IV. comprises the 29 lines beginning, "The centre fire
heaves underneath the earth," down to "ancient rapture."
*3* No. V. The 6 lines beginning, "That autumn ere has stilled."
*4*
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