HOW TO GET THE BEST OF BROWNING'S POEMS--READ THE LYRICS FIRST
AND THEN TAKE UP THE LONGER AND THE MORE DIFFICULT WORKS.
The greatest of English poets since Shakespeare, is the title given to
Robert Browning by many admirers of recognized ability as critics. For
his dramatic force and his insight into human nature there is no
question that Browning deserves this high rank. In these two qualities
he stands above Tennyson. But a large part of his work is written in a
style so crabbed that it acts as a bar to one's enjoyment of many fine
poems. Only the most resolute reader can go through _Sordello_ or _The
Ring and the Book_, the latter, with its interminable discussions of
motive and its curious descriptions of half-forgotten legal and church
methods of the seventeenth century. If one-half this long poem of
over twenty thousand lines had been cut out, it would have been vastly
improved.
[Illustration: ROBERT BROWNING FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY HOLLYER AFTER
THE PORTRAIT BY G.F. WATTS, R.A.]
The advocates of Browning hold that the study of the poet's
obscurities is good mental discipline, but I am of the belief that
poetry, like music, should not demand too great exertion of the mind
to appreciate its beauty. Wagner's "Seigfried" and "Parsifal" are
altogether too long to be enjoyed thoroughly. The composer would have
done well to eliminate a third of each, for as they are produced they
strain the attention to the point of fatigue, and no work of art
should ever tire its admirers.
In the same way Browning offends against this primal canon of art. A
man who was capable of writing the most melodious verse, as is shown
in some of his lyrics, he refused to put his thoughts in simple form,
and often clothed them in obscurity. The result is that the great
public which would have enjoyed his studies of character and his
powerful dramatic faculty is repelled at the outset by the
difficulties of understanding his poems. Browning added to this
obscurity by constant reference to little-known authors. This was not
pedantry, any more than Milton's use of classic mythology was
pedantry. Both men possessed unusual knowledge of rare books, and both
were much given to quoting authors who are unknown to the general
reading public.
But with all these difficulties in the way, there still remains a body
of verse in Browning's work which will richly repay any reader. The
lyrics and short poems like _The Pied Piper of Hamelin_, _Pippa
Passes_, _Prospice_, _O Lyric Love_, _The Last Ride_, _One Word More_,
_How They Brought the Good News_, _Herve Riel_, the epilogue to
_Asolando_, _The Lost Leader_, _Men and Women_, and _A Soul's Tragedy_
will give any reader a taste of the real Browning. If you like these
poems, then try the more ambitious poems like _A Blot in the
'Scutcheon_, _The Inn Album_, _Fifine at the Fair_ and others.
Browning, above all other English poets, seems to have had the power
of seizing upon a character at a crucial hour in life and laying bare
all the impulses that impel one to high achievement or great
self-sacrifice. He seems always to have worked at the highest
emotional stress, so that his words are surcharged with feeling. In
many of his poems this emotional element is painful in its intensity.
Character to him was the main feature, and his selections comprise
some of the most picturesque in all history. That he was able to make
these people live and move and impress us as real flesh-and-blood
human beings shows the great creative power of the man, who ought to
have written some of the world's finest plays.
Robert Browning was born in 1812 and died in 1889. His father, though
a clerk in the Bank of England, was a fine classical scholar and had
dabbled in verse. His mother was an accomplished musician. Browning
had every early advantage, and while still a lad he came under the
spell of Byron and had his poetical faculty greatly stimulated by the
"Napoleon of rhyme." Then came Shelley and Keats, and their influence
set him upon the course which he followed for many years. His first
poem was _Pauline_, which has passages of rare beauty set among dreary
commonplaces. He followed this with _Paracelsus_ and _Strafford_,
which opened to him the doors of all London salons and made his
reputation. _Sordello_, one of his most difficult poems, came next,
but he varied these dramatic tragedies with a series of short poems
called _Bells and Pomegranates_. In this the finest thing was _Pippa
Passes_, which was warmly praised by Elizabeth Barrett, who
afterwards became his wife. Among the many poems that Browning
produced in five years were _Colombe's Birthday_, _A Blot in the
'Scutcheon_, _Dramatic Romances and Lyrics_ and _A Soul's Tragedy_.
Browning, in 1846, married Elizabeth Barrett, the author of _Lady
Geraldine's Courtship_ and other poems, a woman who had been an
invalid, confined to her room for years. Love gave her strength to
arise and walk, and love also gave her the courage to defy the foolish
tyranny of her father and elope with Browning. What kind of man that
father was may be seen in his comment after the marriage: "I've no
objection to the young man, but my daughter should have been thinking
of another world." They went to Italy, where for fifteen years they
made an ideal home. Mrs. Browning's story of her love is seen in
_Sonnets From the Portuguese_, and some of her finest work is in _Casa
Guidi Windows_. Each stimulated the other, while there was a notable
absence of that jealousy which has often served to turn the love of
literary men and women into the fiercest hatred.
Mrs. Browning died suddenly in 1861, and the poet for some time was
stunned by this unlooked-for calamity. He spent two years in
seclusion at work on poems, but then he gathered up his courage and
once more took his old place in the social life of London. In
_Prospice_ and _One Word More_, written in the autumn following his
wife's death, he shows that he has overcome all doubts of the reality
of immortality. These two poems alone would entitle Browning to the
highest place among the world's great poets. In addition he wrote the
memorial to his wife, _O Lyric Love_, that is the cry of the soul left
here on this earth to the soul of the beloved in Paradise. To the
sympathetic this poem, with its solemn rhythm, will appeal like
splendid organ music.
[Illustration: ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING AFTER THE PORTRAIT BY
FIELD TALFOURD]
Among Browning's other poems that are noteworthy are _Fifine at the
Fair_, _Red Cotton Nightcap Country_, _The Inn Album_ and _Dramatic
Idylls_. Browning's last poem, _Asolando_, appeared in London on the
same day that its author died at Venice. As the great bell of San
Marco struck ten in the evening, Browning, as he lay in bed, asked his
son if there were any news of the new volume. A telegram was read
saying the book was well received. The aged poet smiled and breathed
his last.
In beginning the reading of Browning it is well to understand that at
least half or maybe two-thirds of his work should be discarded at the
outset, as it is of interest only to scholars. My suggestion to one
who would learn to love Browning is to get a little book, _Lyrical
Poems of Robert Browning_, by Dr. A.J. George. The editor in a preface
indicates the best work of Browning, and also brings out strongly the
fact that readers, and especially young readers, must be given poems
which interest them. His selections of lyrics have been made from this
standpoint, and his notes will be found very helpful. He develops the
point that Browning's great revelation to the world through his poems
was his strong and abiding assurance that man has in him the principle
of divinity, and that many of the experiences that the world calls
failures are really the stepping stones of the ascent to that conquest
of self and that development of the whole nature which means the
highest life. He says also that Browning is one of the most eloquent
expounders of the doctrine of the reality of a future life, in which
those who live a noble and unselfish life will get their reward in an
existence free from all physical ills.
In this little book will be found _Pippa Passes_, a noble series of
lyrics, which develops the idea of the silent influence of a little
silk weaver of Asolo upon four sets of people in the great crises of
their lives. In each episode Pippa sings a song that awakens remorse
or kindles manhood or arouses patriotism or duty. It is a perfect
poem. Among other lyrics given here are _Evelyn Hope_, which must be
bracketed with Burns' _To Mary in Heaven_ or with Wordsworth's _Lucy_
and _Prospice_, which sounds the note of deep personal love that is as
sure of immortality as of life. It is as beautiful and as inspiring as
Tennyson's _Crossing the Bar_. Other poems due to Browning's love for
his wife are _My Star_ and _One Word More_.
If these lyrics appeal to you, then take up some of Browning's longer
poems, _A Blot in the 'Scutcheon_, _Colombe's Birthday_, _A Soul's
Tragedy_, _Fra Lippo Lippi_ and _Rabbi Ben Ezra_. Very few readers in
these days have time or patience to read _The Ring and the Book_, but
it will repay your attention, as it is the most remarkable attempt in
all literature to revive the tragedy of the great and innocent love of
a woman and a priest.
Among the many fine passages in Browning, I think there is nothing
which equals these lines in _O Lyric Love_, the beautiful invocation
to his wife:
O lyric Love, half angel and half bird
And all a wonder and a wild desire--
Boldest of hearts that ever braved the sun,
Took sanctuary within the holier blue
And sang a kindred soul out to his face--
Hail then, and hearken from the realms of help!
Never may I commence my song, my due
To God who best taught song by gift of thee,
Except with bent head and beseeching hand--
That shall despite the distance and the dark,
What was, again may be; some interchange
Of grace, some splendor once thy very thought,
Some benediction anciently thy smile.
The songs in _Pippa Passes_ should be read, as they are as near
perfect as Shakespeare's songs or the songs of Tennyson in _The
Princess_.