Those of Mr. Browning's poems which are directly prompted by thought
have their counterpart in a large number which are specially inspired by
emotion; and must be noticed as such. But this group will perhaps be the
most artificial of all; for while thought is with him often uncoloured
by feeling, he seldom expresses feeling as detached from thought. The
majority, for instance, of his love poems are introduced by the title
"dramatic," and describe love as bound up with such varieties of life
and character, that questions of life and character are necessarily
raised by them; the emotion thus conveyed being really more intense,
because more individual, than could be given in any purely lyric
effusion not warmed by the poet's own life. Some few, however, are
genuine lyrics, whether regarded as personal utterances or not; and in
the case of two or three of these, the personal utterance is
unmistakable.