Even so imperfect, not to say arbitrary, a classification as I have been
able to attempt, excludes a number of Mr. Browning's minor poems; for
its necessary condition was the presence of some distinctive mood of
thought or feeling by which the poem could be classed; and in many, even
of the most striking and most characteristic, this condition does not
exist. In one group, for instance, the prevailing mood is either too
slightly indicated, or too fugitive, or too complex, or even too
fantastic, to be designated by any term but "poetic." Others, again,
such as songs and legends, depict human emotion in too simple or too
general a form, to be thought of as anything but "popular;" and a third
group may be formed of dramatic pictures or episodes, which unite the
qualities of the other two.