Robert Browning: How to Know Him

A free download from www.dertz.in

Project Gutenberg's Robert Browning: How To Know Him, by William
Lyon Phelps #3 in our series by William Lyon Phelps
Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the
copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing
this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook.
This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project
Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the
header without written permission.
Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the
eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is
important information about your specific rights and restrictions in how
the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a
donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved.
**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since
1971**
*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of
Volunteers!*****
Title: Robert Browning: How To Know Him
Author: William Lyon Phelps
Release Date: October, 2005 [EBook #9067]
[Yes, we are more than
one year ahead of schedule]
[This file was first posted on September
2, 2003]
Edition: 10

Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
0. START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROBERT
BROWNING: HOW TO KNOW HIM ***
Produced by C. Aldarondo, T. Vergon, R. Prince and the Distributed
Proofreaders
[Illustration: ROBERT BROWNING]
ROBERT BROWNING: HOW TO KNOW HIM
By WILLIAM LYON PHELPS, M.A., PH.D. Lampton Professor of
English
Literature at Yale
WITH PORTRAIT
TO JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY WITH SINCERE AFFECTION
AND RESPECT
PREFACE
In this volume I have attempted to give an account of Browning's life
and an estimation of his character: to set forth, with sufficient
illustration from his poems, his theory of poetry, his aim and method:
to make clear some of the leading ideas in his work: to show his
fondness for paradox: to exhibit the nature and basis of his optimism. I
have given in complete form over fifty of his poems, each one preceded
by my interpretation of its meaning and
significance.
W. L. P.
[Illistration: Seven Gables, Lake Huron]
CONTENTS

CHAPTER
I THE MAN
II BROWNING'S THEORY OF POETRY
III LYRICS
IV DRAMATIC LYRICS
V DRAMATIC MONOLOGUES
VI POEMS OF PARADOX
VII BROWNING'S OPTIMISM
INDEX
LIST OF POEMS
ABT VOGLER
ANDREA DEL SARTO
APPARENT FAILURE
BAD DREAMS
BISHOP ORDERS HIS TOMB, THE
CALIBAN UPON SETEBOS
CAVALIER TUNES
"CHILDE ROLAND TO THE DARK TOWER CAME"
CONFESSIONS
COUNT GISMOND

CRISTINA
EPILOGUE TO ASOLANDO
EPILOGUE TO FEFINE AT THE FAIR
EPISTLE (AN) CONTAINING THE STRANGE MEDICAL
EXPERIENCE OF KARSHISH
EVELYN HOPE
EYES CALM BESIDE THEE
FACE, A
GLOVE, THE
GRAMMARIAN'S FUNERAL, A
GUARDIAN-ANGEL, THE
HOME-THOUGHTS, FROM ABROAD
HOME-THOUGHTS, FROM THE SEA
HOW IT STRIKES A CONTEMPORARY
"HOW THEY BROUGHT THE GOOD NEWS FROM GHENT
TO AIX"
JAMES LEE'S WIFE (two stanzas from)
JOHANNES AGRICOLA IN MEDITATION
LABORATORY, THE
LAST RIDE TOGETHER, THE
LOST LEADER, THE

LOST MISTRESS, THE
LOVE AMONG THE RUINS
MEETING AT NIGHT
MY LAST DUCHESS
MY STAR
NEVER THE TIME AND THE PLACE
ONE WAY OF LOVE
ONE WORD MORE
OVER THE SEA OUR GALLEYS WENT
PARTING AT MORNING
PORPHYRIA'S LOVER
PROLOGUE TO ASOLANDO
PROLOGUE TO JOCOSERIA
PROLOGUE TO LA SAISIAZ
PROLOGUE TO PACCHIAROTTO
PROLOGUE TO THE TWO POETS OF CROISIC
PROSPICE
RABBI BEN EZRA
REPHAN
RESPECTABILITY

SAUL
SIBRANDUS SCHAFNABURGENSIS
SOLILOQUY OF THE SPANISH CLOISTER
SONG FROM A BLOT IN THE 'SCUTCHEON
SONGS FROM PARACELSUS
SONGS FROM PIPPA PASSES
STATUE (THE) AND THE BUST
SUMMUM BONUM
"TRANSCENDENTALISM"
UP AT A VILLA--DOWN IN THE CITY
WHICH?
BROWNING
I
THE MAN
If we enter this world from some other state of existence, it seems
certain that in the obscure pre-natal country, the power of free
choice--so stormily debated by philosophers and theologians here--does
not exist. Millions of earth's infants are handicapped at the start by
having parents who lack health, money, brains, and character; and in
many cases the environment is no better than the ancestry. "God plants
us where we grow," said Pompilia, and we can not save the rose by
placing it on the tree-top. Robert Browning, who was perhaps the
happiest man in the nineteenth century, was particularly fortunate in his
advent. Of the entire population of the planet in the year of grace 1812,
he could hardly have selected a better father and mother than were

chosen for him; and the place of his birth was just what it should have
been, the biggest town on earth. All his life long he was emphatically a
city man, dwelling in London, Florence, Paris, and Venice, never
remaining long in rural surroundings.
Browning was born on May 7, 1812, in Southampton Street,
Camberwell, London, a suburb on the southern side of the river. One
hundred years later,