Selected Poems

Robert Browning was one of the greatest of English poets, whose intense and original imagination enabled him to transform any subject he chose - whether everyday or sublime - into startling memorable verse. In his work he brought to life the personalities of a diverse range of characters, and introduced a new immediacy, colloquial energy and psychological complexity to the poetry of his day. This selection brings together verse ranging from early dramatic monologues such as the chilling 'My Last Duchess' and the ribald 'Fra Lippo Lippi', which show his gift for inhabiting the mind of another, to the popular children's poem 'The Pied Piper of Hamelin' and many lesser known works. All display his innovative techniques of diction, rhythm and symbol, which transformed Victorian poetry and influenced major poets of the twentieth century such as Ezra Pound, T. S. Eliot and Robert Frost.

Selected PoemsIntroduction
Note on the Text
Porphyria's Lover
Johannes Agricola in Meditation
Song from Pippa Passes ("The year's at the spring")
Scene from Pippa Passes ("There goes a swallow to Venice. . .")
My Last Duchess
Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister
The Pied Piper of Hamelin; A Chld's Story
"How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix"
The Lost Leader
Meeting at Night
Parting at Morning
Home-Thoughts, from Abroad
The Bishop Orders His Tomb at Saint Praxed's Church
Love Among the Ruins
A Lovers' Quarrel
Up at a Villa - Down in the City
Fra Lippo Lippi
A Toccata of Galuppi's
An Epistle Containing the Strange Medical Experience of Karshish, the Arab Physician
Mesmerism
A Serenade at the Villa
"Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came"
The Statue and the Bust
How It Strikes a Contemporary
The Patriot
Memorabilia
Andrea del Sarto
In a Year
Cleon
Two in the Campagna
A Grammarian's Funeral
James Lee's Wife
I. James Lee's Wife Speaks at the Window
II. By the Fireside
III. In the Doorway
IV. Along the Beach
V. On the Cliff
VI. Reading a Book, Under the Cliff
VII. Among the Rocks
VIII. Beside the Drawing-Board
IX. On Deck
Gold Hair: A Story of Pornic
Dis Aliter Visum; or, Le Byron de Nos Jours
A Death in the Desert
Caliban upon Setebos; or, Natural Theology in the Island
Confessions
Youth and Art
A Likeness
Mr. Sludge, "The Medium"
Apparent Failure
Epilogue [ to Dramatis Personae]
House
Saint Martin's Summer
Ned Bratts
Clive
[ Wanting is - what? ]
Donald
Never the Time and the Place
The Names
Now
Beatric Signorini
Spring Song
Notes
Index of Titles
Index of First Lines