Robert Browning: Summary and Analysis of "Andrea Del Sarto (Called 'The Faultless Painter') "

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Robert Browning
Summary and Analysis of "Andrea del Sarto (Called

'The Faultless Painter')"
Summary
This dramatic monologue is narrated by Renaissance painter Andrea del Sarto to his
wife Lucrezia. They live in Florence. Andrea begs Lucrezia that they end a quarrel over
whether the painter should sell his paintings to a friend of his wife's. He acquiesces to her
wish and promises he will give her the money if she will only hold his hand and sit with him
by the window from which they can survey Florence.
He admits to feeling a deep melancholy, in which "a common grayness silvers everything"
(line 35), and hopes she can pull him from it. He tells her that if she were to smile for him,
he would be able to pull himself from such sadness. Andrea considers himself a failure as
an artist, both because Lucrezia has lost her "first pride" (line 37) in him and because he
has only one talent: the ability to create faultless paintings. Though many praise him for
creating flawless reproductions, which he admits he does easily, with "no sketches first, no
studies" (line 68), Andrea is aware that his work lacks the spirit and soul that bless his
contemporaries Rafael and Michel Agnolo (Michelangelo). Considering himself only a
"craftsman" (line 82), he knows they are able to glimpse heaven whereas he is stuck with
earthly inspirations.
He surveys a painting that has been sent to him and notes how it has imperfections he
could easily fix, but a "soul" (line 108) he could never capture. He begins to blame Lucrezia
for denying him the soul that could have made him great, and while he forgives her for her
beauty, he accuses her of not having brought a "mind" (line 126) that could have inspired
him. He wonders whether what makes his contemporaries great is their lack of a wife.
Andrea then reminisces on their past. Long before, he had painted for a year in France for
the royal court, producing work of which both he and Lucrezia were proud. But when she
grew "restless" (line 165), they set off for Italy, where they bought a nice house with the
money and he became a less inspired artist. However, he contemplates that it could have
gone no other way, since fate intended him to be with Lucrezia, and he hopes future
generations will forgive him his choices.
As evidence of his talent, he recalls how Michelangelo once complimented his talent to
Rafael, but quickly loses that excitement as he focuses on the imperfections of the painting
in front of him and his own failings. He begs Lucrezia to stay with him more often, sure that
her love will inspire him to greater achievements, and he could thereby "earn more, give
[her] more" (line 207).
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Lucrezia is called from outside, by her cousin, who is implicitly her lover, and Andrea begs
her to stay. He notes that the cousin has "loans" (line 221) that need paying, and says he
will pay those if she stays. She seems to decline the offer and to insist she will leave.
In the poem's final section, Andrea grows melancholy again and insists he does "regret
little… would change still less" (line 245). He justifies having fled France and sold out his
artistic integrity and praises himself for his prolific faultless paintings. He notes again that
Lucrezia is a part of his failure, but insists that she was his choice. Finally, he gives her leave
to go to her cousin.
Analysis
"Andrea del Sarto" is unique in Browning's dramatic monologue oeuvre because of its
incredibly melancholic tone and pessimistic view of art. The voice, as well-drawn as usual,
falls into blank verse, unrhymed, mostly iambic lines, but lacks the charisma of most of
Browning's speakers. It's a fitting choice, since the character's basic approach to his
dilemma is a rational, dialectical one – he follows several lines of thought in trying to find
who or what is to blame for his unhappiness, reasoning through each option until he wears
himself out. The piece veers between extreme moods and thoughts without any clear
separations, suggesting the rhythm of depressive, desperate thought.
The irony is that his ability to rationalize does not mean he gets anywhere closer to truth,
or that he is free from severe psychological hang-ups. First, a bit of history is useful. As with
this poem's companion piece, "Fra Lippo Lippi," Browning was inspired towards this
subject by Vasari's Lives of the Artists, which tells of how Andrea was famous in his day for
his ability to paint faultless work, though he was later eclipsed in greatness by his
contemporaries, compared with whose work his looked vacuous. The other historical detail
Browning draws upon is the painter's artistic life: he had painted for the French king for a
while, until he and his wife Lucrezia took their bounty and went to Florence, where they
used that money to buy a wonderful house.
Andrea's basic dilemma can be boiled down to one that still resonates with artists today:
should he pursue high art or commercial art? Obviously, the two are not mutually
exclusive, but the pursuit of the former demands great ambition and a willingness to fail,
whereas the latter can be produced according to more easily categorizable formula. Andrea
acknowledges that an artist ought be drawn towards the demands of high art, which
pushes him to reach for the heavens: "a man's reach should exceed his grasp, Or what's a
heaven for?" (lines 97-98). And yet he repeatedly chooses to stay Earth-bound, choosing to
create paintings for money, to stay within his comfort realm (in which he can create
faultless paintings without any difficulty) and thereby maintain a high standard of living.
He spends the monologue seeking the cause of his choice. The most common cause he
returns to is his wife, so much so that he wonders whether his more acclaimed
contemporaries have perhaps gained in ambition by lacking a wife. It's clear that he is
under Lucrezia's thumb, both at the beginning – in which he acquiesces to painting for the
sake of her "friend's friend" (line 5) even as it bothers him – and at the end, when he sends
her off to a 'cousin' who is more than likely a lover, and whose debts Lucrezia forces her

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husband to work in order to pay. And yet, for all the ammunition he has to despise her,
Andrea consistently pulls his punches. He accuses her of infidelity, of lack of faith in his art,
of not having a "mind," but each time retreats and forgives her everything. Time and time
again, he comes back to himself, insisting that he chose her. One question that then
emerges is: does his refusal to directly confront her reveal a kindness in him or a weakness,
a fear of recognizing his own inability to confront her and by extension himself?
His idea of ambition and great art seems well-founded and falls into a philosophy Browning
often espoused, the doctrine of the imperfect. Like many artists before and after him,
Browning believed that great art has to be willing to fail, whereas an artist like Andrea, who
refuses to compromise his ability for faultless work, can only produce pretty pictures that
reveal no depths of humanity. Perhaps the most telling irony of the poem comes in the
speaker's continual return to the painting that sits in the room; he constantly notes how its
arm is imperfect and how he could fix it, even as he notes that it reveals great soul in its
artistry. In other words, while Andrea endeavors to discover the cause of his unhappiness,
he reveals to the reader that his inability to take risks lies deep within himself.
It is here that the basic arc of the poem is revealed: ultimately, through his struggle to
blame fate and Lucrezia for his unhappiness, Andrea constantly returns to himself as the
villain. The dramatic irony is uncharacteristically light in this poem, because Andrea
basically knows the answer to his query. Not only did he choose Lucrezia in the first place,
but he also chose to escape France with her. Further, he chooses to let her go off to her
lover, whom she refers to as her "cousin," and he chooses to continue painting in a way he
despises. The deep fear at the heart of the poem is a fear of having no inspired purpose, of
having talent but no direction. The heart of such despair is so deep that Andrea will use his
every rational facility to avoid looking into that question, and so he instead convinces
himself that all will be okay. His greatest weakness is that he barely asks the hardest
question: what if all of this means nothing? Perhaps were he to fully confront that question,
he would create work that resonated in a deeper way than his current paintings. But he is
unwilling or unable to do so, and convinces himself that he chooses the material over the
heavenly world, hoping he will be forgiven for future generations for the choice, even as he
is deep-down certain that will not be the case.
Summary and Analysis of "The Bishop Orders His

Tomb at St. Praxed's Church"
Summary
The poem is narrated by a fictional bishop on his deathbed. In his address, he falls in and
out of lucidity, often trailing off. The bishop addresses a group of young men whom he
calls "nephews," but there is implication one or more might be his sons; particularly one
named Anselm. He mentions a woman he once had as a lover, and how "Old Gandolf," his
predecessor and rival in the Church, envied him for having the woman.

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As he contemplates the inevitability of death, he reminds the men that they need to make
sure his tomb is built in St. Praxed's church as he plans. Old Gandolf died before him and
thus stole the "niche" where he planned to be buried, and so he intends now to have a
magnificent tomb built, both to bathe his corpse in luxury and to outshine Gandolf's modest
tomb of "onion-stone."
He describes how he wants the men to dig up some lapus lazuli, a precious stone that he
rescued from a burning church and then hid away in a secret place that he describes to the
men. He wants the stone placed between his knees so that Gandolf will be jealous. He
continues to describe how magnificently he wants the tomb adorned, but notices the men
whispering to each other and worries they are plotting against him. He accuses them of
waiting for his death so they can sell off his villas and bury him in a plain tomb. He grows
maudlin and begs them to at least decorate the tomb in jasper, a green stone, and to choose
an epitaph worthy of his legacy.
The bishop works himself up again as he contemplates the fading of his life, but then falls to
accusing the men of ingratitude. He finally accepts that they will act dishonorably against
him and blesses them anyway. As they leave, he again rememberes how Gandolf envied his
relationship with the woman he had mentioned earlier.
Analysis
This 1845 dramatic monologue, one of Browning's most accomplished in the form, is
notable both for its command of voice and for its contemplation of matters religious,
psychological, and historical.
In the most obvious sense, the poem uses dramatic irony to criticize the hypocrisy of
materialism in religion. The bishop, presumably accomplished in his field considering his
great wealth, confronts the mystery of death, one of the primary reasons people seek
religion in the first place, and yet is concerned almost exclusively with how magnificently
adorned his tomb will be. The way he speaks to the younger men suggests that he spent his
life speaking from a place of unquestioned authority; he is self-conscious to now give
orders while no longer having such firm authority. He gives meticulous orders about how
his tomb will be dressed, how they must fetch a stone he in fact stole from a burning church
and buried away as booty, and notes how a great tomb will equate him with "the airy dome
where live/the angels." He believes the lapis luzuli between his knees is equitable with
"God the Father's globe," as though he is only aware of the material side of his vocation as
priest, while totally oblivious to the humility and deference that is so integral to Christian
doctrine.
In other words, the dramatic irony is that he believes himself worthy of great remembrance
even while his requests reveal him to be a petty and misguided man, one whose sentiments
do not make him fit to be a leader of men. The way he speaks of his son Anselm – he at one
point notes how Anselm will stand at the foot of his tomb in piety – is counteracted by the
apparent disinterest and maliciousness he later realizes the men feel for his death. In
addition, his motivation is largely provided by his rivalry with Old Gandolf, suggesting that
the impulse towards religion for this bishop is rooted in power and ambition rather than in
true piety. Considering that he brandishes a former relationship with a woman – one whom

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he likely considers a temptress, since he says at one point that her eyes glittered "for [his]
soul" – as a virtue even as he is by default a celibate priest, it is clear that the man is full of
hypocrisy. He mentions nothing in the long poem about his accomplishments as a bishop,
only his wealth.
And yet the poem's attack can easily be interpreted as being larger than simply a critique of
this particular character. Browning wrote the poem while in a period of study of the
transitional early Renaissance period, in which the church was cementing its place as a
political organization and a surplus of new wealth had to be accounted for. While there is
no known historical corollary for this incident, St. Praxed's Church is a real place. In
addition, it is fairly clear that such greed and hunger for power was integral to the early
Renaissance church, suggesting that Browning is contemplating the all-too-human
contradictions within piety and materialism. The fact that this bishop, a top symbol of his
church, is unable to realize how easily he equates God and material wealth (when in fact
they ought to be diametrically opposed) is equally a comment on the religious situation of
the Renaissance and contemporary issues of religion.
However, as with all of Browning's work, the issue of psychology is at least equally
important to any other theme. The bishop's many hang-ups are far deeper than can be
easily explained by the power of religion. For one, he is fundamentally paranoid. The idea
that he continues to make decisions based on the prospect of embarrassing a dead rival
suggests deep insecurity. The after-life being a central facet of Christianity, he nevertheless
chooses to place his tomb somewhere that will allow him to watch Gandolf's corpse's envy.
Further, he has been unable throughout his life to get over this woman, so much so that his
only real comment about her relates to how his relationship made Gandolf envious. His lack
of comment on their relationship and the above-mentioned implication that she was a
temptress of sorts suggest that perhaps she left him unfulfilled, and so he must compensate
by treating her as a commodity to make Gandolf jealous.
So extensive are his jealousies and hang-ups that he expects others to follow suit. Because
we are confined to his perspective, we have no idea whether the men to whom he speaks
(possibly his sons) are in fact plotting against him, but he assumes as much. He assumes
they are waiting for him to die so they can fashion him a paltry tomb and then steal his
villas. When he blesses them at the end of the poem despite their presumed ingratitude, it
could be seen as the bishop making peace with what he assumes is an integral facet of
human nature. And yet one is left to wonder how valuable such a blessing is, considering
that his depiction of the Eucharist is "God made and eaten all day long." Again, he thinks of
these ostensibly glorious elements as commodities to be viewed in terms of material worth.
His threat to the young men is that he will give the villas to the Pope to deprive them of the
inheritance, suggesting that even the Pope – the highest figure of the Church – is driven by
jealousy and material greed.
Browning's command of voice allows much depth to come through dramatic irony. The
blank verse (in which the lines are iambic but unrhymed) creates a relatively inelegant
address (compared to, for example, the voice of a character like the duke of "My Last
Duchess"), which is fitting for a man who compromises glory for the sake of material

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business. The masterful use of the dying address, in which he constantly loses his train of
thought and lapses into nonsense, only makes believable that he would speak with such
frankness about his wishes. Usually, the dramatic irony in Browning's monologues emerges
because the speaker is in control of his language – like the duke or the narrator of
"Porphyria's Lover" – but in this case, the speaker is extremely forthright about his
desires, and so the irony cuts deeper when we see his deepest beliefs are in fact perverted
and full of contradiction.
But the most impressive element of the voice is in the moments of sincerity that emerge
occasionally. While most of the poem falls in line with the above analysis, there are
moments when the bishop realizes the truth of impending death, of what it means to be
"dying in state and by such slow degrees." There is a universal human element in this, an
awareness of the inevitable, suggesting that much of the hypocrisy and contradiction in the
bishop is societal and man-made, but that at the moment of our death, we all must face
what cannot be dressed up and displayed.
Summary and Analysis of "Fra Lippo Lippi"

Summary
The poem begins as the painter and monk Lippo Lippi, also the poem's narrator, is caught
by some authority figures while roving his town's red light district. As he begins, he is being
physically accosted by one of the police. He accuses them of being overzealous and that he
need not be punished. It is not until he name-drops "Cosimo of the Medici" (from the ruling
family of Florence) as a nearby friend that he is released.
He then addresses himself specifically to the band's leader, identifying himself as the
famous painter and then suggesting that they are all, himself included, too quick to bow
down to what authority figures suggest. Now free, he suggests that the listener allow his
subordinates to wander off to their own devices. Then he tells how he had been busy the
past three weeks shut up in his room, until he heard a band of merry revelers passing by
and used a ladder to climb down to the streets to pursue his own fun. It was while engaged
in that fun that he was caught, and he defends himself to the judgmental listener, asking
"what am I a beast for?" if not to pursue his beastly appetites.
It is then that Lippo begins to tell his life story. He was orphaned while still a baby and
starved until his aunt gave him over to a convent. When the monks there asked if he was
willing to renounce the world in service of monk-hood, Lippo was quick to agree since
renouncing the world meant a steady supply of food in the convent. He quickly took to the
"idleness" of a monk's life, even at eight years old, but was undistinguished in any of the
studies they had him attempt.
His one talent was the ability to recreate the faces of individuals through drawings,
partially because as a starving child he was given great insight into the details that
distinguished one face from another and the way those faces illustrated different

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characteristics. Instead of studying in the convent, he devoted himself to doodles and

drawings, until the Prior noticed his talent and assigned him to be the convent's artist.
As the convent's artist, Lippo proceeded to paint a myriad of situations, all drawn from the
real world. The common monks loved his work since in his artistry they could recognize
images from their everyday lives. However, "the Prior and the learned" do not admire
Lippo's focus on realistic subjects, instead insisting that the artist's job is not to pay
"homage to the perishable clay" of flesh and body, but to transcend the body and attempt to
reveal the soul. They insist that he paint more saintly images, focusing on representations
of praise and saintliness instead of everyday reality.
Lippo protests to his listener that a painter can reveal the soul through representations of
the body, since "simple beauty" is "about the best thing God invents." Lippo identifies this
as the main conflict of his otherwise-privileged life: where he wants to paint things as they
are, his masters insist he paint life from a moral perspective. As much as he hates it, he
must acquiesce to their wishes in order to stay successful, and hence he must go after
prostitutes and other unsavory activity, like the one he was caught involved in at poem's
beginning. As a boy brought up poor and in love with life, he cannot so easily forget his
artistic impulse to represent life as he sees it to be.
He then speaks to the listener about what generations of artists owe one another and how
an artist who breaks new ground must always flaunt the conventions. He mentions a
painter named Hulking Tom who studies under him, who Lippo believes will further
reinvent artistic practice in the way he himself has done through pursuing realism.
He poses to his listener the basic question whether it is better to "paint [things] just as they
are," or to try to improve upon God's creations. He suggests that even in reproducing
nature, the artist has the power to help people to see objects that they have taken for
granted in a new light. He grows angry thinking of how his masters ruin the purpose of art,
but quickly apologies before he might anger the policeman.
He then tells his listener about his plan to please both his masters and himself. He is
planning to paint a great piece of religious art that will show God, the Madonna, and "of
course a saint or two." However, in the corner of the painting, he will include a picture of
himself watching the scene. He then fantasizes aloud how a "sweet angelic slip of a thing"
will address him in the painting, praising his talent and authorship, until the "hothead
husband" comes and forces Lippi to hide away in the painting. Lippo bids goodbye to his
listener and heads back home.
Analysis
"Fra Lippo Lippi" stands as one of Browning's most sophisticated dramatic monologues
because it works on so many different levels. It is a discourse on the purpose of art, on the
responsibility of the artist, the limits of subjectivity, the inadequacy of moral shapes and
strictures, and lastly a triumph of dramatic voice.

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Browning was inspired to write this poem after reading about Filippo Lippi in
Vasari's Lives of the Artists, a compendium of Renaissance painters. Vasari identifies Lippi
as the first realist painter, and Browning was attracted to the idea of Lippi being a ground
breaker in terms of artistic style. At the time Lippi was painting, art was expected to
conform to certain religious principles and to pursue shadowy, moral forms rather than
delve into the intricacies of life as it is. Browning would have been attracted to this idea as a
writer of complicated psychology in the midst of the Victorian era, which again pushed the
idea that art should have a moral purpose.
Probably the most resonant theme in the poem is Lippo's dialectic on the purpose of art.
Basically, his dilemma comes down to two competing philosophies: where he wants to
paint life as it is, thereby revealing its wondrous complexity, his superiors want him to
paint life through a moral lens, to use his painting as an inspirational tool. Lippo proposes
in several places the importance of "realism" as a painting style. The best argument for it
can be found in the speaker himself, who frequently reveals his love of life. Notice the many
times he breaks into song in the poem, which suggests his whimsical nature. His ability to
use details in characterizing people (like when he talks of begging from a variety of
different individuals) shows that he has an eye for the myriad distinctions in the world. As
a realist, Lippo believes art should aspire to capture the beauty God has made in hopes of
evoking responses from its audience. Further, he suggests that humans have a tendency to
overlook the details of their lives, to ignore "things we have passed perhaps a hundred
times." When a painter presents the same objects through art, a person is able to suddenly
appreciate them in a new light, therefore appreciating God's beauty as it was meant to be
appreciated. As evidence of the effectiveness of his philosophy, Lippo cites the common
monks who loved his paintings and enjoyed recognizing their world in his depictions.
As a counter to this philosophy, Lippo's superiors believe art should "instigate to prayer."
They eschew anything that reminds the viewer of the body, instead insisting that art should
represent the soul and thereby inspire man to be better than he is. The Prior needs art to
remind man of his religious instincts, suggesting that anything that focuses on the body
must be impure. Lippo wants to reveal the irony of this philosophy – he suggests that trying
to improve on God's beauty (which he captures through realism) is antithetical to the
purpose of trying to bring an audience closer to God. He suggests time and time again that
because life is full of complexity, contradiction, and wonder, representing it as it is will only
stress those qualities, whereas the attempt to "transcend" through art will ironically
simplify art into a pure, moral purpose that encourages people to "fast next Friday." Lippo
asks, "What need of art at all?" if its purpose is merely to encourage piety. When Lippo
paints a saint, he paints a saint, not what the saint represents, since in attempting to do the
latter, he would no longer capture the contradictions and intricacies of the saint.
The poem also considers an artist's responsibility, especially when he is doing something
new (as Browning certainly thought he was doing with his own work). When Lippo lists as
some of his sample subjects "the breathless fellow at the altar-foot/Fresh from his murder,"
the irony of a murderer in church calls to mind some of Browning's dramatic monologues
like "Porphyria's Lover." The poem ultimately suggests that an artist must be responsible
to only one thing: himself. Lippo paints as his masters demand because he must survive,
and he learned early on in life that by pretending to be something, he could stay fed instead

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of remaining hungry. In the same way that he pretended to renounce the world to get
bread, so does he continue to paint in a way he does not admire, all the while growing
bitter that he is not adequately expressing his view that good painting should evoke
questions and wonder. When he sketches his plan for a final painting at the end of the
poem, he is expressing an idea of how to feed both desires: he will paint what the Church
wants but also include himself, thereby making a subversive comment and negating the
moral purpose for which the painting ostensibly is meant.
It is in terms of this idea that the poem has a bigger purpose than just being about art.
Instead, it contemplates the limits of subjectivity. Basically, what Lippo's masters want is
for him to attempt a holy subjectivity, to capture the essence of his subjects rather than
their objective facts (which are defined by their specific physical characteristics, for
instance). This would conform to the Romantic tradition of poetry in which Browning
writes; by focusing on the subjective experience of nature, a Romantic poet aims to
transcend its physical limitations and reveal something greater. Browning, who was often
criticized for his objective focus on trying to represent characters outside his own mind
rather than "putting himself" into a poem, is making a challenge to this criticism. Lippo
wants us to see that his impulse to paint 'objectively' – to paint the world as it appears –
does not necessarily mean he eschews this subjective transcendence. One can capture the
subjective wonder of life by painting the objective, because it is only through the body that
we can even attempt to glimpse the soul. He suggests that attempting to paint the
'subjective' is to guess at God's meaning, when God has only given us the objective. In
essence, what Lippo (and Browning) are saying is that to reproduce the world as he sees it
is always to be both objective and subjective. By extension, Browning suggests that, for
example, the duke in "My Last Duchess" indeed represents Browning himself, as well as
humankind in general. However, Browning can go no further than representing
psychological realism as he observes it, because to pretend to have a facility for that is to be
dishonest – all we have are our eyes and senses, and an artist should revel in the freedom
and wonder of that. The mention of Hulking Tom only suggests that artists should be
ground breakers – in the same way Lippo has moved art to a new place, so will Hulking
Tom, for the world changes and artists need to continually mark those changes without
having to conform to illogical demands.
However, what really pushes an artist away from this recognition are moral expectations
and strictures, which this poem criticizes in Browning's usual ironic fashion. The scene in
which Lippo is first brought to the convent is hilarious. As he stuffs his mouth full of bread,
the "good fat father" asks the 8-year-old boy if he will "quit this very miserable world?"
Having known the pains of near-starvation, the boy knows better than the "fat father" the
pains of the world, but is taking great joy in the simplicity of bread. He ironically promises
to renounce the world so that he can easily taste the world's riches through a life of
monastic "idleness," and this irony is reflected in the demands the Prior will later make of
Lippo's paintings. The Prior wants Lippo to continually renounce the world in his art, to
ignore the body in favor the soul, but all the while we are to remember that this is a silly
irony. When the Prior suggests that art should inspire people to pray, to fast, and to fulfill
their religious duties, there is an implication of a hierarchy that must be maintained by
stressing those duties, all of which has to do with the material and physical world. These

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moral expectations are encouraged because they maintain the material world's chain of
command, and for an artist like Lippo, such a philosophy is necessarily a limitation on art.
It is for these reasons that Lippo encourages the police prelate to let him go. He stresses
that they, as subordinates to superiors, should not simply enforce laws because those laws
exist, but instead should recognize that man is a "beast" with beastly (sexual) desires. It is
easy to see in Lippo's defense an amusing attempt to rationalize his release, but it also ties
into the poem's main themes.
Ultimately, the poem is most effective in its masterful use of voice. Written in blank verse, it
attempts to capture the rhythms of human speech rather than conforming to any strict
poetic meter. Lippo's objective in the early part of the poem is simply to be released, and he
accomplishes this through his humorous name-dropping and defenses of his behavior.
However, he quickly falls into his life story, which suggests the extent of his psychological
repression. There is obviously nothing this simple policeman can do to help Lippo's
situation, but his insistence on speaking at such length to the man only stresses how
terribly he has been caught in a system unable to reveal his unique gifts. In a sense,
Browning's use of voice makes Lippo's point: by objectively capturing a character outside
of himself, Browning is able to engage in his own subjective hang-ups and fascinations
about art, life, and humanity. To paint a man as he might be (as Browning has done with
Lippo), with his imperfections intact, is to suggest wonderful possibilities.
Finally, the poem's final image offers a great allegory worthy of dissection. As mentioned
above, Lippo's inclusion of his own image in an otherwise pious painting merely stresses
the unavoidable collision between subjectivity and objectivity. He will give them what they
want but surreptitiously put himself in it anyway. The woman who praises him is often
linked to the muse, she who revels in his ability to push boundaries and capture
inspiration. From this perspective, the "hothead of a husband" must be the world and its
moral strictures, coming in to force the muse to stay within the lines. Interestingly enough,
when this conflict happens, Lippo hides himself behind a bench to watch it play out,
suggesting that it is this very conflict – between unfettered artistry and the demands of the
world – that fuel an artist's creativity. Once the fight between husband and angel is
complete, Lippo will have seen enough turmoil to have inspired his next painting.
Summary and Analysis of "A Grammarian's Funeral"

Summary
The speaker of this poem is a disciple of an accomplished grammarian who has recently
died. It begins with the speaker instructing others to help him "carry up this corpse" (line
1) so they can bury him high "on a tall mountain… crowded with culture" (lines 15-16), far
above normal human life down on "the unlettered plain with its herd and crop" (line 13).

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The speaker gives a eulogy for their master, telling how "he lived nameless" (line 35) in
pursuit of mastering his studies, which focused on Greek grammar. He was willing to
sacrifice his youth and ruin his body, aging extremely quickly, in the process ignoring
"men's pity" over his choice (line 44). The grammarian put off "actual life" (line 57) until
he could know everything there was to know about his field, believing such mastery would
give him a true understanding of life.
As the funeral party reaches the gates of the town where they wish to bury him, the
narrator again praises his master for a life that had "no end to learning" (line 78) and that
was willing to forgo the "NOW" (line 83) of life for the "forever" (line 84) of true
understanding. Even as his health continued to decline, the grammarian remained
ambitious towards mastering his field, until he finally died. The party reaches its spot, and
the speaker commends the grammarian's body as one "loftier than the world suspects" as
the world continues "living and dying" (lines 147-148).
Analysis
The basic dilemma of "A Grammarian's Funeral," which was published in Men and
Women in 1855, is whether it is better to live one's life or to understand one's life. It is a
classic literary theme that the two cannot be simultaneously chosen. Experiencing a
moment is different than contemplating a moment. The grammarian decided he needed to
understand life before he lived it and so he locked himself away, devoted solely to the study
of his grammar as the days passed and he fell into ill health. His disciples, of which the
speaker seems to be the leader, apparently applaud the choice as noble. The fact that they
are burying him far away from everyday life suggests that the grammarian has made a
noble choice and hence deserves to be buried apart from and above normal men; yet all the
while the reader is left to wonder whether such a life truly could bring happiness to the
grammarian.
Browning's work tends to suggest that he would value living one's life over understanding
one's life, since man can never fully understand the complexities of his own life, and love
offers a true happiness. However, as is often the case with his work, the answer is more
complicated in the poem.
Certainly, there is dramatic irony to suggest that the grammarian chose poorly in
dedicating his life to study over living. The triumphant tone the speaker uses makes
humorous the descriptions of the grammarian's afflictions. He talks of how the grammarian
grew "bald too, [with] eyes like lead" (line 53), how tussis (a cough) afflicted him, and how
his life was "cramped and diminished" (line 38). The disconnect between the content and
the high-spirited tone suggests that the speaker is unaware of how terrible the life he
describes actually was. Further, the disciples' goal – which is to remove the corpse far away
from the everyday life that the grammarian eschewed – requires much toil as they carry
him, an apt metaphor for the ineffectiveness of the grammarian's life choice. In the same
way that the grammarian had to sacrifice so much for his relatively obscure goal, so are
these men now pushing themselves into a difficult task simply to leave the man's body up
on a mountain.

12
And yet Browning tends to value the glory of a committed quest, even when the virtue of
the goal is uncertain. Consider how we are meant to be ambivalent about Rolandin "Childe
Roland": we admire him for staying committed to his quest, while pitying him because the
quest is doomed and unworthy of such dedication. Similarly, even if the grammarian made
a ridiculous choice, he stayed true to his course and thus is worthy of admiration. Even
when "man's pity" gave him cause to change his course, he stayed true. Further, he is to be
commended as a great man, if not a prudent one, because of his ambition. As the speaker
says, "That low man seeks a little thing to do,/Sees it and does it:/This high man, with a
great thing to pursue,/Dies ere he knows it" (lines 113-116). Regardless of whether the
quest could actually be completed, the grammarian pursued the goal because he believed
that in understanding his grammar he could understand the world.
How to judge the grammarian's choice is left to the reader, because psychology rarely
allows us to view the world in strict moral terms. For every bit of pity we are meant to feel
through the dramatic irony, we are also to recognize the greatness of devotion. We are left
to wonder whether any quest is truly winnable, and if not, whether one should be
commended for following it through regardless.
Summary and Analysis of "Meeting At Night"

Summary
The speaker is at sea at night, heading towards the black land in the distance. He briefly
paints a picturesque image of night at sea but moves forward until he pulls his vessel up on
to the sand.
He walks a mile along the beach and then across three fields until he approaches his goal, a
farm. He taps at the window, sees the lighting of a match, and then is overwhelmed by the
beating of his and his lover's hearts as they reunite.
Analysis
A short and relatively simple love poem, this piece still presents the subtext of the
importance of movement in life, and of the dichotomy between the stasis of art and the
action of life.
The entire poem has a sense of movement to it that reflects the speaker's desire to reunite
with his love. The poem's meter and sound clearly denote a sense of pressing intent. Read it
aloud to sense how the language is pushing ever forward, with three lines in the first stanza
alone beginning with "And," as though to suggest that what is on the speaker's mind is
never the moment he is in but rather the next thing, since the latter gets him closer to his
lover. Technically, the meter is iambic tetrameter, though it is hardly strict, as should be
expected in a poem that puts movement over order and contemplation.

13
This sense of movement is particularly interesting when compared to what is usually

expected of a poem of this sort. The imagery, especially in the first stanza, is extremely
picturesque and pastoral, the type of landscape that readers often expect poets to spend
time contemplating and describing. Poetry, after all, often attempts to capture the
complexities and beauty of particular moments, diving deeply into one image to discover
all of its profundity.
This speaker, however, is uninterested in the magnificence of "the yellow half-moon large
and low." Instead, his focus is on bypassing such elements so as to get to the beach, so he
can get to the fields, so he can get to farm. The message here from Browning, who as usual
makes no attempt to place himself directly into the work, seems to be that he chooses life
rather than art, that for him the goal is movement and energy rather than static
contemplation.
But when the speaker arrives to his love the poem abruptly ends. The fact that attainment
itself does necessitate a third stanza can imply one of two things: either we can believe that
the next action would be further movement of this sort, or we can believe that once he has
attained his happiness, he has no further need for writing. He has achieved the unspeakable
beauty of love, but as we see in the poem, he as speaker is not interested in plumbing the
depths of beauty. Therefore, once he achieves such beauty and happiness for himself, he
needs not write but rather can simply live.
It's worth noting the implications of secrecy in the poem. First, the journey and reunion
happen at night, suggesting a veil of transgression that in the Victorian age would likely be
linked to sexuality. Perhaps there is autobiographical impetus in exploring the theme from
this angle, considering that Browning had only recently wed Elizabeth Barrett Browning
after a courtship that they had to keep secret from her oppressive father. Many scholars see
in it a representation of this courtship, though Browning's general eschewal of
autobiography in his poetry makes it hard to imagine he would pursue that so explicitly.
Regardless, the sexuality does add a certain sense of danger to the poem. Not only is
sexuality implied in the clandestine meeting, but the image of the boat charging into the
beach, where it can "quench its speed I' the slushy sand" is easy to interpret as a metaphor
along these lines.
Overall, the poem is not subtle in its themes. The speed with which it can be read, since it is
only twelve lines long, is the final implication that for he who loves, there is no cause for
stopping to admire surrounding beauty, at least not until the supreme beauty of his
beloved can be realized.

14
Summary and Analysis of "My Last Duchess"

Summary
"My Last Duchess" is narrated by the duke of Ferrara to an envoy (representative) of
another nobleman, whose daughter the duke is soon to marry. These details are revealed
throughout the poem, but understanding them from the opening helps to illustrate the
irony that Browning employs.
At the poem's opening, the duke has just pulled back a curtain to reveal to the envoy a
portrait of his previous duchess. The portrait was painted by Fra Pandolf, a monk and
painter whom the duke believes captured the singularity of the duchess's glance. However,
the duke insists to the envoy that his former wife’s deep, passionate glance was not
reserved solely for her husband. As he puts it, she was "too easily impressed" into sharing
her affable nature.
His tone grows harsh as he recollects how both human and nature could impress her,
which insulted him since she did not give special favor to the "gift" of his "nine-hundred-
years-old" family name and lineage. Refusing to deign to "lesson" her on her unacceptable
love of everything, he instead "gave commands" to have her killed.
The duke then ends his story and asks the envoy to rise and accompany him back to the
count, the father of the duke's impending bride and the envoy's employer. He mentions that
he expects a high dowry, though he is happy enough with the daughter herself. He insists
that the envoy walk with him "together" – a lapse of the usual social expectation, where the
higher ranked person would walk separately – and on their descent he points out a bronze
bust of the god Neptune in his collection.
Analysis
"My Last Duchess," published in 1842, is arguably Browning's most famous dramatic
monologue, with good reason. It engages the reader on a number of levels – historical,
psychological, ironic, theatrical, and more.
The most engaging element of the poem is probably the speaker himself, the duke.
Objectively, it's easy to identify him as a monster, since he had his wife murdered for what
comes across as fairly innocuous crimes. And yet he is impressively charming, both in his
use of language and his affable address. The ironic disconnect that colors most of
Browning's monologues is particularly strong here. A remarkably amoral man nevertheless
has a lovely sense of beauty and of how to engage his listener.
In fact, the duke's excessive demand for control ultimately comes across as his most
defining characteristic. The obvious manifestation of this is the murder of his wife. Her
crime is barely presented as sexual; even though he does admit that other men could draw
her "blush," he also mentions several natural phenomena that inspired her favor. And yet
he was driven to murder by her refusal to save her happy glances solely for him. This

15
demand for control is also reflected in his relationship with the envoy. The entire poem has
a precisely controlled theatrical flair, from the unveiling of the curtain that is implied to
precede the opening, to the way he slowly reveals the details of his tale, to his assuming of
the envoy's interest in the tale ("strangers like you….would ask me, if they durst, How such
a glance came there"), to his final shift in subject back to the issue of the impending
marriage. He pretends to denigrate his speaking ability – "even had you skill in speech –
(which I have not),” later revealing that he believes the opposite to be true, even at one
point explicitly acknowledging how controlled his story is when he admits he "said 'Fra
Pandolf' by design" to peak the envoy's interest. The envoy is his audience much as we are
Browning's, and the duke exerts a similar control over his story that Browning uses in
crafting the ironic disconnect.
In terms of meter, Browning represents the duke's incessant control of story by using a
regular meter but also enjambment (where the phrases do not end at the close of a line).
The enjambment works against the otherwise orderly meter to remind us that the duke
will control his world, including the rhyme scheme of his monologue.
To some extent, the duke's amorality can be understood in terms of aristocracy. The poem
was originally published with a companion poem under the title "Italy and France," and
both attempted to explore the ironies of aristocratic honor. In this poem, loosely inspired
by real events set in Renaissance Italy, the duke reveals himself not only as a model of
culture but also as a monster of morality. His inability to see his moral ugliness could be
attributed to having been ruined by worship of a "nine-hundred-years-old name.” He is so
entitled that when his wife upset him by too loosely bestowing her favor to others, he
refused to speak to her about it. Such a move is out of the question – "who'd stoop to blame
this kind of trifling?" He will not "stoop" to such ordinary domestic tasks as compromise or
discussion. Instead, when she transgresses his sense of entitlement, he gives commands
and she is dead.
Another element of the aristocratic life that Browning approaches in the poem is that of
repetition. The duke's life seems to be made of repeated gestures. The most obvious is his
marriage – the use of the word "last" in the title implies that there are several others,
perhaps with curtain-covered paintings along the same hallway where this one stands. In
the same way that the age of his name gives it credence, so does he seem fit with a life of
repeated gestures, one of which he is ready to make again with the count's daughter.
And indeed, the question of money is revealed at the end in a way that colors the entire
poem. The duke almost employs his own sense of irony when he brings up a "dowry" to the
envoy. This final stanza suggests that his story of murder is meant to give proactive
warning to the woman he is soon to marry, but to give it through a backdoor channel,
through the envoy who would pass it along to the count who might then pass it to the girl.
After all, the duke has no interest in talking to her himself, as we have learned! His irony
goes even further when he reminds the envoy that he truly wants only the woman herself,
even as he is clearly stressing the importance of a large dowry tinged with a threat of his
vindictive side.

16
But the lens of aristocracy undercuts the wonderful psychological nature of the poem,
which is overall more concerned with human contradictions than with social or economic
criticism. The first contradiction to consider is how charming the duke actually is. It would
be tempting to suggest Browning wants to paint him as a weasel, but knowing the poet's
love of language, it's clear that he wants us to admire a character who can manipulate
language so masterfully. Further, the duke shows an interesting complication in his
attitudes on class when he suggests to the envoy that they "go Together down," an action
not expected in such a hierarchical society. By no means can we justify the idea that the
duke is willing to transcend class, but at the same time he does allow a transgression of the
very hierarchy that had previously led him to have his wife murdered rather than discuss
his problems with her.
Also at play psychologically is the human ability to rationalize our hang-ups. The duke
seems controlled by certain forces: his own aristocratic bearing; his relationship to women;
and lastly, this particular duchess who confounded him. One can argue that the duke, who
was in love with his "last duchess,” is himself controlled by his social expectations, and that
his inability to bear perceived insult to his aristocratic name makes him a victim of the
same social forces that he represents. Likewise, what he expects of his wives, particularly of
this woman whose portrait continues to provide him with fodder for performance, suggests
a deeper psychology than one meant solely for criticism.
The last thing to point out in the duke's language is his use of euphemism. The way he
explains that he had the duchess killed – "I gave commands; Then all smiles stopped
together" – shows a facility for avoiding the truth through choice of language. What this
could suggest is that the duchess was in fact guilty of greater transgression than he claims,
that instead of flirtation, she might have physically or sexually betrayed him. There's
certainly no explicit evidence of this, but at the same time, it's plausible that a man as
arrogant as the duke, especially one so equipped with the power of euphemism, would
avoid spelling out his disgrace to a lowly envoy and instead would speak around the issue.
Finally, one can also understand this poem as a commentary on art. The duke remains
enamored with the woman he has had killed, though his affection now rests on a
representation of her. In other words, he has chosen to love the ideal image of her rather
than the reality, similar to how the narrator of " Porphyria's Lover" chose a static, dead
love than one destined to change in the throes of life. In many ways, this is the artist's
dilemma, which Browning explores in all of his work. As poet, he attempts to capture
contradiction and movement, psychological complexity that cannot be pinned down into
one object, and yet in the end all he can create is a collection of static lines. The duke
attempts to be an artist in his life, turning a walk down the hallway into a performance, but
he is always hampered by the fact that the ideal that inspires his performance cannot
change.

17
Summary and Analysis of "Rabbi Ben Ezra"

Summary
The poem is narrated by Rabbi Ben Ezra, a real 12th-century scholar. The piece does not
have a clearly identified audience or dramatic situation. The Rabbi begs his audience to
"grow old along with [him]" (line 1). He stresses that age is where the best of life is
realized, whereas "youth shows but half" (line 6). He acknowledges that youth lacks insight
into life, since it is characteristically so concerned with living in the moment that it is
unable to consider the deeper questions.
Though youth will fade, what replaces it is the wisdom and insight of age, which recognizes
that pain is a part of life, but which learns to appreciate joy more because of the pain. "Be
our joys three parts pain!" (line 34). All the while, one should appreciate what comes, since
all adds to our growth towards God, and embrace the "paradox" that life's failure brings
success. He notes how, when we are young and our bodies are strong, we aspire to
impossible greatness, and he explains that this type of action makes man into a "brute"
(line 44).
With age comes acceptance and love of the flesh, even though it pulls us "ever to the earth"
(line 63), while some yearn to reach a higher plane. A wise, older man realizes that all
things are gifts from God, and the flesh's limitations are to be appreciated even as we
recognize them as limitations.
His reason for begging patience is that our life on Earth is but one step of our soul's
experience, and so our journey will continue. Whereas youth is inclined to "rage" (line
100), age is inclined to await death patiently. Both are acceptable and wonderful, and each
compliments the other.
What complicates the philosophy is that we are wont to disagree with each other, to have
different values and loves. However, the Rabbi begs that we not give too much credence to
the earthly concerns that engender argument and dissention, and trust instead that we are
given by God and hence are fit for this struggle. The transience of time does not matter,
since this is only one phase of our existence; we need not grow anxious about
disagreements and unrealized goals, since the ultimate truth is out of our reach anyway.
Again, failure breeds success. He warns against being distracted by the "plastic
circumstance" (line 164) of the present moment.
He ends by stressing that all is part of a unified whole, even if we cannot glimpse the whole.
At the same time that age should approve of youth and embrace the present moment, it
must also be constantly looking upwards towards a heaven to come and hence
simultaneously willing to renounce the present.
Analysis
"Rabbi Ben Ezra" is unique in Browning's oeuvre of dramatic monologues because though
it is written from the perspective of a historical figure, it does not contain any clear

18
audience or dramatic situation. As such, it is more a philosophical text than a proper poem.
Much of its meaning is dissected in the "Summary" above, though this section will provide
some context and simplification.
Rabbi Ben Ezra was a real historical figure of the 12th century, known primarily for his
philosophy that suggested good sometimes lies in its opposite (badness, or pain). Browning
often takes a figure from the past and uses dramatic irony to propose a conflict between the
words and the meaning, but here, lacking any sense of the audience to whom he speaks (a
congregation? God? Himself?) or of any stakes (what he hopes to gain), we are merely to
dissect the philosophy.
The Rabbi's philosophy is a paradox: the struggles of life hold little meaning since life is but
our soul's first step, yet the wise man should appreciate everything about life. He praises
old age as the time when our soul reaches best fruition on earth, because only in age can
this paradox be appreciated. The Rabbi is willing to admire and appreciate every stage of
life, even as he is quick to show the folly of those stages. For instance, youth operates from
a place of carpe diem, 'siezing the day' constantly, and trying to transcend the limits of the
body. The Rabbi notes that with age comes an awareness of the pain and difficulty of life,
but he says that a wise man should not be weighted down but rather lightened by that
realization. He preaches that we should accept the present, but not let the concerns of the
present dominate us. What lies at the center of his creed is patience and complicity to what
comes. He does not deny the basic tenants of a carpe die philosophy: time is short and
transient; the body does not keep its youth; the world is full of wonderful things to be
exploited. But at the same time, he believes that focusing on the ways of the world distracts
us from our greater goal, which is to continue growing even in the afterlife.
However, it is important to see that while he praises age as superior, it is only superior
because it recognizes the beauty of youth's yearnings. Without the latter, the former does
not have the insight to both admire and renounce such actions. The most important lesson
we learn in old age is that we can know nothing and never truly transcend ourselves. By
accepting this limitation, we learn to be content and patient as we near death, which is not
an end but a release to a greater sphere where our soul may continue to grow.
The Rabbi embraces body and soul, youth and age, death and life, pain and joy, all the while
recognizing that the contradictions are the goal. They are beyond our comprehension, and
by accepting that can we find true serenity.
The poem begins with an unnamed speaker introducing an old document, written
in Greek, that was found in the "Chosen Chest" and attributed to Pamphylax. The
speaker notes that he awaits "His coming" (the person to whom "His" refers is not
identified) and then begins to share the contents of the document.
The parchment begins with its narrator (presumably Pamphylax) making
arrangements for a dying man. He and several others have been taking care of
this fugitive, hiding him in a desert cave while a simple Persian man stands guard

19
outside. Pamphylax and the other disciples of the dying man feed him wine, but
cannot awaken him. Suddenly, one of their companions, a boy, fetches a book
from the desert and then reads from it a line attributed to the Gospel of John: "I
am the Resurrection and the Life."
The old man wakes, and we soon realize that this is the author of that Gospel, St.
John himself. He begins to speak, and most of the poem following the text is from
his own dictation. John admits he is out of sorts and feverish and has trouble
knowing for certain who, where, and when he is.
Pamphylax interrupts John's speech to explain John's doctrine, which is reflected
in his Gospel. As explained, John understands man as separated into three
levels: body, mind, and soul. While the soul is obviously the highest expression
of man and closest to heaven, all three interact to lend credence to one another
as a unified whole. The body's ability for physical perception is necessary to give
content to the mind that can then be fed to the soul for the purpose of
"constituting man's self."
John continues his dictation, in which he addresses questions of truth. He notes

that he is the sole survivor of those who knew the "Word of Life" (he rarely
mentions Christ by name), and that he spent his life "bidden to teach" love. For a
long while, men believed his testimony, but later, he was instructed by God to
"take a book and write," and so he penned his Gospel. He continued thereafter to
teach the truth of love, but after a while, men began to doubt both the veracity of
his Gospel and even whether he was actually the John who knew Christ. These
doubts were compounded by the world's insistence on knowing specifically when
Christ would return. When John fell sick, his disciples brought him to the desert
to escape the doubters, and here he now lies.
He lashes out at those who need empirical evidence to believe in God and love.
John believes that evidence of love and God is everywhere in our lives, in the
way that "truth, breaking bounds, o'erfloods [his] soul." Where some need "plain
historic fact, Diminished into clearness" in order to believe truth, John believes
the "soul learns diversely from the flesh" and can intuit love in everyday life.
Using the example of how fire brings reprieve from bitter cold, he argues that the
body can deliver to the soul evidence of wonder and love, so that the body and
soul both have a part to play in establishing a person's faith.
However, as time has passed since Christ's death, mankind has begun to seek
new proofs. John argues that "To test man, the proofs shift," and that the journey
towards faith must require the individual to be complicit. In other words, one
cannot count on Christ-like miracles any more, but instead must find that faith in
himself and his own world. We must always search.

20
John acknowledges the accusation of his doubters, who claim he was not
actually at Christ's crucifixion as he claims in his Gospel. He admits it was indeed
a lie, but a defensible lie, since through his falsehood he was able to
communicate the greater truth of Christ's love to others. He blames the
accusation on the world's extreme emphasis on material fact over spirit. He is
especially bothered because the power of Christ is very much "the mere
projection from man's inmost mind," but people are more inclined to look outside
themselves than inside for validation.
He thinks of how man has always turned to gods, suggesting that man invents
these gods and that they evolve with man's needs, but again, that the current
stage in history makes this impossible since people want only material fact. He
argues that "man was made to grow, not stop" and as such ought to be able to
elucidate Christ's message in himself, rather than relying on easy miracles for
proof. He admits that he did invent a miracle in his Gospel, but again argues that
he did so in service of a greater truth that was communicated through his lie.
Further, he acknowledges that the choice to stage only a few miracles was a
practical decision, and that too many miracles would "compel, not help" since
man's faith has already been established. His hope was that from that initial faith,
man's prowess would grow, but instead man's focus on reason has led to
"ignorance."
Towards the end of his speech, John does acknowledge that man cannot reach
perfection, but refuses to allow this as an excuse to compromise the search for
knowledge and truth. Even though "what he considers that he knows to-day… he
will find misknown [tomorrow]," John believes it is part of man's higher faculty to
constantly seek greater truths. "God's gift was that man should conceive of
truth/And yearn to gain it."
In the midst of these ideas, John dies and the speaker explains how they buried
him and how he alone would survive to document this final philosophy from his
master. He hopes that those who read his words will follow John's teachings.
The poem ends with the original speaker again interjecting that another man,
Cerinthus, added an addendum to the parchment from which this piece has been
taken. The addendum notes that even if Christ's return is delayed by another 12
years, there are many who will grieve while others will merely allow Christ to be
made manifest in themselves.

21
Summary and Analysis of "A Death in the Desert"

Summary
The poem begins with an unnamed speaker introducing an old document, written in Greek,
that was found in the "Chosen Chest" and attributed to Pamphylax. The speaker notes that
he awaits "His coming" (the person to whom "His" refers is not identified) and then begins
to share the contents of the document.
The parchment begins with its narrator (presumably Pamphylax) making arrangements for
a dying man. He and several others have been taking care of this fugitive, hiding him in a
desert cave while a simple Persian man stands guard outside. Pamphylax and the other
disciples of the dying man feed him wine, but cannot awaken him. Suddenly, one of their
companions, a boy, fetches a book from the desert and then reads from it a line attributed
to the Gospel of John: "I am the Resurrection and the Life."
The old man wakes, and we soon realize that this is the author of that Gospel, St.
John himself. He begins to speak, and most of the poem following the text is from his own
dictation. John admits he is out of sorts and feverish and has trouble knowing for certain
who, where, and when he is.
Pamphylax interrupts John's speech to explain John's doctrine, which is reflected in his
Gospel. As explained, John understands man as separated into three levels: body, mind, and
soul. While the soul is obviously the highest expression of man and closest to heaven, all
three interact to lend credence to one another as a unified whole. The body's ability for
physical perception is necessary to give content to the mind that can then be fed to the soul
for the purpose of "constituting man's self."
John continues his dictation, in which he addresses questions of truth. He notes that he is
the sole survivor of those who knew the "Word of Life" (he rarely mentions Christ by
name), and that he spent his life "bidden to teach" love. For a long while, men believed his
testimony, but later, he was instructed by God to "take a book and write," and so he penned
his Gospel. He continued thereafter to teach the truth of love, but after a while, men began
to doubt both the veracity of his Gospel and even whether he was actually the John who
knew Christ. These doubts were compounded by the world's insistence on knowing
specifically when Christ would return. When John fell sick, his disciples brought him to the
desert to escape the doubters, and here he now lies.
He lashes out at those who need empirical evidence to believe in God and love. John
believes that evidence of love and God is everywhere in our lives, in the way that "truth,
breaking bounds, o'erfloods [his] soul." Where some need "plain historic fact, Diminished
into clearness" in order to believe truth, John believes the "soul learns diversely from the
flesh" and can intuit love in everyday life. Using the example of how fire brings reprieve
from bitter cold, he argues that the body can deliver to the soul evidence of wonder and
love, so that the body and soul both have a part to play in establishing a person's faith.
However, as time has passed since Christ's death, mankind has begun to seek new proofs.
John argues that "To test man, the proofs shift," and that the journey towards faith must

22
require the individual to be complicit. In other words, one cannot count on Christ-like
miracles any more, but instead must find that faith in himself and his own world. We must
always search.
John acknowledges the accusation of his doubters, who claim he was not actually at Christ's
crucifixion as he claims in his Gospel. He admits it was indeed a lie, but a defensible lie,
since through his falsehood he was able to communicate the greater truth of Christ's love to
others. He blames the accusation on the world's extreme emphasis on material fact over
spirit. He is especially bothered because the power of Christ is very much "the mere
projection from man's inmost mind," but people are more inclined to look outside
themselves than inside for validation.
He thinks of how man has always turned to gods, suggesting that man invents these gods
and that they evolve with man's needs, but again, that the current stage in history makes
this impossible since people want only material fact. He argues that "man was made to
grow, not stop" and as such ought to be able to elucidate Christ's message in himself, rather
than relying on easy miracles for proof. He admits that he did invent a miracle in his Gospel,
but again argues that he did so in service of a greater truth that was communicated through
his lie. Further, he acknowledges that the choice to stage only a few miracles was a practical
decision, and that too many miracles would "compel, not help" since man's faith has
already been established. His hope was that from that initial faith, man's prowess would
grow, but instead man's focus on reason has led to "ignorance."
Towards the end of his speech, John does acknowledge that man cannot reach perfection,
but refuses to allow this as an excuse to compromise the search for knowledge and truth.
Even though "what he considers that he knows to-day… he will find misknown
[tomorrow]," John believes it is part of man's higher faculty to constantly seek greater
truths. "God's gift was that man should conceive of truth/And yearn to gain it."
In the midst of these ideas, John dies and the speaker explains how they buried him and
how he alone would survive to document this final philosophy from his master. He hopes
that those who read his words will follow John's teachings.
The poem ends with the original speaker again interjecting that another man, Cerinthus,
added an addendum to the parchment from which this piece has been taken. The
addendum notes that even if Christ's return is delayed by another 12 years, there are many
who will grieve while others will merely allow Christ to be made manifest in themselves.
Analysis
There were contemporary critics of Browning who accused him of being less a
poet and more a philosopher, and "A Death in the Desert" could certainly be
used to support this claim. Its primary message seems to be a doctrine
concerning man's pursuit of truth and the connection between material
perception and the transcendent spirit.

23
Of course, Browning is never one to subscribe to any fixed philosophy, and in

fact, his work suggests overall less the acceptance of a creed than that, as John
says, "What [man] considers that he knows to-day, Come but to-morrow, he will
find misknown." So it is best to understand this poem as one of Browning's many
dramatic monologues, in which he takes the voice of a particular individual in
order to explore questions of universal humanity.
The main conflict at work here is faith vs. reason. Typically, this discussion gets
broken into a strict dichotomy – a person can either trust in 'faith,' at which point
he is spiritual and relies on intuition, emotion, and visceral reactions, or in
'reason,' at which point he relies on his own perceptions and mental
understanding of them. John posits the ultimate goal for man as "love," and the
question is whether one is better equipped to achieve heavenly love with faith or
with reason.
The basic tenant of John's philosophy is that faith and reason should not be so
strictly separated. He laments a world in which reason has triumphed at the
expense of faith and spirit. His physical dilemma is a symptom of that: his
teachings and the validity of his Gospel have been called into question, and so
his followers have had to hide him in the desert while he dies. They place a
Persian man (a "Bactrian") as guard, suggesting that John's doubters are intense
in their desire to have him punished or at least apprehended. What they accuse
him of is not only falsifying information about Christ's life, but also of using the life
of Christ to his own ends. What saddens John is that people in his day and age
only wish to understand Christ through physical details and confirmed reports,
while ignoring the larger spiritual truth behind him.
A bit of history can help to understand these charges. Browning was inspired to
write this poem after reading Ernest Renan's Life of Jesus, translated to English in
1863, which called into question the validity of John's Gospel. It is well-accepted
that John lived later than Jesus, and indeed, of the four Gospels (the first four
books of the New Testament), John's is the most philosophical and ideological.
He speaks of Christ in terms of concepts ("the way," "the life," etc.), with less
emphasis on Christ as a living, breathing human being. However, Browning likely
was concerned not with countering Renan's claims on John, but with exploring
his own Victorian society, which had gone through the Enlightenment period and
viewed the faculty of reason as man's best tool towards understanding the
world's truth. The sheer intellectual content of this poem is enough evidence that
Browning is not a hard-lined Romantic who eschews reason, but he does believe
that a strict adherence to it alone leads man to recede, and ironically negates the
progress of the Enlightenment. As John says, "This is death and the sole
death,/When a man's loss comes from his gain,/Darkness from light, from
knowledge ignorance,/And lack of love from love made manifest." The

24
Enlightenment opened to man a new world of perception, but Browning fears that
it has shut off from man his greater faculties. Where mankind ought to use
reason as a new tool towards truth, the Enlightened man, it could be argued, has
identified reason as the end in itself and hence stopped seeking the greater truth.
So Browning's point, as espoused through John, is that the strict separation of
reason and faith is fallacious. Instead, as it traced in the unnamed speaker's
interruption made early in the poem, John's philosophy is that we are made of
three faculties: body, mind, and spirit, and all three are interdependent of one
another. That soul is the greatest does not mean that soul can reach truth without
the physical perceptions given by the body. This is at its core an Aristotelian
concept, later clarified by Immanuel Kant, that our greatest concepts and love
need physical perception in order to be given shape.
John has constructed his life and legacy under this philosophy. For him, the end
goal was love, and he was willing to make whatever choices facilitated the
reaching of that goal. Therefore, he admits he did create in his Gospel a miracle
and that he lied about having been at the Crucifixion. For him, these white lies
merely provided physical shapes that would allow future Christians to transcend
to mind and then spirit, ultimately coming closer to God's love. He is accused,
therefore, of crimes he is admittedly guilty of, but his point is that his actions were
not crimes, but rather forgivable, virtuous decisions. He argues that we ought to
have our faith in the thing we are pursuing ("love"), not in the report of the thing
(whether the miracle he described actually happened or not). In fact, he argues
that Christians in his day should not need miracles any more – the early miracles
were enough to set the spark for faith in God and love, and now man's faculties
are capable of continuing the search without having to have such physical
validation.
In all of this is a contemplation of subjective vs. objective truths. John's ultimate

goal is to lead others to the objectivity of God's love, which lies above our
personal, subjective perceptions. However, he does not doubt that the search
itself is necessarily subjective since it relies on our own limited perspectives.
Again, the general approach to this question is that they are mutually exclusive,
and this poem fits within Browning's oeuvre in suggesting that the two need not
cancel one another out. If Browning wants to take a very specific voice (i.e., that
of the duke in "My Last Duchess,"), that does not mean he is incapable of
speaking objective truth through that voice, or of expressing his own subjective
fascinations thereby.
So in a way, this poem is as much about the artist as it is about religion. It's
telling that Christ is mentioned very few times in a poem about one of his main
archivists. John is far more taken with the concept of "love" than he is in the
particulars of Jesus Christ himself, and in fact gives respect to the Greek

25
religions that preceded Christianity, since those too were a step in man's search
for truth. John suggests that "God's gift was that man should conceive of
truth/And yearn to gain it," meaning that his goal is not to reveal a 'secret' to man,
but rather to help man continue that never-ending struggle towards perfection.
That we are imperfect and doomed to fail in this quest does not negate the virtue
of trying, which is very much Browning's credo on art. Art is about exploring the
human condition, telling lies (making up stories) to reveal the greater truth, and
those who see it solely as a "lie" are missing the point: lies and truths are both
part of the same struggle to get to a deeper reality. Defining 'truth' as "what
actually happened" leads only to a sad, scared life. Indeed, John speaks with pity
of those who live in fear, constantly worried about when Christ will return, so
stuck on that dogma that they have missed God's bigger message, which is that
we should constantly struggle in pursuit of love.
The framing device also suggests that the poem can be viewed as a comment on
the artist. The main speaker, at the beginning and end, never identifies himself
but is instead an archivist of John's life and philosophy, much as John was for
Christ through the writing of his Gospel. And yet the unnamed speaker takes
license with his account by adding an addendum spoken by Cerinthus,
suggesting that he has provided context to interpret John's words (rather than
letting John simply speak for himself). The struggle towards truth is constant
progress – John calls progress "man's distinctive spark alone" – towards truth,
but progress requires us never to accept anything as true, but rather to
constantly reinterpret everything. By using this framing device, Browning shows
us that John's words themselves are merely one further step that needs be
appropriated and reinterpreted, lest we otherwise lie down and stop trying. This is
what the Christians John criticizes have done – they have stopped searching and
now wait sadly for Christ's return, whereas he believes they ought to continue
pushing forward, reinterpreting Christ through the generations so as to grow
stronger. What matters most is the truth; what matters least is the author. So just
as John was willing to make up facts about Christ to get to truth, so does this
unnamed author add details to John's life to get to his truth, and so by default is
Browning reinterpreting this man's work to suggest his own truth.
In the end, though, Browning is too interesting a monologist to make this solely a
piece about philosophy, and indeed John's character does constantly reveal
itself. John is easy to identify as a megalomaniac in himself, which adds
fascinating dramatic irony. Like any proclaimed prophet, he survives through the
support of disciples, and the length and rambling nature of his speech gives it a
sense of raving that can be enjoyed for its extremity even as the content is
thought-provoking. In his discussion of the miracles he invented, one notices the
shrewdness with which he has constructed this philosophy. He admits he
invented the miracles for a greater good (as discussed above), but also that he

26
stopped inventing miracles because too many would make man dependent on
them. The shrewdness of this thought process reveals that he, like all leaders,
was willing to manipulate his public to achieve his desired effect, and so even if
the effect is defensible, there's an extent to which he is still a liar. By speaking in
his voice (and using the framing device), Browning is free from directly weighing
in on whether such lies are defensible, instead allowing us to consider both sides
of the question.
Themes
Death
Much of Browning's work contemplates death and the way that it frames our life choices.
Many poems consider the impending nature of death as a melancholy context to balance
the joy of life. Examples are "Love Among the Ruins" and "A Toccata of Galuppi's." Other
poems find strength in the acceptance of death, like "Prospice," "Childe Roland to the Dark
Tower Came," and "Rabbi Ben Ezra." Some poems – like "My Last Duchess," "Porphyria's
Lover," "Caliban upon Setebos," or "The Laboratory" – simply consider death as an ever-
present punishment.
Truth/Subjectivity
If any prevailing philosophy can be found throughout all of Browning's poetry, it is that
humans are not composed of fixed perspective, but instead are full of contradiction and are
always changing. Therefore, a wise man acknowledges that every person sees the world
differently not only from other people but even from himself as his life changes. Many of
the dramatic monologues make this implicit argument, by suggesting the remarkable
human facility to rationalize our behavior and attitudes. Consider "My Last Duchess" or
"Porphyria's Lover." Even those who believe that there is a truth to be discovered, like
Rabbi Ben Ezra or St. John, acknowledge that each man must get to it in his own way and
through his own journey.
Delusion
Perhaps Browning's most effectively used literary device is dramatic irony, in which the
audience or reader is aware of something of which the speaker is not aware. Most often,
what this dramatic irony reveals is that the speaker is deluded or does not quite realize the
truth of something. Some poems feature a demented character who is not aware of the
extent of his or her depravity or insanity. Examples are "My Last Duchess," "Porphyria's
Lover," "Caliban upon Setebos" and "The Laboratory." Other poems feature a character
whose reasons for behavior are not as clear-cut as he or she believes. Consider "Soliloquy
of the Spanish Cloister" or "The Bishop Orders His Tomb at St. Praxed's Church." Finally,
one can observe manifestations of this in less obvious ways through poems like " Fra Lippo
Lippi," "Andrea del Sarto," "A Death in the Desert" and "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower
Came." In these cases, the narrators are not clearly insane or demented, but are so fixed in

27
their own perspectives that they are unable to appreciate why they are being punished or
oppressed.
Beauty
Though Browning's work typically eschews the Romantic poetry that was once his greatest
influence, he does continue to contemplate the nature and limits of beauty through his
poetry. Some of his poems take beauty or love as their primary subject: "Meeting at Night,"
"My Star," "Two in the Campagna," or "Life in a Love." Of course, even these poems always
contemplate the theme through the lens of an individual's unique perspective. Others see
absent beauty as a cause for melancholy. Consider "Home-Thoughts, From Abroad," "Love
Among the Ruins," and "Evelyn Hope." Even some of the more sophisticated monologues
consider beauty and the pursuit of it as something that can torment us. Examples are "Fra
Lippo Lippi," "A Toccata of Galuppi's," and "A Death in the Desert."
The quest
A theme that runs through much of Browning's poetry is that life is composed of a quest
that the brave man commits to, even when the goal is unclear or victory unlikely. In some
poems, this quest is literal, particularly in "Childe Roland to Dark Tower Came." This is a
useful poem for considering the use of the quest in other poems. Some of them use the
metaphor to suggest the difficulties of living in the face of inevitable death: "Prospice,"
"Two in the Campagna," "Rabbi Ben Ezra," and "Life in a Love." Others have less intense
quests than that which Roland undertakes, but nevertheless show Browning's interest in
the theme: "Meeting at Night," "How They Brought the Good News From Ghent to Aix," and
"A Grammarian's Funeral." Overall, the theme serves as a metaphor for life and most poems
can be understood through the lens of "Childe Roland" in this way.
Religion
Through Browning never proposes a fixed religious perspective or subscribes to any
organized religion, much of his poetry contemplates the nature or limits of religion. Most
often, he casts doubt on the structure and hypocrisy of organized religion. Consider
"Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister," "The Bishop Orders His Tomb at St. Praxed's Church,"
and "Fra Lippo Lippi." However, Browning often creates characters whose religious sense
is a strong part of their personality. In all of these cases, of course, each individual has his
own unique take on religion. Examples are "A Death in the Desert," "Caliban Upon Setebos,"
and "Rabbi Ben Ezra." Finally, much of Browning's poetry can be interpreted through its
lack of a religious sense, a world that has death and an afterlife but eschews any relation to
a God. This happens in some of the grander poems like "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower
Came" or in the more personal ones like "Prospice."
The grotesque
One of the elements in Browning's poetry that made him unique in his time and continues
to resonate is his embrace of the grotesque as a subject worthy of poetic explanation. Most
often, he explores the grotesque nature of human behavior and depravity. Consider
"Porphyria's Lover," "Evelyn Hope," and "The Laboratory." Then there are examples like
"Caliban upon Setebos," where the character is easy to sympathize with while being
objectively a grotesque creature. And then there is "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower
Came," which plunges head-first into a grotesque landscape.

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Robert Browning: Dramatic Monologue
Robert Browning aspired to be a dramatist. He wrote eight dramas and all of

them failed on the stage. Browning’s genius was contemplating than
dramatic. Its main reason was that neither Browning was so mature for
writing a drama nor was his audience. Browning made a practical
compromise and decided to write the drama of the soul – dramatic
monologue. This drama is acted within the mind of the character. It is not
projected on the stage of a theatre. So, Browning interiorized the drama.
Dramatic monologue is different from a drama and a soliloquy. In drama the

action is external but in dramatic monologue, the action is internal and his
soul is the stage. In a soliloquy, only one character speaks to himself and
there is no interference of any other character but in a monologue, one
character speaks his mind and the character is listening to him, but he is not
interfering in the action.
Victorianism was an age of renaissance. It was an age when British colonies

were being forced. British Empire was reducing to England. So people were
very much disturbed. The whole of the England was in a state of crisis.
There was also a restriction of the people that they could not discuss this
issue with others in public places. So there was a conflict in the minds of the
people and they were thinking in their minds of the people. They were
thinking and talking only to themselves.
Browning wanted to present all this on the stage but in this period of
gloominess it was not possible for him to stage a drama. Even the
intellectuals were not allowed to write on critical issues of the country.
Browning thought a very clever device and decided to write dramatic
monologue. This was exactly the situation of the people that they had a
drama in their minds but they could not express it. So they were only talking
to themselves. Browning did not directly write about England rather he
picked up the same situation of Italian Renaissance, some 200 years earlier,
in Italy. At that time Italy was passing through the same critical situation as
it was in the England in Browning’s times.
In this period every Englishman was suffering from a critical situation. Every

29
individual was thinking about the past glory of the England, there was a
conflict in his mind. He was thinking about his present and past. His soul was
in confusion, he was thinking about the causes of this failure, he tried to give
some justifications and everyone had a sense of optimism in his mind
though that might not be a false one.
So we see that Browning’s characters are also representing the same

situation of English people and the pessimism of the age.
Browning’s dramatic monologue deals with the subject of failure. He takes a

character who has been failed in his life. He is caught up in crisis and now
tells his story of crisis and bores out his soul before us. The last rider, Fra
Lippo Lippi, Bishop at his death bed and Andrea are the typical example of
this kind. Fra Lippo Lippi has been caught up in an area of prostitutes:
“I am poor brother Lippo, by your leave!

You need not clap your torches to my face.”
The last rider has been rejected by his beloved:
“I said – Then, dearest, since ’tis so,

Since now at length my fate I know,”
Bishop is on his bed:
“Vanity, saith the preacher, vanity!

Draw round my bed: is Anselm keeping back?”
And Andrea's wife does not care for him.
“But do not let us quarrel any more,

No, my Lucrezia; bear with me for once:”
So, we see that Browning’s characters are in a conflict, they are in a critical
situation and they now try to cope up with their situation.
To deal out with this situation Browning presents the whole of his case.
Browning shows us the past and present of his character and how this
character gets involved in this critical situation. So Browning unfolds the
whole of the life of his character to make it possible to analyze the history of
the character. This is Browning’s technique of case-making. The stronger is

30
the case, the interesting will be the poem.
Through the technique of case-making, browning dissects the soul of his

character and this technique of soul dissection helps the reader to
understand the character and clearly see why his character reaches to this
critical juncture.
We know that Fra was poor in his childhood and the guardian church was
very strict with him. He had been suppressed adversely in his life.
“And I’ve been three weeks shut within my mew,

A – painting for the great man, saints and saints
And saints again. I could not paint all night –”
The last rider could not express his love to his beloved and won her.
“– And this beside, if you will not blame,

Your leave for one more last ride with me.”
The bishop had been a worldly man and jealous of Gandolf.
“And so, abut his tomb of mine. I fought

With tooth and nail to save my niche, ye known:”
Andrea deceived the French King, who was very kind to him.
“… … … … … … … … God is just.
King Francis may forgive me: … … …”
To conclude, Browning’s business is to render the soul or psyche of his

protagonists and so he follows the same technique as the modern
impressionist. With the help of the technique of soul dissection, we clearly
see the soul of the character. In his monologues, Browning constantly
strikes a curiously modern note.
Robert Browning: Obscurity

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Much ink has been spilt in proving and disproving that Browning is an
obscure poet. It is hard to absolve Browning of the charge of unintelligibility
and difficulty. In his own age, he was considered very difficult and obscure
and hence could not achieved popularity and recognition like his
contemporary Tennyson. “Sordellow” was regarded as more obscure than
any other poem in the English language. Mrs. Carlyle read the poem and
could not judge whether ‘Sordellow’ was a man, or a city, or a book. Douglas
Jerrold, after reading it said:
“My God! I am an idiot. My health is restored, but my mind is gone.”
Browning certainly is a very difficult poet. Dawson calls him “the Carlyle of
poetry”. Various reasons are given for the obscurity and difficulty of his
poetry. According to some critics, obscurity of Browning’s poetry is
“… a piece of intellectual vanity indulged in more and more

insolently as his years and fame increased”.
But as Chesterton points out:
“All the records of Browning’s long life and caret show that he was
at all vain. All his contemporaries agree that he never talked cleverly
or tried to talk cleverly which is always the case with a man who is
intellectually vain. It is psychologically improbable that the poet,
made his poems, complicated from mere pride of his powers and
contempt of his readers.”
According to the learned critic:
“Browning was not unintelligible because he was proud, but

unintelligible because he was humble.”
He was humble enough to think that what he knew was quite commonplace
and was known even to the man in the street. His own concepts were quite
clear to him that he found nothing difficult or profound in them.
It is fantastic, it is grotesque, and it is enigmatical but there is nothing

philosophical about it. Browning is not obscure because he is philosophical
poet; the real reasons of his obscurity lie elsewhere. In the passage in
question, the obscurity arises from Browning’s use of the unfamiliar and
unusual ‘Murex’, the key-word in the passage and essential for its
understanding. More other than not, the key-word in a passage is missing

32
and so it becomes dark and obscure.
Obscurity in Browning’s poetry results not from any one reason but from a
number of reasons.
Browning had a very high conception of his own calling. He once wrote to a
friend:
“I never designedly tried to puzzle people as some of my critics have

supposed.”
He believed that a poet should try to put “the infinite within the finite”. It is
not a kind of poetry to be read merely to while way a leisure hour.
Browning was a highly original genius and his poetry was entirely different
from contemporaries.
Browning’s dramatic monologues are soul studies; they study the shifting
moods and changing thoughts of a developing soul. It is always soul
dissection, it is thought, thought and thought; and thought all the way. It is
always “interior landscape” with no chronology or background. Obviously
such poetry is bound to be difficult. Browning’s long, argumentative and
philosophical poems are tiresome and boring.
This difficulty of comprehension is further increased by the fact that he was

interested in the queerest human soul, and tried to probe the odd and the
abnormal in human psychology. “He sought the sinners whom even the
sinners had cast out”, and tried to show that even they might be generous
and humane. He tried to reveal the essential nobility and humanity even of a
mean impostor.
Browning was a very learned poet. His schooling was mostly private and so
his learning was more profound and thorough than of those who have been
educated at school. He knew in detail the history and geography not of one
country, but of a number of countries. Many of his poems require knowledge
of medieval history and of Italian history.
There is frequent use of Latin expressions and quotations; there are illusions
to little known literary, mythological, historical sources and information of
Medieval and Renaissance art and culture of Europe. Browning sought his
object in many lands.

33
Often Browning’s metaphors, similes and illustrations are far-fetched and

recondite as in “Two in the Campagna” and in “Memorabilia”.
Often Browning’s writes a telegraphic style. Relative, prepositions, articles,

even pronouns are left out. It might be that his pen failed to keep pace with
the rush of his ideas, but such telegraphic style is certainly confusing and
bewildering for his readers.
Browning’s frequent inversions and the use of long, involved sentences,

heavily overloaded with parentheses, create almost insurmountable
difficulties in the way of his readers. In poems like “The Grammarian’s
Funeral”, he not only buries the grammarian but also grammar.
Frequently, he coins new words, uses unusual compounds and expressions

and is too colloquial, jerky, abrupt and rugged.
When his “Sordellow” first appeared, he was accused of verbosity and since
then he made it his rule to use only two words where ten were needed. He
admits this complexity of his poetry in “Rabbi Ben Ezra”.
Thoughts hardly, to be packed

Into a narrow act,
Fancies that broke through language and escaped;
However, the obscurity of Browning’s poetry must not be exaggerated. As

Duffin, points out, the majority of Browning’s shorter poems are read as
easily as the verse of Tennyson. Poems like “Evelyn Hope”, “The Last Rise
Together”, “The Patriot”, “Prophyria’s Lover”, “Prospice”, “My Last Duchess”,
“Home Thoughts, from Abroad” etc. are perfectly lucid and simple. The
intelligent reader can enjoy most of his lyrics and longer poems in blank
verse after a little mental adjustment. Even in these thorniest poems there
are passages of great originality and eloquence of classical beauty and easy
comprehension.
Robert Browning: Optimism

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Browning is an optimist, and as an optimist, he is a moralist and a religious

teacher. He holds a very distinct place among the writers of the Victorian
Age. He is an uncompromising foe of “Scientific Materialism”. He preaches
God and universality as the central truth of his philosophy of life.
Victorian Age is a watershed age in English literature. As there is the

influence of Classicism, Italian Renaissance, British Renaissance,
Individualism, Socialism, Utilitarianism, Neo-Classicism, Romanticism,
Modernism and Scepticism.
Therefore, there are a lot of confusions and conflicts in this age. There are
the conflicts between art and life, art and morality, content and form, man
and woman, classic education and progressive education, flesh and spirit,
body and soul and what not.
In this entire prevailed situation, Browning remains unaffected by these

confusions and conflicts. He is at heart an optimist. His optimism is clear
even in his style of writing a poem that he always picks up his central
character in crisis or in some critical situation, then this crisis reaches the
climax and ultimately resolved and he ends his poem with optimism. As in
his poem “Patriot into Traitor”, he says:
’Tis God shall repay one, I am safer so.
As in “Fra Lippo Lippi”, he says:
Don’t fear me! There is the grey beginning. Zooks!
Browning is a very consistent thinker of optimistic philosophy of life. His

poetry has immense variety, but his unchanging philosophical view of human
destiny gives unity to it. He does not challenge the old dogmas. He accepts
the conventional view of God, the immortality of the soul, and the Christian
belief in incarnation.
Browning’s optimism is founded on the realities of life. It is not ‘blind’ as he

does not shut his eyes to the evil prevailing in daily life routine. He knows
that human life is a mixture of good and evil, of love and the ugliness, of
despair and hopefulness, but he derives hope from this very imperfection of
life. His optimism “is founded on imperfections of man”. In the famous lines
of “Pippa Passes”, he says:

35
God is in his Heaven –

All is right with the world!
Browning believes that experience leads to enrichment. His attitude towards

evil, pain and misery is not merely abstract. He does not accept evil merely
as a practical instrument of human advancement. His approach is pragmatic
as it is based on the actual experience of life. He tests every theory on the
touchstone of pragmatism. Browning believes that it is not achievement, but
it is struggle that empowers man in life.
His optimism is based on his theory of evolution that life is constantly

progressing to higher and higher levels. Man progresses in the moral and
spiritual sense through persistent struggle against evil. He says that evil is
our foe, and no victory is possible over the foe. Evil is the opportunity
offered to us by the divine power to advance spirituality.
“Evil is, therefore, a way of man’s moral progress.”
Browning believes that this life is a preparation for the life to come. In
“Evelyn Hope”, the lover does not despair as he derives consolation from the
optimistic faith that “God creates the love to reward the love”. True love is
sure to be rewarded in the life after death, if not in this life.
Browning’s optimism is firmly based on his faith in the immortality of the

soul. The body may die but the soul lives on in the Infinite. Life, in the other
world, is far more valuable than life in this finite world. This ideal which is
attainable here is worthless, for by attaining it here, we shall not deserve to
attain it there in the next world.
Browning believes in the futility of this worldly life. He thinks that failure
serves as a source of inspiration for progress as in “Andrea Del Sarto”:
Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp,

Or what’s heaven for?
Browning’s firm faith in God is beyond any doubt. He is never sceptical about
the existence of God controlling the world. Even his knaves have firm faith in
God, and rely upon His mercy. They constantly talk of their relation with
God, and are sure of their ultimate union with Him. It is love which
harmonizes all living beings. It is on love that all Browning’s characters build
their faith saying:

36
“God, Thou art Love I build my faith on that”
Life in this world is worth living because both life and the world are the
expressions of Divine Love. The world is beautiful as God created it out of
the fullness of His love.
… …This world’s no blot for us,

Not blank; it means intensely, and means good:
Browning’s optimism finds the passion of joy no one has sung more fervently
than Browning of the delight of life. David in “Saul”, Pippa in “Pippa Passes”,
Lippo in “Fra Lippo Lippi” and a host of other poems are keenly alive to the
pleasure of living. The Rabbi in “Rabbi Ben Ezra” condemns the aesthetic
negation of the flesh, and asserts the necessity and moral usefulness of the
flesh and the soul:
As the bird wings and sings,

Let us cry ‘All good things
Are ours, nor soul helps flesh more, now, than flesh helps soul’
So, we can safely conclude the Browning speaks out the strongest words of
optimistic faith in his Victorian Age of scepticism and pessimism. Of all
English poets, no other is so completely, so consciously, so magnificently a
teacher of man as is Browning.
However, according to modern criticism, in certain cases, Browning’s

optimism can be interpreted as false or hollow optimism. Sometimes, it
seems a justification of failure than optimism; it seems a hope against hope
or a hope for the impossible.
As in “Andrea Del Sarto”, he says:
… … … What would one have?

In heaven, perhaps, new chances, one more chance–
As in “The Bishop Orders His Tomb”, he says:
Old Gandolf, at me, from his onion–stone,

As still he envied me, so fair she was!

37
As in “The Last Ride Together”, he says:
So, one day more am I deified.

Who knows but the world may end to–night?
On another place, he says:
I hoped she would love me; here we ride.
Again at the end of this very poem he says:
The instant made eternity, –

And heaven just prove that in and she
Ride, ride together, for ever ride?
Despite, all this we call him as an optimist because of his firm faith in God.
His poems are full of courage and inspiration, telling people that there are no
difficulties if they have self-dependence and self-control. It was a good omen
for English literature that the two leaders in Poetry, Tennyson and Browning
differed from on another. Tennyson was at heart a pessimist. But Browning
was at heart a strong optimist.
"My Last Duchess" as a dramatic monologue. OR A

critical analysis of 'My Last Duchess'.
Browning's poems are studies of the character. They are studies of the other men. The
poet stands apart and gives his characters a platform and lets them speak to us, and as
they speak they unfold their character. It was for this purpose that Browning invented
a new genre of poetry known as dramatic monologue or dramatic lyric. It has a few
well-defined characteristics. It is a compromise between the drama, the soliloquy and
the lyric. The author keeps himself entirely in the background and so it is essentially
dramatic. As only one character speaks it is a monologue. The monologue is
essentially a lyrical outpouring or a subjective self-examination.
"My Last Duchess" is one of Browning's finest dramatic

monologues. The poem proves that Browning is a matchless master of this kind of

38
poetry. The poem also reveals the poet's deep understanding of human character and
capacity to present it in the most dramatic and impressive manner. As in the other
monologues here also the chief character is the speaker of the monologue. Here there is
only one listener, who does not speak anything at all. The central character of our poem
is an Italian nobleman who intends to marry the daughter of a rich count, whose agent
is the silent listener. As his speech goes on we come to understand the character and
outlook of the man. As he narrates his relationship with his wife point by point our
understanding of him gets widened. Browning is a master of delineating the complex
inner life of men. Here we find the Duke talking about his last Duchess, but in fact he
speaks more about himself.
Usually what Browning does in his dramatic monologue

is to bring the speaker before us at a crucial moment when he is most likely to reveal his
character. In 'My Last Duchess' the apt moment is when the Count's agent has come to
conclude the negotiations regarding the proposal of a union between the count's
daughter and the Duke. It is quite natural that the Duke would look back into the past
and think about his first wife and his relationship with her. The snobbish Duke must
have taken the agent around the house and on reaching the art gallery he must have
shown the portrait of his last Duchess. Explaining to the agent the reason behind the
depth of the passion and earnest glance on the face of the portrait, the Duke briefly
reveals the character of his former wife, wand in the process lays bare his own egotism,
possessiveness and cruelty.
The dramatic situation and the presence of a listener is very subtly and cleverly
suggested by the occasional direct address made by the Duke to the count's
agent. Indirectly we see his curiosity to take a look at the curtained portrait and then
his desire to know how such an expression of intense joy happened on the face of the
portrait. This gives occasion to the Duke to describe his former wife's character and the

39
way in which he treated her. His cruelty, his egotism, his jealousy minus love are all
revealed to us. Finally there is a suggestion that the agent stood back as they began to
descend the steps so that the Duke may proceed. However the Duke invites the agent to
walk abreast and as they step down he points to a bronze statue of Neptune, remarking
that it is a rare piece.
The poem is thus a very good example of a dramatic monologue. It is full of action,
not merely a long soliloquy delivered by a character. It is dramatic, however small the
compass may be, and it projects before us a vivid picture of all the emotion natural to a
character.
Consider how Browning uses the dramatic monologue to

contribute to the effects of objectivity and concentration in
fictionalizing the predicament of the human soul in his poem
Fra Lippo Lippi .
If the zeitgeist of the Victorian period finds a vivid outlet in the poetic Oeuvre of Tennyson , those
of Browning , who remained far away from the Victorian madding crowd, chronicle the history of the
human soul. A perfect ‘soul’s scanning’, his poems, therefore, shed ample light on the psychic landscape.
This accounts of why critics fondly describe them as fictions of the human soul. The question naturally
arises about the secret of the poet’s success and critics are generally of the opinion that Browning scored his
victory intelligently using the technique of the dramatic monologue.
Browning was very much interested in the stage , but was never much of a success there. His failure,
however, was responsible for supplying him with the insight into the type of poetry he should write. Unlike
a soliloquy, which is a process of thinking aloud, a dramatic monologue is a speech of a single person in the
presence of a silent interlocutor, who never speaks , but whose silent presence adequately dramatizes the
speaker’s eloquence. In Browning’s monologues every detail of the setting is well expressed and his tiny
stage is peopled with fully rounded figures though only the main character has the speaking part.
In Fra Lippo Lippi Browning chooses an early Renaissance painter who reveals his dilemma in a mood of
humour directed against himself. The scene is a night- street where Lippo is intercepted by a guard as he
saunters out of his Carmelite Monastery . Lippi recounts the history of his life, his likes and dislikes , his
achievements and failures and the chief of the guard plays the role of the silent interlocutor. The poet
vividly fleshes out the inner psyche of Lippo, who wants to drink life to the lees.

40
Browning makes Lippo an irrepressible scapegrace – a tonsured Falstaff –with an appetite for the delights
of the palate and the senses , and an artist with inborn leaning towards realism. He is impatient of the
distorting pressure of piety upon art , and equally of any ideal beauty beyond that sensible to the eye ,
being convinced that this world, if we grasp it with both hands, “means intensely and means good” (
W.T.Young).
We must add , however , that to a modern reader Browning’s characters have an ambiguous appeal. These
characters do not have the subtle ingenuity of figures like Prufrock or Gerontion. The poems are either
making a philosophy of the imperfect , or receiving satisfaction out of their defeat.
Psychological analysis in Browning's poetry
Browning is the self-confessed poet of the human soul. He said, ‘My stress lay on the
incidents in the development of the soul, little else is worth study’. Most of his poems
are psychological analysis of the characters who speak. The characters speak out telling
us all about themselves, revealing their inner self, their mind, feelings, attitudes etc.
In My Last Duchess, we get a superb analysis of an arrogant Renaissance Duke

of Italy. The very first line “That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall” is dramatic in
tone. The poem presents, from that moment onwards, a remarkable character-study of
the Duke and an analysis of the intricate psychological motivations of human nature.
The poem presents not only given a vivid picture of the Duke’s temperament, but
through his words, we realize the true nature of his last Duchess as well. Here, the irony
is that, while the Duke’s words give his personal opinion of the Duchess, we form quite a
different opinion from those very words. The Duke’s own narrow-mindedness,
stupendous arrogance, supercilious dignity, cruelty, greed and unscrupulousness are
revealed in his attempt to present his dead wife in a derogatory light.
The arrogance and pride of a nine-hundred-years old name has bred inhumanity
and callousness in the Duke. Too jealous of this name, he interprets every act of his wife
– innocence, simplicity and amiability as he calculated insult to himself. Considering
her as a part of his property, he cannot tolerate her smiling at or thanking anyone except
himself.

41
The Duke’s patronizing attitude is evident in practically every line he utters. The
apparent politeness of “Will ye please to sit” does not sufficiently hide the supercilious
tone. This line is imperious command couched in polite words.
His tyrannical attitude is evident when he says that he alone can draw aside the
curtain before the picture. Two lines are enough to indicate the effective way in which he
dealt with a situation unpleasing to himself –
“I gave commands;
Then all smiles stopped together.”
The callousness of the Duke could not be more effectively revealed than in the
calm and cool dismissal of the memory of his last Duchess with the line:
“There she stands;
As if alive.”
The Duke is speaking to the envoy of a Count whose daughter he intends to

marry. He wants to impress the envoy, and his master the Count, as to the sort of
behaviour he expected from the woman he was going to marry. He intimates that he
would tolerate no rivals for his next wife’s smiles.
Andrea Del Sarto is a masterly piece of character-analysis. Here not only is

Andrea’s character exposed and his soul dissected, but Lucrezia’s character is also
revealed through Andrea’s words. Andrea is a feeble-minded personality who lacks
vitality. This poem begins with Andrea Del Sarto’s pleading with his wife to stay with
him for a while more so that he might paint better the next morning and get more
money for her.
In this poem, Andrea muses over his life and work which seem as grey and dull.
He is perfect at the technical aspects of art, indeed known as a ‘faultless painter’
according to his contemporary. But he lacks the ‘elevation of mind’ which gives
animation to an artist’s work. Rafael, too, was inferior to Andrea in technical skill. But
Rafael’s paintings express a spiritual glow and passionate depth easily comprehensible
even to a child, and this imaginative depth and range are lacking in Andrea.

42
At first Andrea blames his wife for his failure in art. If only Lucrezia had urged
him to paint for spiritual glory and not for commercial gain, he might have risen to the
artistic heights of Rafael and Michael Angelo. Then he lays the responsibility squarely
on the shoulders of God. And eventually, he realized that external stimulus in not of
much use when one lacks inner urge. He is one of those half-men who had talent but
little will power to achieve greatness. It is only noble aspiration that inspires one to
spiritual exaltation:
“Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp,
Or what’s a Heaven for?”
Through the speech of Andrea, we know his marriage, his treatment of King
Francis I, his helpless attitude towards his parents dying in poverty, his abject
subservient to Lucrezia whose lover’s debts he is willing to pay.
The end of the poem marks the climax of Andrea’s self-revelation, and it is closely
connected with Lucrezia’s character. Embodying his art in her physical perfection and
soullessness, Lucrezia reflects a vital element of Andrea’s mental and spiritual
condition. Lucrezia frankly leaves Andrea to meet her lover, and Andrea knows of her
infidelity. What is more, Andrea declares that he will choose her even in heaven at the
cost of artistic glory. Rafael and Michael Angelo and Leonardo Da Vinci will still defeat
Andrea in artistic superiority, for Andrea will choose Lucrezea. It is a tragedy of a
character which has been marred by soullessness in work and in life.
A Grammarian’s Funeral, another poem of Browning, as the title indicates, is

concerned with the funeral of a grammarian, who is dead. His disciples carry his dead
body to a suitable place for burial. In the funeral procession, the leader of the disciples
reveals the character of the grammarian through his speech.
The Grammarian devoted his life to deep study, forgoing all the pleasures of
youth, even though he had been as handsome as Apollo. He had become old and weak,
his voice grew faltering, but he continued to study enthusiastically. He would eat up the
very crumbs of knowledge at the feast of learning and yet not feel fed-up. He would
learn all about life from the views of philosophers and poets which were hidden in
precious books. He would first form a definite plan of life, see it as a whole with all its

43
interests and responsibilities, and then only begin to live. If he died before then, it would
no matter. He wanted no earthly reward which would discount heavenly gain. Low men
pursue low ideals and achieve success; this man had such a high ideal that it could
hardly be visualized before he died. But he was sure of being rewarded in heaven.
Character of Andrea in Andrea del Sarto by Robert

Browning
This is the analysis of the character Andrea del Sarto. He is a great painter but a weakness will
not let him excel in his career. This is pathetic that he does not want to leave the love of Lucrezia
even he knows that she is leaving her. This write up will help in writing essays, annotations and
assignments.
Andrea del Sarto is the main role in Robert Brownian's Andrea del Sarto. Let us review
his characteristics in the light of analytical view. Andrea is a great painter but his
weakness has led him to pitiable situation.
Faultless painter
Andrea del Sarto is blessed with a talent of technical painting. He can paint any picture
easily without giving chance to any error in anatomy of picture. He can easily draw any
picture if he is inspired. He takes Lucrezia as his model and later marries and continues
as his model for his pictures. She is not only a model but also an inspiration to his
paintings. He is greatly dragged towards her beauty. He is excellent and can correct
mistakes of paintings easily. For his greatness he is taken as painter for French king as
he has to draw paints and decorate the royal rooms. The king and courtiers are
astonished at his skill.
Soul less painter

44
Andrea del Sarto himself regards that his paintings lack soul. Even Angelo and Rafael
may not be technical painters. But their paintings consist of soul. Even children can
understand what the inner meaning of painting is. But his paintings are not popular
because they do not have soul in them. He regards this is the major reason for his
unsuccessful painting career. He shows Lucrezia a paint which has been sent by
Vasari, a disciple of Rafael. He recognizes that there is a technical fault. Even it is said,
none bothers. As it is with soul it can communicate better. The hand is painted wrongly.
He corrects it with a piece of chalk before his wife. He can excel in technical painting but
lacks spirit.
Lack of inspiration
Andrea lacks inspiration which is the most important element in success. He has no
inner inspiration to excel. But he wants to take from external source i.e. from Lucrezia.
That is the mistake, keep him away from the society, deceive the king, leaving his
parents to their own fate. He could not become a good servant, not an artist, not a good
son, not a good selector of wife who can support him. At last he realizes his mistake of
taking inspiration someone or elsewhere. He then says that inspiration is important and
should be within rather than from outside. Michael Angelo and Rafael are inspired from
within. They are not inspired by loving wives. They neither have nagging wives. Thus
there is contrast between the three and Andrea. That is earlier ones have no wives and
they excelled but Andrea has money minded wife. At the same time, he says he is not
inspired through blames or praises. If one comes and scolds at his painting. The
mountain in the painting does not move and at the same time, he does not move. He is
also not moved by the praise. They will not offer him the inspiration which is useful for
painting a great picture.
Love for Lucrezia
He loves Lucrezia more than anything in the world. She is a widow actually. She works
as model for his pictures before the marriage and after marriage too. He loves her so
much that while he is working at Francis I, he used to imagine how she feels happy on
his success and surely one day or the other he may get name and fame. He thinks this
achievement surely elevate his stature before the eyes of his wife. But, she calls him to
come immediately by leaving the job. After coming she persuades him to construct a
house with the money given by king to buy paintings and for his drawings. Then, from
thereon, he does not turn to France and stays in Italy by building a house for Lucrezia.
He leaves his dream of gaining name and fame. He stays only in the room not to be

45
seen by any French officials. Thus he became notorious rather than being famous just
as he is in deep love with her. For this he does not blamed her but asks to compensate
through her smile. The smile of her can pay the lost amount for him. He has not cared
her parents. They died in poverty. He has failed as a son. It is not revocable. Still his
house is filled with melancholy; he wants her smile to enlighten his place. He does
every attempt not to lose Lucrezia.
Deviated by the infatuation
Andrea del Sarto is great painter in the words of Michael Angelo. He speaks these
words to Raphael. But at that time of Raphael, he has not gained any support that
sustains him as a painter. But later King patronizes him and that is a turning point. He
does not paint for money. He paints for own satisfaction. He wants to paint the religious
themes which may not gain him money but gain him fame. He will be appreciated by the
king and popes. But he is deviated falling in the infatuation of a lady. From then
onwards, in order to make her smile he used to paint for money. Thus he shuns
everything for a lady but later she so shuns him. He knows that she does not love
anyone. He knows she is going to leave him but his attempts to get her are more than
any lover can do. But it is futile. His way is deviated.
Deceived the king
Francis I has kept faith in Andrea del Sarto and provisioned him with facilities to
decorate royal palace. The king has given money for his future drawings as well as few
drawings which are to be bought for decoration. It is where he has to be faithful to the
king but he has neglected and fallen into beauty trap of Lucrezia. It is where he has to
get name and fame, he has got bad name and defamed. He is house arrested himself
not to face any person who can chide him as he has betrayed the king. It is not only
betrayal to the king but also to his conscience which is kept silent by the serpentine
beauty of Lucrezia. Sometimes, it seems that as Samson has fallen into the beauty trap
of Delilah, Andrea has fallen into the trap of beauty of Lucrezia and failed Lucrezia his
artistic spirit.

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Summary and Analysis of "Andrea del Sarto (Called

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Summary and Analysis of "The Bishop Orders His

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Summary and Analysis of "Fra Lippo Lippi"

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characteristics. Instead of studying in the convent, he devoted himself to doodles and

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Summary and Analysis of "A Grammarian's Funeral"

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Summary and Analysis of "Meeting At Night"

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This sense of movement is particularly interesting when compared to what is usually

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Summary and Analysis of "My Last Duchess"

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Summary and Analysis of "Rabbi Ben Ezra"

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John continues his dictation, in which he addresses questions of truth. He notes

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Summary and Analysis of "A Death in the Desert"

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Of course, Browning is never one to subscribe to any fixed philosophy, and in

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In all of this is a contemplation of subjective vs. objective truths. John's ultimate

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Robert Browning: Dramatic Monologue

Robert Browning aspired to be a dramatist. He wrote eight dramas and all of

Dramatic monologue is different from a drama and a soliloquy. In drama the

Victorianism was an age of renaissance. It was an age when British colonies

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So we see that Browning’s characters are also representing the same

Browning’s dramatic monologue deals with the subject of failure. He takes a

“I am poor brother Lippo, by your leave!

The last rider has been rejected by his beloved:

“I said – Then, dearest, since ’tis so,

Bishop is on his bed:

“Vanity, saith the preacher, vanity!

And Andrea's wife does not care for him.

“But do not let us quarrel any more,

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the case, the interesting will be the poem.

Through the technique of case-making, browning dissects the soul of his