ROBERT BROWNING (1812 –1889) WAS A POET AND PLAYWRIGHT OF THE VICTORIAN ERA. TODAY HE IS WIDELY RECOGNIZED AS A MASTER OF DRAMATIC MONOLOGUE.
“How good is man’s life, the mere living! how fit to employ
All the heart and the soul and the senses forever in joy!”
“In this world, who can do a thing, will not;
And who would do it, cannot, I perceive:
Yet the will's somewhat — somewhat, too, the power —
And thus we half-men struggle.”
“Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp,
Or what's a heaven for?”
“Who hears music, feels his solitude
Peopled at once.”
“God is the perfect poet,
Who in his person acts his own creations.”
“Progress, man’s distinctive mark alone,
Not God’s, and not the beasts’: God is, they are,
Man partly is and wholly hopes to be.”
“… what's the earth
With all its art, verse, music, worth —
Compared with love, found, gained, and kept?”
“Our interest's on the dangerous edge of things.
The honest thief, the tender murderer,
the superstitious atheist …”
“Open my heart and you will see
Graved inside of it, "Italy".”
“Out of your whole life give but one moment!
All of your life that has gone before,
All to come after it, – so you ignore,
So you make perfect the present, – condense,
In a rapture of rage, for perfection’s endowment,
Thought and feeling and soul and sense –”
“Heart, fear nothing, for, heart, thou shalt find her—
Next time, herself!—not the trouble behind her ”
“Each life unfulfilled, you see;
It hangs still, patchy and scrappy:
We have not sighed deep, laughed free,
Starved, feasted, despaired,—been happy.”
“This world's no blot for us,
Nor blank; it means intensely, and means good:
To find its meaning is my meat and drink.”
“It is the glory and good of Art
That Art remains the one way possible
Of speaking truth - to mouths like mine, at least.”
“My whole life long I learn’d to love.
This hour my utmost art I prove
And speak my passion—heaven or hell?
She will not give me heaven? ’T is well!”
“Grow old along with me!
The best is yet to be,
The last of life, for which the first was made:
Our times are in His hand
Who saith "A whole I planned,
Youth shows but half; trust God: see all, nor be afraid!''”
“A minute’s success pays the failure of years.”
“Blot out his name, then, record one lost soul more,
One task more declined, one more footpath untrod,
One more devils’-triumph and sorrow for angels,
One wrong more to man, one more insult to God!”
“I see my way as birds their trackless way.
I shall arrive,—what time, what circuit first,
I ask not; but unless God send his hail
Or blinding fire-balls, sleet or stifling snow,
In some time, his good time, I shall arrive:
He guides me and the bird. In his good time.”
“Ignorance is not innocence but sin.”
“Womanliness means only motherhood;
All love begins and ends there.”
“I find earth not gray but rosy;
Heaven not grim but fair of hue.
Do I stoop? I pluck a posy; Do I stand and stare? All's blue.”
“What Youth deemed crystal,
Age finds out was dew.”
“Take away love, and our earth is a tomb!”
“If you get simple beauty and naught else,
You get about the best thing God invents.”
“You should not take a fellow eight years old
And make him swear to never kiss the girls.”
“The rain set early in tonight,
The sullen wind was soon awake,
It tore the elm-tops down for spite,
And did its best to vex the lake:
I listened with heart fit to break.
When glided in Porphyria; straight
She shut the cold out and the storm,
And kneeled and made the cheerless grate
Blaze up and all the cottage warm;”
“All the breath and the bloom of the year in the bag of one bee:
All the wonder and wealth of the mine in the heart of one gem:
In the core of one pearl all the shade and the shine of the sea:
Breath and bloom, shade and shine, — wonder, wealth, and — how far above them —
Truth, that's brighter than gem,
Trust, that's purer than pearl, —
Brightest truth, purest trust in the universe, — all were for me
In the kiss of one girl.”
“How good is man’s life, the mere living! how fit to employ
All the heart and the soul and the senses forever in joy!”
~ Robert Browning, David Singing before Saul
“In this world, who can do a thing, will not;
And who would do it, cannot, I perceive:
Yet the will's somewhat — somewhat, too, the power —
And thus we half-men struggle.”
~ Robert Browning, Andrea del Sarto (1855)
“Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp,
Or what's a heaven for?”
~ Robert Browning, Andrea del Sarto (1855)
“Who hears music, feels his solitude
Peopled at once.”
~ Robert Browning, Balaustion's Adventure (1871)
“God is the perfect poet,
Who in his person acts his own creations.”
~ Robert Browning, Paracelsus (1835)
“Progress, man’s distinctive mark alone,
Not God’s, and not the beasts’: God is, they are,
Man partly is and wholly hopes to be.”
~ Robert Browning, De Gustibus
“… what's the earth
With all its art, verse, music, worth —
Compared with love, found, gained, and kept?”
~ Robert Browning, Dîs Aliter Visum; or, Le Byron De Nos Jours
“Our interest's on the dangerous edge of things.
The honest thief, the tender murderer,
the superstitious atheist …”
~ Robert Browning, Bishop Blougram's Apology
“Open my heart and you will see
Graved inside of it, "Italy".”
~ Robert Browning, De Gustibus
“Out of your whole life give but one moment!
All of your life that has gone before,
All to come after it, – so you ignore,
So you make perfect the present, – condense,
In a rapture of rage, for perfection’s endowment,
Thought and feeling and soul and sense –”
~ Robert Browning, Now
“Heart, fear nothing, for, heart, thou shalt find her—
Next time, herself!—not the trouble behind her ”
~ Robert Browning, Love in a Life
“Each life unfulfilled, you see;
It hangs still, patchy and scrappy:
We have not sighed deep, laughed free,
Starved, feasted, despaired,—been happy.”
~ Robert Browning, Youth and Art
“This world's no blot for us,
Nor blank; it means intensely, and means good:
To find its meaning is my meat and drink.”
~ Robert Browning, Fra Lippo Lippi
“It is the glory and good of Art
That Art remains the one way possible
Of speaking truth - to mouths like mine, at least.”
~ Robert Browning, The Ring and the Book (1868-69)
“My whole life long I learn’d to love.
This hour my utmost art I prove
And speak my passion—heaven or hell?
She will not give me heaven? ’T is well!”
~ Robert Browning, One Way of Love
“Grow old along with me!
The best is yet to be,
The last of life, for which the first was made:
Our times are in His hand
Who saith "A whole I planned,
Youth shows but half; trust God: see all, nor be afraid!''”
~ Robert Browning, One Way of Love, Rabbi Ben Ezra
“A minute’s success pays the failure of years.”
~ Robert Browning, Apollo and the Fates (1887)
“Blot out his name, then, record one lost soul more,
One task more declined, one more footpath untrod,
One more devils’-triumph and sorrow for angels,
One wrong more to man, one more insult to God!”
~ Robert Browning, The Lost Leader
“I see my way as birds their trackless way.
I shall arrive,—what time, what circuit first,
I ask not; but unless God send his hail
Or blinding fire-balls, sleet or stifling snow,
In some time, his good time, I shall arrive:
He guides me and the bird. In his good time.”
~ Robert Browning, Paracelsus (1835)
“Ignorance is not innocence but sin.”
~ Robert Browning, The Inn Album (1875)
“Womanliness means only motherhood;
All love begins and ends there.”
~ Robert Browning, The Inn Album (1875)
“I find earth not gray but rosy;
Heaven not grim but fair of hue.
Do I stoop? I pluck a posy; Do I stand and stare? All's blue.”
~ Robert Browning, At the 'Mermaid'(1876)
“What Youth deemed crystal,
Age finds out was dew.”
~ Robert Browning, Jochanan Hakkadosh (1883)
“Take away love, and our earth is a tomb!”
~ Robert Browning, Fra Lippo Lippi
“If you get simple beauty and naught else,
You get about the best thing God invents.”
~ Robert Browning, Fra Lippo Lippi
“You should not take a fellow eight years old
And make him swear to never kiss the girls.”
~ Robert Browning, Fra Lippo Lippi
“The rain set early in tonight,
The sullen wind was soon awake,
It tore the elm-tops down for spite,
And did its best to vex the lake:
I listened with heart fit to break.
When glided in Porphyria; straight
She shut the cold out and the storm,
And kneeled and made the cheerless grate
Blaze up and all the cottage warm;”
~ Robert Browning, Porphyria's Lover
“All the breath and the bloom of the year in the bag of one bee:
All the wonder and wealth of the mine in the heart of one gem:
In the core of one pearl all the shade and the shine of the sea:
Breath and bloom, shade and shine, — wonder, wealth, and — how far above them —
Truth, that's brighter than gem,
Trust, that's purer than pearl, —
Brightest truth, purest trust in the universe, — all were for me
In the kiss of one girl.”
~ Robert Browning, Summum Bonum (1889)
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