Selected Poems
By Robert Browning

Contents

My Star
Incident of the French Camp
Home Thoughts from Abroad
Rabbi Ben Ezra
Memorabilia
Abt Vogler
The Lost Leader
The Boy and the Angel
Andrea del Sarto
"Good News from Ghent"
By the Fireside
My Last Duchess

Introduction

Robert Browning was born at Camberwell, a suburb of London, May 7, 1812. From his earliest years he was fond of writing verses, and when twelve years of age had produced poems enough to form a volume. His first published poem, "Pauline," appeared in 18333, but his real introduction to the public was through "Paracelsus," a drama, published in 1835. In 1837 the tragedy of "Strafford" was unsuccessfully presented at Drury Lane Theater. In 1840 the epic "Sordello" was published, one of his most characteristic and most difficult works. In 1841-1846 appeared the series of "Bells and Pomegranates," in eight shilling parts, containing much of his finest poetry, including the tragedy "A Blot in the 'Scutcheon" and the graceful dramatic poem "Pippa Passes." In 1846 he was married to the distinguished poetess, Elizabeth Barrett, and soon after established his home in Italy. "Christmas Eve and Easter Day" appeared in 1850, followed by two volumes of short poems, "Men and Women," 1855, and "Dramatis Personae," 1864. His greatest work, "The Ring and teh Book," appeared in 1868-9, closely followed by many other important poems, chief of which are "Fifine at the Fair," 1872; "Red Cotton Night-cap country," 1873; "Aristophanes' Apology" and "The Inn Album," 1875. Most important of his latest works are "Dramatic Idyls," 1879-80; "Jocoseria," 1883; "Ferishtah's Fancies," 1885; and "Parleyings with Certain People of Importance in their Day," 1887.

The first and perhaps the final impression we receive from the works of Robert Browning is that of a great nature, an immense personality. The poet in him is made up of many men. He is dramatist, humorist, lyrist, painter, musician, philosopher, and scholar, each in full measure, and he includes and dominates them all. In richness of nature, in scope and penetration of mind and vision, in all the potentialities of poetry, he is probably second among English poets to Shakespeare alone. In art, in the power of...

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Windham Press is committed to bringing the lost cultural heritage of ages past into the 21st century through high-quality reproductions of original, classic printed works at affordable prices.

This book has been carefully crafted to utilize the original images of antique books rather than error-prone OCR text. This also preserves the work of the original typesetters of these classics, unknown craftsmen who laid out the text, often by hand, of each and every page you will read. Their subtle art involving judgment and interaction with the text is in many ways superior and more human than the mechanical methods utilized today, and gave each book a unique, hand-crafted feel in its text that connected the reader organically to the art of bindery and book-making.

We think these benefits are worth the occasional imperfection resulting from the age of these books at the time of scanning, and their vintage feel provides a connection to the past that goes beyond the mere words of the text.