ABSTRACT

If Mr Browning is thus appreciated by one of the greatest of his contemporaries, he does not, however, enjoy the popularity which men of much less genius have acquired; nor is he even known to many of those who are really lovers of poetry. Were this altogether the fault of the poet himself, we might almost infer that the world was nothing the worse for its ignorance of him. He is only partially to blame, however; for while some of his works are sufficiently obscure to deter even the most refined reader, and far too much so ever to become popular in any sense whatever, the greater part of them are really very beautiful, of a highly original character, and deserving of a very wide circulation. They are simple enough to be understood in everything that constitutes them sources of enjoyment —no ordinary recommendation, when we see how largely some in our day act upon Wordsworth’s contentment-‘to enjoy the things which others understand.’ They require no other faculty than that which the most ordinary

cannot, however, shut our eyes to the fact, that he has taken great liberties with the public, and even with that portion of it who readily appreciate the most subtle and refined kind of poetry. The author of Paracelsus put forth strong claims on the attention of all who could perceive and enjoy the most delicate and beautiful expressions of poetic genius. That work was eminently calculated to awaken hopes of something very noble and powerful in the future; but when Mr Browning chose to address himself to a small-we should say, a very small circle, in his Sordello, rather than to fulfil the promise of his first essay, it was very natural that something like dissatisfaction should have been felt by his admirers. Subsequent writings deepened this dissatisfaction into an impression that the poet had abandoned altogether the intention of writing intelligibly, or of making himself heard, as the poet ought to be; and as the public is little disposed to give itself trouble about understanding poetry which it cannot feel, much that he has since written has been received with a certain degree of jealousy-certainly not with that frank admiration to which a large portion of it is entitled.…

We have taken no notice of Mr Browning’s latest work, Christmaseve and Easter-Day; for although it contains, in fuller measure, perhaps, than any of his other writings, those evidences of strong originality to which we have already referred, the subject is one of which we cannot properly give an outline. It is a metaphysical and essentially religious poem, though partaking to a very slight degree of the character of religious poetry generally. It is too full of close and subtile reasoning ever to be popular; for while it combines much that is striking in thought and imagery, with a high tone of devotional feeling, it has depths of spiritual experience into which the ordinary reader of poetry will scarcely be inclined to go.