ABSTRACT
Yet, in spite of these and other obstacles to popularity, the opinion is gaining ground that Browning is our greatest modern seer. It is a less debatable position to say that in bulk his work has never been surpassed, and that his seventeen volumes are crammed to congestion with condensed thought, imagination, suggestion, characterization, and dramatic situation. His themes are not more varied than his treatment. In both his versatility is phenomenal. He appeals to his readers by the catholicity of his poetic gifts, by intellectual strength, refinement, swiftness and sustained energy of thought, imaginative power, broad realistic humour, spiritual passion, the capacity to conceive, and express, the subtlest complexities of the human mind. He accepts and enjoys the world without losing sight of its unseen realities. He possesses a profound knowledge of human nature in all its infinite graduations; yet he confronts with steady courage the problems of life and destiny. He is a valiant soldier of humanity, chanting his sursum corda to the world, not in ecstatic hope but in calm conviction, indulging in no humanitarian extravagances, never lapsing into despondency or philosophical morbidity. He presents life to us as at once serious and joyous-a boon to be enjoyed, a means to be used. He explores its mazes, feeling where he cannot see. Keenly alive to the questions of doubt, he yet says his say on the side of faith with emphatic earnestness, and urges with unrivalled force the moral arguments for the working idea of Christianity. His spiritual influence has been as wide as it has also proved stimulating.…
In numerous cases no plea of dramatic propriety can be pleaded in defence of Browning’s violations of the self-respect of art. But a distinction should be maintained between those defects which are meaningless, and those irregularities which serve a definite, if mistaken, purpose. No excuse can be urged for the former. The justification of his intentional breaches of the laws of poetic composition, like the defence of obscurities which arise from the complexity, rapidity, or dramatic presentation of his thought, depends upon considerations involved in the third group of charges.
