ABSTRACT
The words "Impressionism" and "Impressionist" were not invented for many years after Robert Browning began to write poetry: they were certainly not in common use very much before his death, and they had not, even then, been much extended beyond the arts of design. The new readers had indeed been brought, by panting Time as he toiled after Mr. Browning, to understand the Impressionist process itself. The whole thing is a record of an impression of Browning's, and unless one can by some hocus pocus substitute one's mind for his, or at least put oneself into some telepathic connection with it, one must remain a hopeless outsider. The fact is that Browning is always dramatic, but that his drama has very peculiar and rather uncanny characteristics. The greatness of Browning's actual powers as a metrist was surprisingly long in being recognized, or rather not so surprisingly, seeing that his "thoughtfulness" was the bait that first caught most fish.
