FOOTNOTES: 

[Footnote 23:  A. Mary F. Robinson, in Boston Literary World, December 12, 1885.]

11.  DRAMATIC ROMANCES AND LYRICS.

    [Published in 1845 as No.  VII. of Bells and Pomegranates
    (Poetical Works, 1889, dispersedly, in Vols.  IV., V., and
    VI.).]

Dramatic Romances, Browning’s second volume of miscellaneous poems, is not markedly different in style or substance from the Lyrics published three years earlier.  It is somewhat more mature, no doubt, as a whole, somewhat richer and fuller, somewhat wider in reach and firmer in grasp; but in tone and treatment it harmonises considerably more with its predecessor than with its successor, after so long an interval, Men and Women.  The book opens with the ballad, How they brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix, the most popular piece, except perhaps the Pied Piper, that Browning has written.  Few boys, I suppose, have not read with breathless emotion this most stirring of ballads:  few men can read it without a thrill.  The “good news” is intended for that of the Pacification of Ghent, but the incident itself is not historical.  The poem was written at sea, off the African coast.  Another poem of somewhat similar kind, appealing more directly than usual to the simpler feelings, is The Lost Leader.  It was written in reference to Wordsworth’s abandonment of the Liberal cause, with perhaps a thought of Southey, but it is applicable to any popular apostasy.  This is one of those songs that do the work of swords.  It shows how easily Browning, had he so chosen, could have stirred the national feeling with his songs.  The Home-Thoughts from Abroad belongs, in its simple directness, its personal and forthright fervour of song, to this section of the volume.  With the two pieces now known as Home-Thoughts from Abroad and Home-Thoughts from the Sea, a third, very inferior, piece was originally published.  It is now more appropriately included with Claret and Tokay (two capital little snatches) under the head of Nationality in Drinks.  The two “Home-Thoughts,” from sea and from land, are equally remarkable for their poetry and for their patriotism.  I hope there is no need to commend to all Englishmen so passionate and heartfelt a record of love for England.  It is in Home-Thoughts from Abroad, that we find the well-known and magical lines on the thrush:—­

      “That’s the wise thrush:  he sings each song twice over,
      Lest you should think he never could recapture
      The first fine careless rapture!”

The whole poem is beautiful, but Home-Thoughts from the Sea is of that order of song that moves the heart “more than with a trumpet.”