Robert Browning

"I     Query: was ever a quainter     Crotchet than this of the painter     Giacomo Pacchiarotto     Who took Reform for his motto? II     He,"

"As certain also of your own poets have said     - (Acts 17.28)     Cleon the poet (from the sprinkled isles,     Lily on lily, that oerla"

"Shortly after the Revival of Learning in Europe     Let us begin and carry up this corpse,     Singing together.     Leave we the common crof"

"So, the three Court-ladies began     Their trial of who judged best     In esteeming the love of a man:     Who preferred with most reason was"

"I     Over the ball of it,     Peering and prying,     How I see all of it,     Life there, outlying!     Roughness and smoothness,     Shine an"

"Sing me a hero! Quench my thirst     Of soul, ye bards!     Quoth Bard the first:     "Sir Olaf, the good knight, did don     His helm, and ek"

"Here were the end, had anything an end:     Thus, lit and launched, up and up roared and soared     A rocket, till the key o the vault was reac"

"I chanced upon a new book yesterday;     I opened it, and, where my finger lay     'Twixt page and uncut page, these words I read,     Some six"

"Answer you, Sirs? Do I understand aright?     Have patience! In this sudden smoke from hell,     So things disguise themselves, I cannot see"

"First part     Constance and Norbert     Norbert     Now.     Constance     Not now.     Norbert     Give me them again, those hands"

"She. Yet womanhood you reverence,     So you profess!     He. With heart and soul.     She. Of which fact this is evidence!     To help Art-"

"I.     I said, Then, dearest, since tis so,     Since now at length my fate I know,     Since nothing all my love avails,     Since all, my life"

"A simple ring with a single stone,     To the vulgar eye no stone of price:     Whisper the right word, that alone,     Forth starts a sprite,"

"I.     Oh, the beautiful girl, too white,     Who lived at Pornic, down by the sea,     Just where the sea and the Loire unite!     And a boasted"

"Ive a Friend, over the sea;     I like him, but he loves me;     It all grew out of the books I write;     They find such favour in his sight"

"Scene. Over Orcana. The house of Jules, who crosses its threshold with Phene: she is silent, on which Jules begins     Do not die, Phene! I am"

"TO J. MILSAND, OF DIJON.     Who will, may hear Sordello's story told:     His story? Who believes me shall behold     The man, pursue his for"

"Hamelin town's in Brunswick, By famous Hanover city; The river Weser, deep and wide, Washes its walls on either side; A pleasanter spot you never spie"

"You know, we French stormed Ratisbon: A mile or so away On a little mound, Napoleon Stood on our storming-day; With neck out-thrust, you fancy how"

"I sprang to the stirrup, and Joris, and he; I galloped, Dirck galloped, we galloped all three; "Good speed!" cried the watch, as the gate-bolts undrew"

"On the sea and at the Hogue, sixteen hundred ninety two, Did the English fight the French,--woe to France! And, the thirty-first of May, helter-skelte"

"Where the quiet-coloured end of evening smiles Miles and miles On the solitary pastures where our sheep Half-asleep Tinkle homeward thro' the"

"Your ghost will walk, you lover of trees,     (If our loves remain)     In an English lane,     By a cornfield-side a-flutter with poppies."

"Last night I saw you in my sleep:     And how your charm of face was changed!     I asked, Some love, some faith you keep?     You answered,"

"I.     As I ride, as I ride,     With a full heart for my guide,     So its tide rocks my side,     As I ride, as I ride,     That, as I were do"

"My first thought was, he lied in every word,     That hoary cripple, with malicious eye     Askance to watch the working of his lie     On mine"

"Stop rowing! This one of our bye-canals     Oer a certain bridge you have to cross     Thats named, Of the Angel: listen why!     The name"

"I.     All June I bound the rose in sheaves.     Now, rose by rose, I strip the leaves     And strew them where Pauline may pass.     She will not"

"A PICTURE AT FANO. I.     Dear and great Angel, wouldst thou only leave     That child, when thou hast done with him, for me!     Let me sit"

"I.     Just for a handful of silver he left us,     Just for a riband to stick in his coat     Found the one gift of which fortune bereft us,"

"FERRARA     Thats my last Duchess painted on the wall,     Looking as if she were alive. I call     That piece a wonder, now: Fr Pandolfs"

"Out of your whole life give but a moment!     All of your life that has gone before,     All to come after it, so you ignore,     So you make p"

"Theres Heaven above, and night by night,     I look right through its gorgeous roof     No sun and moons though eer so bright     Avail to st"

"Meantime Ferrara lay in rueful case;     The lady-city, for whose sole embrace     Her pair of suitors struggled, felt their arms     A brawny"

"Is it the same Sordello in the dusk     As at the dawn? merely a perished husk     Now, that arose a power fit to build     Up Rome again? The"

"Escape me?     Never     Beloved!     While I am I, and you are you,     So long as the world contains us both,     Me the loving and you the"

"I.     Lets contend no more, Love,     Strive nor weep:     All be as before, Love,     Only sleep! II.     What so wild as words are?"

"I am indeed the personage you know.     As for my wife, what happened long ago     You have a right to question me, as I     Am bound to answer"

"I.     Youre my friend:     I was the man the Duke spoke to;     I helped the Duchess to cast off his yoke, too;     So heres the tale from beg"

"I.     Heres the garden she walked across,     Arm in my arm, such a short while since:     Hark, now I push its wicket, the moss     Hinders th"

"(After he has been extemporizing upon the musical instrument of his invention) I.     Would that the structure brave, the manifold music I bui"

"First I salute this soil of the blessed, river and rock!     Gods of my birthplace, dmons and heroes, honour to all!     Then I name thee, clai"

"Suggested by a very early recollection of a prose story by the noble woman and imaginative writer, Jane Taylor, of Norwich, (more correctly, of On"

"I am just seventeen years and five months old,     And, if I lived one day more, three full weeks;     Tis writ so in the churchs register,"

"You'll love me yet! and I can tarry     Your love's protracted growing:     June reared that bunch of flowers you carry     From seeds of April"

"All the breath and the bloom of the year in the bag of one bee:     All the wonder and wealth of the mine in the heart of one gem:     In the co"

"A MIDDLE-AGE INTERLUDE. I.     PREADMONISHETH THE ABBOT DEODAET.     The Lord, we look to once for all,     Is the Lord we should look at,"

"Shall I sonnet-sing you about myself?     Do I live in a house you would like to see?     Is it scant of gear, has it store of pelf?     Unloc"

"Over the sea our galleys went,     With cleaving prows in order brave,     To a speeding wind and a bounding wave,     A gallant armament:"

"Heres my case. Of old I used to love him,     This same unseen friend, before I knew:     Dream there was none like him, none above him,     W"

"I.     You know, we French stormed Ratisbon:     A mile or so away,     On a little mound, Napolon     Stood on our storming-day;     With neck"

"I.     June was not over     Though past the fall,     And the best of her roses     Had yet to blow,     When a man I know     (But shall not d"

"I.     Grow old along with me!     The best is yet to be,     The last of life, for which the first was made:     Our times are in His hand     W"

"I.     How well I know what I mean to do     When the long dark autumn-evenings come:     And where, my soul, is thy pleasant hue?     With t"

"So say the foolish! Say the foolish so, Love?     Flower she is, my rose or else, My very swan is she     Or perhaps, Yon maid-moon, bles"

"What, he on whom our voices unanimously ran,     Made Pope at our last Conclave? Full low his life began:     His father earned the daily bread"

"I.     Plague take all your pedants, say I!     He who wrote what I hold in my hand,     Centuries back was so good as to die,     Leaving this r"

"Now, dont, sir! Dont expose me!     Just this once! This was the first and only time, Ill swear,     Look at me, see, I kneel, the only time,"

"I know there shall dawn a day     Is it here on homely earth?     Is it yonder, worlds away,     Where the strange and new have birth,     Tha"

"I.     Alls over, then: does truth sound bitter     As one at first believes?     Hark, tis the sparrows good-night twitter     About your cot"