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Robert Browning's Views of Life and Death

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Robert Browning's Views of Life and Death Robert Browning's Views of Life and Death. Thouch Robert Browning is acknowledged on all sides to "All that is, at all, Lasts ever, be a great poet, to be worthy of our love and admiration, past recall; f Earth but soul and God stand sure." and fit to be honoured burial in the thrice-hallowed changes, thy by wb? And in one of his later he of himself as one ground of Poet's Corner, yet how many there are who say, poems speaks " wearily, "We cannot understand him," or, "I have tried to At least believed in soul, was very sure of God." read Browning's poetry, and cannot make out the meaning." The uses of life are, he taught, simply to learn to love h1? With these disappointed ones we have considerable sym- to know the truth. In "Fifine at the Fair," one of hard pathy ; much of Browning's poetry is confessedly most delightful poems, in which are freely discussed reading, but his thoughts are so fine, his hope is so stead- uses to which man puts life, and the lessons, often bitter' fast, his belief in God so undimmed, his faith in humanity learnt thereby, he says and immortality so unquenchable, that we trust that after " Life means?learning to abhor by perusing the following short exposition of his views on life The false and love the true, truth treasured snatch snatch." and death many of our readers will seek, not only interest of an intellectual character, but that moral strength and Taking life so earnestly, he insisted upon the responSl encouragement, which comes from intercourse with a great bilrty of youth, and he says : " and noble mind, in the pages of the now dead poet. Youth is the only time Browning never despaired of life ; he firmly believed all To think and decide on a great course, Manhood with action follows." was working for good. Suffering purged humanity, struggle strengthened, failure chastened, and even sin and crime And Sordello exclaims: " taught lessons which might never be completely learni in Youth once gone is gone; this darkened and straitened existence, but, hoping still, Deeds let escape are never to be done." he declared that Indeed, not only youth, but all good gifts are, he clai01"' " Things learned on earth we shall practise in heaven." ours only for the Master's use. " Where's the use of the red His philosophy is more fully expressed in the following : lip's charm, " The heaven of the of the brow, There shall never be one lost ! What shall hair, pride good was, And the blood that blues the inside arm? live as before; Unless we turn as the soul knows how, The evil is null, is is silence sound; " nought, implying The earthly gift to an end divine 1 What was good, shall be good, with, for evil, so much good more; To one who held so pure a faith with such simplicity a de? On earth the broken arcs; in the heaven, perfect earnestness, it is not surprising that he looked upon round." to absolutely without alarm and treated it only as a portal ^ that was a term of " Holding thus the opinion this life only fuller, freer, and higher life. Wait death, nor be afra ! for and he " probation another greater existence, glorified he makes Rabbi ben Ezra say, and in that wonderful of "Rabbi ben Ezra" this is " effort. In the beautiful poem gem, Prospice," in which he begins by asking shall forcibly expressed : fear death, then describes its terrors, and finally says: " Then welcome each rebuff " I would hate that death my eyes and foreb?re' turns smoothness bandaged That earth's rough, And bade me Each bids not sic nor but ! creep past. sting that stand, go let me taste the whole of fare like ! No, it, my peers, Be our joy three parts pain The heroes of old, Strive and hold the strain ; cheap Bear the brunt, in a minute pay glad life's arrears nor account the ; never the Learn, pang dare, grudge Of pain, darkness, and cold. throe." For sudden the worst turns the best to the brave, It was not, however, success that he valued as the prize The black minutes' at end, rave of effort. He preached more constantly the view, And the elements' rage, the fiend voices that " " Shall dwindle, shall blend, Shall life succeed in that it seems to fail Shall shall become first a peace out of pain> that change, and a then " Then light, thy breast, Endeavour's success is all, nought." 0, thou soul of my soul ! I shall clasp thee again, but also that it was in at the unrealisable ideal that And with God be the rest." aiming ^ man was greatest : This is how he met his death. Death acceded to his " he " man arch It is not what does which exalts but what man and did not bandage his eyes. He met the him, he p ^ would do." open-eyed and not afraid ; for, as in the last words This is the burden of many of his most beautiful and lished the last day of his life, he was poems " ?or. One who never turned his back but marched breas dramas ; "Paracelsus," "Luria," "Saul," and "AbtYogler," for example. ward, Never doubted clouds would break, Though a man of great learning and versed in metaphysics _oUld Never dreamed, though were worsted, wrong and modern science, he never ceased to with the right proclaim, triumph, of the of insistence and faith prophets old, that God is, and Held we fall to rise, are baffled to fkjht better, one his earlier that life is eternal. In of poems he says : Sleep to wake." .
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