Robert Browning

[Music] welcome to EPG paala I Dr neru tandan from vssd college kpur this module number nine has been written by Dr Chaya Jan of vssd college kpur Robert Browning as a poet that is the title of this module and we are going to discuss Robert Browning as a poet of course as a Victorian poet and some of his poems.

Now Robert Browning before we discussed Robert Browning as a poet we should just give a quick recap of the history of English poetry. English poetry begins with choser choser being termed as father of English poetry he wrote prologue to the Canterbury Tales and a picture presented a picture gallery of 14th century England through the characters in 15th century The Poetry was not so rich in quality but it was rich in ballots in 16th century that is also known as Elizabethan age it was very rich in literature in every field Shakespeare being there Pros poetry drama fiction everything was there the 17th century known as metaphysical age John Dunn was there and poetry flourished in 18th century known as Augustine age or neoclassical age the product of intelligence Good Sense reasoning logic that all came into literature Pope was the exponent of this age then came 19th century and that is also known as romantic age that is the most distinguished period in the development of English poetry the later half of the 19th century is known as the Victorian age the Victorian age that runs from 1850 to 1900 roughly and that presented Robert Browning as a chief exponent along with Tennison.

Robert Browning born on May 7th 1812 at camberville he was influenced by shelle and brown during his first visit to Italy he came under the influence of Venice and influence that proved permanent then he got attracted towards the poetic Talent of Elizabeth berett Browning and which ripened into love and then they married secretly in September 1846 he died on December 12th 1889 at Venice.

Browning's contribution it is immense as a poet he wanted to be a dramatist but he could not become a successful dramatist then he tried his hand at poems and became really a lovable poet his Major Works poen stord sordello bells and pomegranates dramatic lyrics dramatic romances and lyrics men and women dramatist person and esolo made him and established him as a proper poet of Victorian age.

Now let us discuss the characteristics of Browning's poetry the first comes Browning's optimism you know whenever you talk about Browning the very first equality that comes in mind is Browning as an optimism and Browning as an optimistic poet now whenever Browning talks or writes about any Grim situation it is his quality that as a poet he gives you a positive message Browning finds something good in the worst position also who can forget his line grow old along with me the best is yet to be Browning's optimism he gives a strong message through the Triumph of the individual that you will get victory over all obstacles his is the voice declaring confidently to the word I can and I will.

Next quality that Browning is the singer of love love was there in his life in the form of his wife Elizabeth Barrett Browning and he sings the songs of love he is an adventurer in the infinite realm of his spirit and is an ardent singer of the joys of life and also the Glory of Love he felt love he expressed love and he inspired people to come and love.

Then Browning as a writer of dramatic monologue rather he is a master of dramatic monologue Browning he just controlled dramatic monologue the technique and just presented dramatic monologue in the sense that everybody was just a fan of Browning as a writer of dramatic monologue he attempted the monologue form which enabled him enough a scope for representing the inner mental and moral of human beings.

Browning's craftmanship he's a gifted poet he's matchless in his writing dramatic monologues his artistic principle is that a poet should under no circumstances sacrifice sense to sound but one limitation it is there Browning was obscure his obscurity was his limitation he used highly condensed and abbrevia style which often leads to incomprehensibility it was very difficult to understand or or to interpret Browning's poems without understanding the context so that obscurity was his limitation.

Browning's marriage with his wife Elizabeth ber Browning it was called a literary love and it was there till the end till the death of his wife Elizabeth eled with Browning and they wrote many poems afterwards though Elizabeth was disinherited by her father even then they lived happily and had one son.

Now another poem drus person was very very famous poem of Robert Browning my last Duchess if you want to understand Browning as a poet of dramatic monologue then you must go through my last dutches but before going through my last ditches try to understand what is the dramatic monologue as the name suggests dramatic monologue it is dramatic in nature but as far as poetic content is concerned it is monologue so when a drama is mixed in the poetry form then it becomes a dramatic monologue monologue again try to understand mono means single log means dialogue when a single speaker is speaking and just giving a dramatic event presenting a dramatic event in the poem at that particular point that is dramatic monologue Browning gave his best in the forms of dramatic monologue you can understand dramatic monologue by three things the first thing that dramatic monologue is lyrical the second thing that there is just one speaker but it is different from soloi because in soloi there is no listener in dramatic monologue there is a listener who can be identified but that listener is the silent listener he never speaks he only listens only one person speaks that is why it is monologue and he presents it in the dramatic way so it is dramatic monologue.

Now my last Duchess is a beautiful dramatic monologue where Browning presents a beautiful picture of a man who is talking about his wife to a Suitor my last Duchess it was included in dramatic lyrics in 1842 and later in dramatic romances in 1863 the speaker is an Italian nobl man coming from a great family famous as the Duke of Ferrera the poem is rich in characterization The Tyranny the pride and self-conceit the the hard-heartedness the dictor attitude and greed of the Duke has been thrown into sharp contrast to the genial and good nature of the duchess though Duchess is not there as a character but the whole monologue revolves around the duchess the poem is written in heroic coulet the style is dense and epigrammatic but the poem is lucid clear and enjoyable I CAU some lines from the monologue that's my last Duchess painted on the wall looking as if she were alive I call that piece of Wonder now fra and doll's hands worked busily a day and there she stands how such a glance came there so not the first are you to turn and ask thus sir it wasn't her husband's presence only called that spot she had a heart how shall I say too soon made glad too easily impressed she liked whatever she looked on and her looks went everywhere oh sir she smiled no doubt whenever I passed her but who passed without much the same smile this grew I gave commands then all smiles stopped together there she stands as if alive now see see a husband who is jealous see a husband who recognizes the properties and the good qualities of duches but is still he's so jealous that he orders to kill her the Duke of Ferrera is a powerful proud and hard-hearted Italian Duke he's a widow now and intends to marry a second time the messenger who is The Listener of a neighboring count has come to his Palace to negotiate with him the marriage of the Count's daughter the Duke points to particular portrait of the last Duchess to the messenger and tells him that only he the Duke himself can uncover the picture the Duke explains that he did not give for any occasion to be un unfaithful to him even the portrait by someone was portrayed in one single day the Duke did not want any kind of intimacy with anyone the Duke further tells the messenger that his last duess was very childish by Nature she was very easily pleased even with Trifles and had no sense of dignity and decorum he expected better sense from his wife quite reasonably as per him he did not try to correct her why because this would have meant loss of dignity on his part and he could not bear it her habit of smiling continued to grow he was happy that she used to smile whenever she saw him but it was intolerable that she used to smile for others also so he gave orders that all the smiles should be stopped She should be killed and all smiles stopped together most probably The Duchess was murdered at the command of her brutal husband the Duke now changes the subject and talks about his intended marriage with the daughter of the count the master of the messenger very cunningly the Duke adds that his primary interest is in the fair daughter of the count but a suitable dowy will not be denied to him that is the beauty of the monologue without being present over there two other characters come forward The Duchess who wins the sympathy of the readers and the messenger who is bound to hear and bear everything.

Another poem by Robert Browning that we will discuss is fra lipo Lippi fra lipo Lippi was first published in the volume called men and women it has 392 lines and written in blank verse the poem is a dramatic presentation of the life and doings of FRA lioli the great Italian painter who broke away from the moral and religious tradition in painting the poem is admirable for its undercurrent humor impressionistic descriptions and its imaginative insight into the complex character of the artist I quote some lines from the poem I am poor brother Lio by your level you need not clap your torches to my face Jukes whats to blame you think you see a monk a fine way to paint Soul by painting body so ill the eye can't stop there must go further and can't feir worse this poem dramatically opens in the characteristic manner of Browning's damatic monologues and the attention of the readers is at once captured brother lipo is arrested by a group of Watchmen at midnight in a lane of ill repute frequented by the prostitutes Lio narrates the Watchman the story and purpose of his life he tells that to what that he is a monk belonging to the caraman Closter when he was a little child his parents died he was admitted to a Convent to be brought up as a monk while roaming about in the streets he began to draw people's faces in his notebooks on the wall the bench the door everywhere other monks were angry and requested the frier to expel lippo from the ministry but the frier behaved differently the Learned priest said that he should change his attitude towards painting and human soul should be the theme of his drawings fra Lippi Lippi did not agree with this approach to Art and told his listeners that the function of the artist was not to ignore the importance of the body and the soul that they deserved fra Li Lippi further tells that he was now his own master and painted whatever he felt like whatever pleased him he could not accept the view that the word and life were just a dream and that the reality lay beyond the physical word lipo then begs the watch not to report his escapate he says that he will make amend for the offense he will require 6 months to complete a painting for St Ambrose's church at Florence now he bids goodbye to the watch and tells them that he does not need any light from their torches as he can find his way back to the house in the darkness the poem is one of the happiest expressions of Browning's belief in art and the joy of living.

The next poem the bishop orders his Tom at St predex Church the poem was included in the dramatic romances and lyrics in 1845 and in 1863 it appeared in men and women this church is an old church in Rome and the poem was inspired by Browning's visit to this church early in October 1844 the dying Bishop who is the central personage in it is an imaginary Bishop besides being a penetrating character study of the bishop the poem is also remarkable for having captured the very Spirit of the renessa the love of color pump and show love of horses Greek manuscripts and beautiful women greed and sensuality some lines from this poem there leave me there for ye have stabbed me with ingratitude to death EV wish it God evish it Stone gr Stone a crumble now this poem opens with the dying Bishop calling his sons and nephews round his bed to tell them of His Last Wish first he moralizes about the vanity of human life his wife was a beautiful woman and Bishop Gandalf his rival envied him for having won her love and having married her but now she was dead and he himself lay dying at the moment this shows that life on this Earth is unreal and unsubstantial like a dream it comes and goes he's happy in the thought that he would have a TB of the costliest Stone while his rival has a tomb only of a white and yellow stone of cheap variety the bishop imagines himself is standing on his grave and hearing the sound of the bishop preaching on the mount but the next moment he notices the look of ingratitude in their eyes which causes him great pain and he angrily asks them to leave him alone the speaker throughout is the dying bishop and his sons and nephews constitute the group of listeners there is not just one listener but the group of listeners the poem is a penetrating psychological study of the emotions that pulsate in the mind of and the soul of the dying Bishop every line which he utters reveals the spiritual bankruptcy.

caliban upon set boss is another poem that is Masterpiece in the grotesque it is just written and two with 295 lines in the blank verse and was first published in dramatic person in 1864 the event that inspired Browning to write this poem was certainly Darwin's famous book The Origin of Species fired by the conception of half man half beast Browning's imagination gave shape to the literary anticipation of a strange creature the figure of caliban the poem is a dramatic monologue in which the speaker threw out his caliban and through the monologue he expresses his conception of the God he worships and of whom he lives in constant fear in the light of these characteristics of ciban it is easy to understand the God setus has conceived as being purely arbitrary and capricious he has no sense of right and wrong the only hope for caliban is that setas may change perhaps grow into that higher power which caliban calls the kite it is written in a very forceful Lucid style entirely free from Browning's usual obscurity.

Now another important Point other than his poems is to understand understand his place in comparison with another great poet Tennison Tennison and Browning they are contemporaries but they are different as well Tennison exhibited the social political and religious disturbances of the age in his poetry while Browning maintained complete aloofness from these Tennison was an absolute English man patriotism was the chief features of his poetry Browning was a Cosmopolitan poet he was more interested in Italy than in England Tennison was a greater artist and craftman than Browning while Browning was greater thinker than Tennison Browning stood for the victory of the individual will while Tennison held the view that individual will must be suppressed tennison's poetry is marked with Lucidity and Clarity of expression while Browning's poetry somewhere with obscurity as well they deferred in the treatment of nature in tennison's poetry the landscape is more important than man while in Browning's word the individual will is more important than nature.

Now to sum up Robert Browning another name for optimism is remembered as a poet who gives you reasons to live who gives you reasons to smile his poetry infuses a fresh Spirit his poetry gives you that stamina to grow old along with him with without any remorse in another poem he expresses when he can't get his beloved for this life he says okay one last ride with me I will remember this and wait till the next birth and he's happy with the last right together he's always happy if he's dying he's fighting with death and he says okay one last fight more I always a fighter so one fight more such a personality such an optimistic personality as a poet gives us the optimism his poetry generates good sense and it is enjoyable as well so keep reading thanks for visiting eala.