Essays on Robert Browning

7 May 1812, Camberwell, London, England

12 December 1889, Venice, Kingdom of Italy

Poet

Victorian

• The Pied Piper of Hamelin
• Men and Women
• The Ring and the Book
• Dramatis Personae
• Dramatic Lyrics
• Dramatic Romances and Lyrics
• Asolando

• “Love is the energy of life.”
• “I show you doubt, to prove that faith exists.”
• “Ignorance is not innocence but sin.”
• “Without love, our earth is a tomb”

7 May 1812 – 12 December 1889

Robert Browning was a major English poet of the Victorian age, noted for his mastery of dramatic monologue and psychological portraiture. His most noted work was The Ring and the Book (1868–69), the story of a Roman murder trial in 12 books.

“Bishop Blougram’s Apology”, “Christmas-Eve and Easter-Day”, “Dramatis Personae”, “Fra Lippo Lippi”, “Men and Women”, “My Last Duchess”, “Paracelsus”, “Pippa Passes”, “Rabbi Ben Ezra”, “Sordello”, “The Bishop Orders His Tomb at St. Praxed’s Church”, “The Pied Piper of Hamelin”, “The Ring and the Book”

Robert Browning examines three key themes in his poetry. He strives to find new perspectives on familiar characters and historical figures, he constantly questions whether people should live in the past or seize the moment, and he is fascinated by dark comedy.

Browning was one of the leading Victorian poets who have mastered the dramatic monologue. The striking characteristics of his poetry are irony, dark humor, characterization, social commentary, challenging vocabulary, historical setting, and syntax.

During Browning’s lifetime, critical recognition came rapidly after 1864; and, although his books never sold as well as his wife’s, he thereafter acquired a considerable and enthusiastic public. He has, however, influenced many modern poets, such as Robert Frost and Ezra Pound, partly through his development of the dramatic monologue, but even more through his success in writing about the variety of modern life in language that owed nothing to convention.

“I was made and meant to look for you and wait for you and become yours forever.”
“My sun sets to rise again.”
“Love is the energy of life.”
“I show you doubt, to prove that faith exists.”