An Introduction to the Study of Browning

lls and Pomegranates (Poetical Wo

her a sequence of otherwise independent scenes. The poem is the story of Pippa's New Year's Day holiday, her one holiday in the year. She resolves to fancy herself to be in turn the four happiest people in Asolo, and, to realise her fancy as much as she can, she spends her day in wandering about the town, passing, in the morning, the shrub-house up the hillside, where Ottima and her lover Sebald have met; at noon, the house of Jules, over Orcana; in the evening, the turret on the hill above Asolo, where are Luigi and his mother; and at night, the palace by the Duomo, now tenanted by Monsignor the Bishop. These, whom she imagines to be the happiest people in the town, have all, in reality, arrived at crises of tremendous and tragic importance to themselves, and, in one instance, to her. Each stands at the turning-point of a life: Ottima and Sebald, unrepentant, with a crime behind them; Jules and Phene, two souls brought strangely face to face by a fate which may prove their salvation or their perdition; Luigi, irresolute, with a purpose to be performed; Monsignor,

an, is a singularly acute study of the Italian and German races. Sebald, in a sudden access of brutal rage, has killed the old doting husband, but his conscience, too feeble to stay his hand before, is awake to torture him after the deed. But Ottima is steadfast in evil, with the Italian conscienceless resoluteness. She can no more feel either fear or remorse than Clyt?mnestra. The scene between Jules, the French s

ad one loves hi

ws of earth t

year's sunsets,

ht to come fir

ve that drifts

oons with notche

into sharp fire,

f the azure

ble rainbow sto

yellow moonlit

but I have th

ncomparable quality as the thunderstorm in the first

ods we lay, y

searching te

anon some bri

pine-tree roof, her

nger through the

lunged his weap

ilty thee and

ike a whole s

Besides these, there is one intermediate scene in verse, the talk of the "poor girls" on the Duomo steps, which seems to me one of the most pa

me yet!-and

s protract

at bunch of fl

s of Apri

eartful now

is sure t

t you'll not

but, may

t least on lo

's one

hat pays a t

h? You'll l

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ook,