lyrical poetry - OUDL Home

LYRICALPOETRYsubconscious. It is quite clear that the thoughts heputs into the mouths of Pippa and other charactersare often such as would never have risen into theirminds quite consciously. Browning is their interpreter.He had not, indeed, been taught by modern psychologiststhe importance of "the flow of consciousness";he did not think that a poet will express himself bestby saying nothing but may trust to the associationsof his words and the images, allusions, and rhythms.No; Browning's idea is a rather different one. It isthat our subconsciousness reasons more rapidly andsubtly than our waking thoughts, which is not unlikePascal's doctrine of the relation of intuition (finesse)to more explicit reasoning such as mathematics exemplify.In fact the inner consciousness of thespeaker in 'The Last Ride Together or James Lee's Wifeor A Lover's Quarrel, or of the lover in A Serenade atthe Villa, or of the lady as the lover wishes or suspectsit may be—still more of the speakers in some of thelong monologues, Mr Sludge, " the Medium " or BishopBlougram, Don Juan in Fifine at the Fair—becomesthe consciousness, the thought of Robert Browning,subtle, swift, fanciful, bizarre, a little enigmatical.And what a wealth of lyrical poetry is contained inhis work from Paracelsus to Jocoseria with:Never the time and the placeAnd the loved one all together,and Ferishtah's Fancies with its poignant Epilogue:Oh Love—no, Love ! All the noise below, Love,Groanings all and moanings—none of Life I lose !All of Life's a cry just of weariness and woe, Love—" Hear at least, thou happy one ! " " How can I, Love, but choose ? "78