Poetry Codex

Victorian

Robert Browning

1812–1889

Robert Browning (1812–1889) was an English poet and playwright, master of the dramatic monologue — a poem spoken entirely in an invented character's voice.

This selection gathers his early collections Dramatic Lyrics (1842) and Dramatic Romances (1845); his stage plays and longer closet-dramas (Pauline, Paracelsus, Pippa Passes) are not included here; Sordello is given as a work of its own.

Major Works (8)

  1. Aristophanes' Apology — Dramatic poem, 1875
  2. Balaustion's Adventure — Narrative poem, 1871
  3. Fifine at the Fair — Dramatic monologue, 1872
  4. Prince Hohenstiel-Schwangau, Saviour of Society — Dramatic monologue, 1871
  5. Red Cotton Night-Cap Country; or, Turf and Towers — Narrative poem, 1873
  6. Sordello — Narrative poem, 1840
  7. The Inn Album — Narrative poem, 1875
  8. The Ring and the Book — Narrative poem, 1868-1869

Poems (232)

  1. Sonnet: Eyes, Calm beside Thee, (Lady, Couldst Thou Know!)
  2. Cavalier Tunes: I. Marching Along
  3. Cavalier Tunes: II. Give a Rouse
  4. Cavalier Tunes: III. Boot and Saddle
  5. The Lost Leader
  6. How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix
  7. Through the Metidja to Abd-el-Kadr
  8. Nationality in Drinks
  9. Garden Fancies: I. The Flower's Name
  10. Garden Fancies: II. Sibrandus Schafnaburgensis
  11. Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister
  12. The Laboratory
  13. The Confessional
  14. Cristina
  15. The Lost Mistress
  16. Earth's Immortalities
  17. Meeting at Night
  18. Parting at Morning
  19. Song: "Nay but You, Who Do Not Love Her"
  20. A Woman's Last Word
  21. Evelyn Hope
  22. Love Among the Ruins
  23. A Lovers' Quarrel
  24. Up at a Villa--Down in the City
  25. A Toccata of Galuppi's
  26. Old Pictures in Florence
  27. De Gustibus
  28. Home-Thoughts, from Abroad
  29. Home-Thoughts, from the Sea
  30. Saul
  31. My Star
  32. By the Fireside
  33. Any Wife to Any Husband
  34. Two in the Campagna
  35. Misconceptions
  36. A Serenade at the Villa
  37. One Way of Love
  38. Another Way of Love
  39. A Pretty Woman
  40. Respectability
  41. Love in a Life
  42. Life in a Love
  43. In Three Days
  44. In a Year
  45. Women and Roses
  46. Before
  47. After
  48. The Guardian-Angel
  49. Memorabilia
  50. Popularity
  51. Master Hugues of Saxe-Gotha
  52. Incident of the French Camp
  53. The Patriot
  54. My Last Duchess
  55. Count Gismond
  56. The Boy and the Angel
  57. Instans Tyrannus
  58. Mesmerism
  59. The Glove
  60. Time's Revenges
  61. The Italian in England
  62. The Englishman in Italy
  63. In a Gondola
  64. Waring
  65. The Twins
  66. A Light Woman
  67. The Last Ride Together
  68. The Pied Piper of Hamelin
  69. The Flight of the Duchess
  70. A Grammarian's Funeral
  71. The Heretic's Tragedy
  72. Holy-Cross Day
  73. Protus
  74. The Statue and the Bust
  75. Porphyria's Lover
  76. Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came
  77. Christmas-Eve
  78. Easter-Day
  79. Transcendentalism: A Poem in Twelve Books
  80. How It Strikes a Contemporary
  81. Artemis Prologizes
  82. An Epistle, Containing the Strange Medical Experience of Karshish, the Arab Physician
  83. Johannes Agricola in Meditation
  84. Pictor Ignotus
  85. Fra Lippo Lippi
  86. Andrea del Sarto
  87. The Bishop Orders His Tomb at Saint Praxed's Church
  88. Bishop Blougram's Apology
  89. Cleon
  90. Rudel to the Lady of Tripoli
  91. One Word More
  92. Ben Karshook's Wisdom
  93. James Lee's Wife: I. James Lee's Wife Speaks at the Window
  94. James Lee's Wife: II. By the Fireside
  95. James Lee's Wife: III. In the Doorway
  96. James Lee's Wife: IV. Along the Beach
  97. James Lee's Wife: V. On the Cliff
  98. James Lee's Wife: VI. Reading a Book, Under the Cliff
  99. James Lee's Wife: VII. Among the Rocks
  100. James Lee's Wife: VIII. Beside the Drawing-Board
  101. James Lee's Wife: IX. On Deck
  102. Gold Hair: A Story of Pornic
  103. The Worst of It
  104. Dîs Aliter Visum; or, Le Byron de Nos Jours
  105. Too Late
  106. Abt Vogler, After He Has Been Extemporizing upon the Musical Instrument of His Invention
  107. Rabbi Ben Ezra
  108. A Death in the Desert
  109. Caliban upon Setebos; or, Natural Theology in the Island
  110. Confessions
  111. May and Death
  112. Deaf and Dumb: A Group by Woolner
  113. Prospice
  114. Eurydice to Orpheus: A Picture by Leighton
  115. Youth and Art
  116. A Face
  117. A Likeness
  118. Mr. Sludge, "The Medium"
  119. Apparent Failure
  120. Epilogue (Dramatis Personae)
  121. Helen's Tower
  122. Prologue (Pacchiarotto)
  123. Of Pacchiarotto, and How He Worked in Distemper
  124. At the "Mermaid"
  125. House
  126. Shop
  127. Pisgah-Sights
  128. Fears and Scruples
  129. Natural Magic
  130. Magical Nature
  131. Bifurcation
  132. Numpholeptos
  133. Appearances
  134. St. Martin's Summer
  135. Hervé Riel
  136. A Forgiveness
  137. Cenciaja
  138. Filippo Baldinucci on the Privilege of Burial
  139. Epilogue (Pacchiarotto)
  140. Oh Love! Love
  141. Martin Relph
  142. Pheidippides
  143. Halbert and Hob
  144. Ivan Ivanovitch
  145. Tray
  146. Ned Bratts
  147. Prologue (Dramatic Idyls, Second Series)
  148. Echetlos
  149. Clive
  150. Muléykeh
  151. Pietro of Abano
  152. Doctor ----
  153. Pan and Luna
  154. Touch Him Ne'er So Lightly
  155. The Blind Man to the Maiden
  156. Goldoni
  157. Wanting Is--What?
  158. Donald
  159. Solomon and Balkis
  160. Cristina and Monaldeschi
  161. Mary Wollstonecraft and Fuseli
  162. Adam, Lilith, and Eve
  163. Ixion
  164. Jochanan Hakkadosh
  165. Never the Time and the Place
  166. Pambo
  167. Prologue (Ferishtah's Fancies)
  168. Ferishtah's Fancies: I. The Eagle
  169. Ferishtah's Fancies: II. The Melon-Seller
  170. Ferishtah's Fancies: III. Shah Abbas
  171. Ferishtah's Fancies: IV. The Family
  172. Ferishtah's Fancies: V. The Sun
  173. Ferishtah's Fancies: VI. Mihrab Shah
  174. Ferishtah's Fancies: VII. A Camel-Driver
  175. Ferishtah's Fancies: VIII. Two Camels
  176. Ferishtah's Fancies: IX. Cherries
  177. Ferishtah's Fancies: X. Plot-Culture
  178. Ferishtah's Fancies: XI. A Pillar at Sebzevar
  179. Ferishtah's Fancies: XII. A Bean-Stripe: Also Apple-Eating
  180. Epilogue (Ferishtah's Fancies)
  181. Rawdon Brown
  182. The Founder of the Feast
  183. The Names
  184. Epitaph on Levi Lincoln Thaxter
  185. Why I Am a Liberal
  186. Apollo and the Fates
  187. With Bernard de Mandeville
  188. With Daniel Bartoli
  189. With Christopher Smart
  190. With George Bubb Dodington
  191. With Francis Furini
  192. With Gerard de Lairesse
  193. With Charles Avison
  194. Fust and His Friends: An Epilogue
  195. Prologue (Asolando)
  196. Rosny
  197. Dubiety
  198. Now
  199. Humility
  200. Poetics
  201. Summum Bonum
  202. A Pearl, a Girl
  203. Speculative
  204. White Witchcraft
  205. Bad Dreams: I.
  206. Bad Dreams: II.
  207. Bad Dreams: III.
  208. Bad Dreams: IV.
  209. Inapprehensiveness
  210. Which?
  211. The Cardinal and the Dog
  212. The Pope and the Net
  213. The Bean-Feast
  214. Muckle-Mouth Meg
  215. Arcades Ambo
  216. The Lady and the Painter
  217. Ponte dell' Angelo, Venice
  218. Beatrice Signorini
  219. Flute-Music, with an Accompaniment
  220. Imperante Augusto Natus Est
  221. Development
  222. Rephan
  223. Reverie
  224. Epilogue (Asolando)
  225. Pauline: A Fragment of a Confession
  226. La Saisiaz
  227. The Two Poets of Croisic
  228. The Wanderers
  229. Pippa's Song
  230. From 'Paracelsus'
  231. Amphibian
  232. The Householder

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