ART VOGLER is famous, not only for its confident optimism, but as an example of Browning’s power of annexing a new domain—­that of music—­to poetry.

Where does the musician cease to speak of Solomon’s building and begin to describe his own?  Note, in stanza ii, how he speaks first of the “keys,” and afterwards has in mind the notes; how he speaks of the bass notes as the foundation, and the upper notes as the structure.  Where is the climax of his creative vision?  What does he mean in line 40?  Is he right in saying music is less subject to laws than poetry and painting?  Why is he sad when his music ceases?  Why does he turn to God for consolation?  Follow carefully the argument in stanza ix.  Is it convincing?  What analogy does he find between music, and good and evil?

RABBI BEN EZRA. (PAGE 133.)

Abraham Ben Meir Ben Ezra, into whose mouth Browning puts the reflections in this poem, was born in Toledo, Spain, in 1090, and died about 1168.  He was distinguished as philosopher, astronomer, physician, and poet.  The ideas of the poem are drawn largely from the writings of Rabbi Ben Ezra.  See Berdoe’s Browning Cyclopaedia.

1. =Grow old along with me=.  Come, and let us talk of old age.

7-15. =Not that=.  Connect “not that” of lines 7 and 10, and the “not for, etc.,” of 13, with “Do I remonstrate” in line 15.

29. =hold of=.  Are like, share the nature of.

39-41.  Compare A Grammarian’s Funeral.

117. =be named=.  That is, known, or distinguished.

124. =Was I= (whom) =the world arraigned=.  Browning frequently omits the relative.

139-144.  Compare lines 36-41.  Note here and elsewhere in this poem the frequent repetition, and variation of the same idea.

151. =Potter’s wheel=.  The figure of the Potter’s wheel is frequent in Oriental literature.  See Isaiah lxiv. 8, and Jeremiah xviii, 2-6; see also Fitzgerald’s Rubaiyat, stanzas xxxvii, xxxviii, lxxxii-xc.

169-171.  In the period of youth.

172-174.  In old age.

What cares agitate youth?  Why is it better so?  Wherein does man partake of the nature of God?  What plea is made for the “value and significance of flesh”?  Show how Browning denies the doctrine of asceticism.  What is meant by “the whole design,” line 56?  Why does Rabbi Ben Ezra pause at the threshold of old age?  What has youth achieved?  What advantage has old age?  What are its pleasures?  Its employments?  Explain the figure in lines 91-5.  By what are the man and his work to be judged?  Compare the use of the figure of the Potter’s wheel with that in the Old Testament.  What has Browning added?  Point out the element of optimism in the poem.  How does its view of old age differ from the pagan view?  See Browning’s Cleon.

A GRAMMARIAN’S FUNERAL. (PAGE 143.)