What idea have you of Lucrezia?  What does she think of Andrea?  Of his art?  What things does he desire of her?

What problems of life are here presented?  Which is principal:  the relation of man and woman, the need of soul for great work, or the interrelation between character and achievement?  Or, is there something else for which the poem stands?

Can you cite any lines that embody the main idea of the poem?  Does anything in it remind you of The Grammarian, or of Rabbi Ben Ezra?

CALIBAN UPON SETEBOS. (PAGE 161.)

Setebos was the god of Caliban’s mother, the witch Sycorax, on
Prospero’s island.

Read Shakespeare’s The Tempest.  Observe especially all that is said by or about Caliban.  Observe that Browning makes Caliban usually speak of himself in the third person, and prefixes an apostrophe to the initial verb, as in the first line.

Tylor’s Primitive Culture and Early History of Mankind give interesting accounts of the religions of savages.

How is Caliban’s savage nature indicated in the opening scene?  What things does he think Setebos has made?  From what motives?  What limit to the power of Setebos?  Why does Caliban imagine these limits?  How does Setebos govern?  Out of what materials does Caliban build his conceptions of his deity?  Why does he fear him?  How does he propitiate him?  Why is he terrified at the end?  Compare this passage with the latter part of the Book of Job.  What, in general, is the meaning of the poem?  Can you cite anything in the history of religions to parallel Caliban’s theology?

“CHILDE ROLAND TO THE DARK TOWER CAME.” (PAGE 174.)

When Browning was asked by Rev. Dr. J.W.  Chadwick whether the central idea of this poem was constancy to an ideal,—­“He that endureth to the end shall be saved,”—­he answered, “Yes, just about that.”

4-5. =to afford suppression of=.  To suppress.

11. =’gin write=.  Write.

48. =its estray=.  That is, Childe Roland himself.

66. =my prisoners=.  Those who had met their death on the plain?  Or, its imprisoned vegetation?

68. =bents=.  A kind of grass.

70. =as=.  As if.

91. =Not it!= Memory did not give hope and solace.

106. =howlet=.  A small owl.

114. =bespate=.  Spattered.

133. =cirque=.  A circle or enclosure.

137. =galley-slaves= whom =the Turk=, etc.

140. =engine=.  Machine.

143. =Tophet=.  Hell.

160. =Apollyon=.  The Devil.

Note the hero’s mood of doubt and despair.  At what point in his quest do we see him?  What does he do after meeting the cripple?  How does the landscape seem as he goes on?  What moral quality does it seem to have?  See lines 56-75.  What new elements are introduced to add to the horror of the scene?  What memories come to him of the failures of his friends?  Was their disgrace in physical or moral failure?  How does he come to find the Tower?  Why does Browning represent it as a “dark tower”?  Does his courage fail at the end of his quest?  Or does he win the victory in finding the tower and blowing the challenge?