APPARITIONS. (PAGE 49.)

Study the development of the idea in the same manner as in Misconceptions and Natural Magic.  Note the felicity of imagery and diction.

A WALL. (PAGE 50.)

The clew to the meaning is to be sought in the last two stanzas.  This is one of the best examples of Browning’s “assertion of the soul in song.”

CONFESSIONS. (PAGE 51.)

First construct the scene of the poem.  What has the priest said?  What is the sick man’s answer?  What evidence is there that his imagination is struggling to recall the old memory?  What view of life does the priest offer, and he reject?  Does Browning indicate his preference for either view, or tell the story impartially?

A WOMAN’S LAST WORD. (PAGE 53.)

What key to the situation in the first line?  Who are the speaker and the one addressed?  What mood and feeling are in control?  Comment upon the condensation of the thought and the movement of the verse.

A PRETTY WOMAN. (PAGE 55.)

25-27.  Compare Emerson’s lines in The Rhodora:—­

  “If eyes were made for seeing,
  Then beauty is its own excuse for being.”

To what things is the “Pretty Woman” compared?  Of what use is she?  How is she to be judged?

YOUTH AND ART. (PAGE 58.)

8. =Gibson, John= (1790-1866).  A famous sculptor.

12. =Grisi, Giulia=.  A celebrated singer (1811-1869).

18.  In allusion to the asceticism of the Hindoo religious devotees.

58. =bals-pares=.  Fancy-dress balls.

The poem is half-humorous, half-serious.  The speaker, in her imaginary conversation, gives her own history and that of the man she thinks she might have loved.  The story is on the “Maud Muller” motive, but with less of sentimentality.  The setting suggests the life of art students in Paris, or in some Italian city.  The poem is a plea for the freedom of the individuality of a soul against the restrictions imposed by conventional standards of value.  Its touches of humor, of human nature, and its summary of two lives in brief, are admirably done.  Its rhymes sometimes need the indulgence accorded to humorous writing.

A TALE. (PAGE 61.)

The source of the story is an epigram given in Mackail’s Select Epigrams from Greek Anthology.  It is one of the happiest pieces of Browning’s lighter work.

65. =Lotte=, or Charlotte.  A character in Goethe’s Sorrows of Werther, said to be drawn from the heroine of one of Goethe’s earlier love-affairs.

Who are the speaker and the one addressed?  Whom does the cicada of the tale symbolize?  Whom the singer helped by the cicada?  What application is made of the story?  What serious meanings and feelings underlie the tone of raillery?  What things mark the light and humorous tone of the speaker?  Point out the harmony between style and theme.