XVIII
This I say of me, but think of you, Love! 
This to you—­yourself my moon of poets! 
Ah, but that’s the world’s side, there’s the wonder,
Thus they see you, praise you, think they know you! 190
There, in turn I stand with them and praise you—­
Out of my own self, I dare to phrase it. 
But the best is when I glide from out them,
Cross a step or two of dubious twilight,
Come out on the other side, the novel
Silent silver lights and darks undreamed of,
Where I hush and bless myself with silence.

XIX
Oh, their Rafael of the dear Madonnas,
Oh, their Dante of the dread Inferno,
Wrote one song—­and in my brain I sing it, 200
Drew one angel—­borne, see, on my bosom! 
                                       R. B.

NOTES

“One Word More” is the dedication to Elizabeth Barrett Browning which was appended to “Men and Women” as first published when it contained fifty poems since distributed under other titles.

The poet, recalling how Rafael when he would all-express his love, wrote sonnets to the loved one, and how Dante prepared to paint an angel for Beatrice, draws the conclusion that there is no artist but longs to give expression to his supreme love in some other art than his own which would be the medium of a spontaneous, natural outburst of feeling in a way impossible in the familiar forms of his own art.  Thus he would gain a man’s joy and miss the artist’s sorrow, for, like the miracles of Moses, the work of the artist is subject to the cold criticism of the world, which expects him nevertheless always to be the artist, and has no sympathy for him as a man.  Since there is no other art but poetry in which it is possible for Browning to express himself, he will at least drop his accustomed dramatic form and speak in his own person; though it be poor, let it stand as a symbol for all-expression.  Yet does she not know him, for he has shown her his soul-side as one might imagine the moon showing another side to a mortal lover, which would remain forever as much a mystery to the outside world as the vision seen by Moses, etc.  Similarly, he has admired the side his moon of poets has shown the whole world in her poetry, but he blesses himself with the thought of the other side which he alone has seen.

5.  Century of sonnets:  Rafael is known to have written four love sonnets on the back of sketches for his wall painting, the “Disputa,” which are still preserved in collections, one of them in the British Museum.  The Italian text of these sonnets with English translations are given in Wolzogen’s Life of him translated by F. E. Bunne`tt.  Did he ever write a hundred?  It is supposed that the lost book once owned by Guido Reni, apparently the one referred to in stanza iv, was a book of drawings.  Perhaps these also bore sonnets on their backs, or Browning guessed they did.