Correspondence

2790.  EBB to Christopher Pearse Cranch

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 15, 268–270.

Palazzo Guidi.

May 3d [1849] [1]

Dear Mr Cranch,

We have read your poem with great attention, and will set down whatever remarks occur to us, since you insist on such a piece of impertinence. [2]

 

“Sweet bird, the fresh clear sprinkle of thy voice

Came quickening all the fountains.” &c [3]

A beautiful metaphor taken from rain– I particularly like it– Why, in the next line, not “list to thee” rather than “listen thee”.? [4]

 

“Fresh message from the Beauty infinite

That wraps the Universe in wonder & delight” [5]

If Beauty wraps the universe, there is no need to send messages—therefore the figure does not appear happy. “That lives above the world” .. or “reigns above the world” .. quære–? And, so, also you get the other advantage of the pause in the long line, which strikes us as being too much neglected throughout the poem. In exceptional cases an effect is produced by this neglect of this pause—only the cases ought to be exceptional.–

The “bell” is effectively described, .. but my husband objects to the “nerve of Nature struck by a wound” [6] & observes that nobody is struck by a wound but by a blow. Quære––“felt a wound,” or “suffered wound”. Also, in the long line of the same stanza, can “lightning” be supposed to “catch a living breath”—? [6] The expression seems vague & not happy.

“For one who loves to dwell” [7] &c These two stanzas are excellent, .. the language full & emphatic. I like too (farther on) the “Sitting in altar nooks & burning candles to its God”, [8] though the syllables are too many. I like the thought—the image.

By a rude populace .. languished beneath thy frown [9] —is not a good line, we both think. And it might so easily be improved. The accentuation is wrong, and no good effect is produced by the license.

 

“Take the poet’s verse

But not the poet”– [10]

all this has much truth & beauty–

 

Do “vampyre pinions” work “enchanted sleep”?– [11] Is the metaphor right?

 

“Lies stereotyped &c.” very good the expression is– [12]

 

“The angel smiles” &c Beautiful lines– [13]

 

“Of Nature—along whose endless arc are strown” [14]

Why not “oer”, or “on whose endless &c”? On account of the structure of the line, which does not bear “along”. Also, this same “along” occurs afterwards in the final line. [15]

 

“Whose only crime was that ye were awake

Too soon &c &c” [16]

I admire this,—& the winding up is full of beautiful truth.

The next time the bird sings, we both of us hope, dear Mr Cranch, that he may not be interrupted. Once more allow us to thank you for a proof of confidence, which, believe us, is responded to by my husband’s regard & that of yours most truly

Elizabeth Barrett Browning–

My love to Mrs Cranch. Am I not to see her soon?

Address: Pierce Cranch Esqre / 4418. Via Valfonda.

Docket, in recipient’s hand: Letter from Mrs E. B. Browning. / Florence. May 3. 1849.

Publication: Leonora Cranch Scott, The Life and Letters of Christopher Pearse Cranch, Boston, 1917, pp. 159–161.

Manuscript: Armstrong Browning Library.

1. Year provided by docket.

2. Cranch later recalled: “I was much indebted to Mrs. Browning … for her criticism on some lines in my poem ‘The Bird and the Bell,’ which I had then partly written, and ventured to show her. The tone of the poem seemed to please them both; but as I had requested criticism from Mrs. Browning, she gave it, in a letter which I have from her, and I profited by it in my subsequent re-writing of the poem during the Italian Revolution” (Leonora Cranch Scott, The Life and Letters of Christopher Pearse Cranch, Boston, 1917, p. 157).

3. All of EBB’s comments in this letter refer to Cranch’s poem, “The Bird and the Bell.” The lines here are 22–23, but line 23 was changed to read: “Came quickening all the springs of trust and love.”

4. Line 24 now reads: “What heart could hear such joy, and not rejoice?”

5. Lines 27–28. Line 28 was changed to read: “That clasps the world around and fills it with delight!”

6. No corresponding line identified.

7. Possibly line 85.

8. Cf. line 119.

9. Probably line 126.

10. Lines 157–158.

11. No corresponding line identified.

12. Line 316.

13. Line 368.

14. Cf. lines 417–418.

15. “Along,” does not occur in the final line as published.

16. Lines 423–424.

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