5057. RB to Thomas Woolner
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 30, 70–71.
1. Chichester Road, Upper Westbourne Terr:
Apr. 24. ’62
My dear Woolner, [1]
I wrote these lines at once—& kept them till this morning for the chance that something better might occur—but I was forced to occupy myself otherwise, time presses, and I can only say, would they were fitter for your purpose!
Only the prism’s obstruction shows aright
The secret of a sunbeam, breaks its light
Into the jewelled bow from blankest white;
So may a glory, from defect arise:
Only by Deafness may the vext Love wreak
Its insuppressive sense on brow and cheek,
Only by Dumbness adequately speak
As favoured mouth could never, through the eyes. [2]
You see, I have taken the first fancy that came—only illustrating one of the many points in your Group: but you do not expect that I can put them all into “eight lines”: if time allowed, I might try the moral effect, the intensifying of Love by the isolation,—but that, again, would only be the display of a single quality. Anyhow, I have tried—and do you try equally to please me by taking or leaving the result, absolutely at your choice– [3]
Ever yours truly
Robert Browning.
Publication: BN, 1 (October 1968), 17.
Manuscript: Armstrong Browning Library.
1. This letter was hand-delivered by RB, as indicated in Woolner’s diary entry of this date: “Robert Browning called to leave stanza for group” (Amy Woolner, Thomas Woolner, R.A., Sculptor and Poet, 1917, p. 216).
2. These lines were first published in Poetical Works (6 vols., 1868) under the title “Deaf and Dumb” (6, 151).
3. See the preceding letter, note 3.
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