E600423A. Poems Before Congress.
The Observer (London), 23 April 1860, p. 7.
As reprinted in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 27, 393.
Mrs. Browning was in Italy in 1849, and witnessed the failure of the movement in favour of Italian independence in that year. These poems are written to commemorate the present triumph of the principle that was then trodden under foot by Croats and Pandours in Italy. They were written in the full swing of hope and joy—for the poet loves the country and the people as she loves her own land and her own people, “with a love passing that of woman;” but they were written also ere the family compact which places the key to Italy in the hands of France was made public. It is very doubtful that she would have published the rhapsodical eulogy addressed to Louis Napoleon with which the volume opens if that circumstance had been known to her. As it is, a lover of liberty like Mrs. Browning must ever regret that she penned this piece of adulation. In many respects there is much of the old “fire” in these poems; but they are, to a certain extent, neutralized by events that have occurred since they were written. Under any circumstances, however, they are the outpourings of a noble spirit, and are worthy of a place in every free man’s memory.
Reviewed:
Poems Before Congress (EBB), London: Chapman & Hall, 1860.
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