R410500A. Bells and Pomegranates.

The Metropolitan Magazine, May 1841, p. 15.

Addendum to The Brownings’ Correspondence, vol. 5.

We understand this but very imperfectly, and, so far as our comprehension of it goes, it gives us no idea of the results to which it aims. It is full of snatches of the most beautiful poetry, mystical and impassioned, but whether it be a fragment, or the author means it to be a complete poem, we really know not. Is it an exhibition of great power, merely to show that the power is possessed, the curvettings and prancings of a stately war-horse, which advance him nothing? We must wait for the second part, and learn in what manner the work is allied to its title. At present all is mystery, and so for the present we bid it farewell.

Reviewed:

Bells & Pomegranates. No. I. Pippa Passes (RB), London: Edward Moxon, 1841.

___________________