R430400B. Dramatic Lyrics.
The Monthly Magazine and Liberal Miscellany, April 1843, p. 357.
As reprinted in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 7, 395.
That Mr. Browning is a great poet, can only be denied by those who have no perception of what true poetry is. Objection is taken to him on the ground of excessive obscurity; but he is only obscure to those who have not capacity to perceive the delicacy of his conceptions, and his magical power in giving utterance to them by symbols as true as they are graceful and fanciful. The present collection, however, is remarkably straightforward and simple; and even to those who require every word to be made out for them, will offer no impediment. Not that there is not [a] deeper and innermost meaning that none but those of kindred sympathies will perceive. It is in vain to attempt to develop such a genius as Browning’s in the space now allotted to us, and we shall therefore content ourselves with this brief record of our opinion.
Reviewed:
Bells & Pomegranates. No. III. Dramatic Lyrics (RB), London: Edward Moxon, 1842.
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