SD1339.1. William Allingham to Ralph Waldo Emerson

Addendum to The Brownings’ Correspondence, vol. 14.

Donegal, Ireland,

5th December 1847.

Sir,—I am much gratified by hearing from you, and still more by your allowing me to write again. …

Apropos of The Athenæum I remember being much amused some time ago by an Article on “Pippa passes,” a poem by Robert Browning—in which the Reviewer by way of curt explanation says—“i.e. passes before the reader”—whereas the whole gist of the Poem (expressed in the title, and in itself striking) is that Pippa, a poor girl, by passing with a song in her mouth, certain people, at a crisis, influences unconsciously their whole future fortunes.

Text: Letters to William Allingham, ed. H. Allingham and E. Baumer Williams (London, 1911), pp. 41–42.

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