ROBERT BROWNING

[1812–1889]

Home-Thoughts, from Abroad

Robert Browning (1812–1889) was the son of a bank clerk in Camberwell, then a suburb of London. As an aspiring poet in 1844, Browning admired Elizabeth Barrett’s poetry and began a correspondence with her that led to one of the world’s most famous romances. His and Elizabeth’s courtship lasted until 1846, when they were secretly wed and ran off to Italy, where they lived until Elizabeth’s death in 1861. The years in Florence were among the happiest for both of them. To her he dedicated Men and Women, which contains his best poetry. Although she was the more popular poet during their time together, his reputation grew upon his return to London, after her death, assisted somewhat by public sympathy for him. The late 1860s were the peak of his career: he and Tennyson were mentioned together as the foremost poets of the age.

1

Oh, to be in England

Now that April’s there,

And whoever wakes in England

Sees, some morning, unaware,

That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf

Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf,

While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough

In England—now!

2

And after April, when May follows,

And the whitethroat builds, and all the swallows!

Hark, where my blossomed pear-tree in the hedge

Leans to the field and scatters on the clover

Blossoms and dewdrops—at the bent spray’s edge—

That’s the wise thrush; he sings each song twice over,

Lest you should think he never could recapture

The first fine careless rapture!

And though the fields look rough with hoary dew

All will be gay when noontide wakes anew

The buttercups, the little children’s dower—

Far brighter than this gaudy melon-flower!