Browning's Lyrics: An Exploration

Browning's lyrics are favourite choices for anthologies but are

rarely examined closely. This is the first full-length study of the lyrics, and

includes detailed analyses of such well-known poems as Love Among the

Ruins, Two in the Campagna, A Serenade at the Villa, A

Toccata of Galuppi's, By the Fireside, and James Lee's

Wife. Eleanor Cook explores Browning's use of repeated images and themes in

the lyrics, examines these patterns in other poems and in his letters, and analyses

their growth and change in all his work. She demonstrates how the lyrics may be

linked with Browning's other work and shows something of his essential artistic

unity. His imaginary is found to be more consistent and complex than is usually

assumed.

Students of Browning will find this work stimulating and instructive,

while lovers of Browning will read it with pure pleasure. The reader will return to

many of the poems with a rciher sense of their continuing vitality.

In

an earlier form this study was awarded the first A.S.P. Woodhouse Prize by the

University of Toronto.