Selected Poems

Robert Browning (1812-1889) attended the newly founded University of London for a year before travelling widely on the Continent in the 1830s and 1840s. After a clandestine courtship, he married Elizabeth Barrett in 1846 and they lived in Italy until her death in 1861. He is one of the most significant and inventive of Victorian poets.Daniel Karlin is Professor of English at University College, London. He has edited The Penguin Book of Victorian verse.

• Selected PoemsIntroductionNote on the TextPorphyria's LoverJohannes Agricola in MeditationSong from Pippa Passes ("The year's at the spring")Scene from Pippa Passes ("There goes a swallow to Venice...")My Last DuchessSoliloquy of the Spanish CloisterThe Pied Piper of Hamelin; A Chld's Story"How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix"The Lost LeaderMeeting at NightParting at MorningHome-Thoughts, from AbroadThe Bishop Orders His Tomb at Saint Praxed's ChurchLove Among the RuinsA Lovers' QuarrelUp at a Villa - Down in the CityFra Lippo LippiA Toccata of Galuppi'sAn Epistle Containing the Strange Medical Experience of Karshish, the Arab PhysicianMesmerismA Serenade at the Villa"Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came"The Statue and the BustHow It Strikes a ContemporaryThe PatriotMemorabiliaAndrea del SartoIn a YearCleonTwo in the CampagnaA Grammarian's FuneralJames Lee's WifeI. James Lee's Wife Speaks at the WindowII. By the FiresideIII. In the DoorwayIV. Along the BeachV. On the CliffVI. Reading a Book, Under the CliffVII. Among the RocksVIII. Beside the Drawing-BoardIX. On DeckGold Hair: A Story of PornicDis Aliter Visum; or, Le Byron de Nos JoursA Death in the DesertCaliban upon Setebos; or, Natural Theology in the IslandConfessionsYouth and ArtA LikenessMr. Sludge, "The Medium"Apparent FailureEpilogue [to Dramatis Personae]HouseSaint Martin's SummerNed BrattsClive[Wanting is - what?]DonaldNever the Time and the PlaceThe NamesNowBeatric SignoriniSpring SongNotesIndex of TitlesIndex of First Lines