Browning, Grammar and Christianity

Extract

A Grammarians Funeral is possibly one of Browning’s best known poems, and one which provides a useful introduction to his work as a whole. To begin with, the subject is typical; the grammarian is a man of intense energy and determination who has devoted his life to the pursuit of an unattainable goal. As such he is a figure who affords Browning an opportunity for doing what he can do well. Time and again Browning chooses themes which allow him to exercise his skill in describing violent emotion and strenuous activity. Not that his range can be entirely restricted to any simple formula: one has only to recall Andrea del Sarto, ‘the weak-eyed bat’, and the deft strokes with which his mood of fatalistic apathy is evoked. Nevertheless, the fierce exultation of the Epilogue to ‘Asolando’ and Prospice, the grimly amusing pent- up fury of the Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister, the searing jealousy of The Laboratory, the bitter hatred of The Confessional, the boisterous enthusiasm of Fra Lippo Lippi and the desperate exhilaration of How they brought the Good News are sufficient indication how well grounded is the common association of Browning with strong feelings and vigorous effort. The poem is rich, moreover, in examples of those technical devices which he employs to express themes of this kind. The distorted syntax, which wrenches words from their normal order, frequently with the aid of parenthesis, produces a broken, abrupt, breathless rhythm which is characteristic of his style;