Introduction to Robert Browning

This book is a critical introduction written by Hiram Corson, professor of rhetoric and English literature at Cornell University, to guide readers through the Victorian poet Robert Browning. It often circulates under the title An Introduction to the Study of Robert Browning's Poetry, and there are also shortened versions such as Introduction to Browning. The book first outlines the fluctuations in the spiritual temperament of English poetry under the title "From Chaucer to Tennyson and Browning: The Spiritual Tides in English Poetry"; it then discusses "the idea of personality" and "art as the medium of personality" as embodied in Browning's poetry (this part was read before the London Browning Society in 1882); it then directly addresses the two obstacles readers most often complain about—"Browning's obscurity" and "Browning's versification"—unpacking for readers the causes and reading methods of his syntactic leaps, dense allusions, and colloquial rhythm. The second half of the book is its most practically valuable part: first, "Arguments of the Poems" are given poem by poem, then the texts of thirty-three representative poems are appended, covering famous dramatic monologues such as "My Last Duchess," "Andrea del Sarto," "Fra Lippo Lippi," "Rabbi Ben Ezra," "The Bishop Orders His Tomb at Saint Praxed's Church," and "Fra Lippo Lippi," with a bibliography of critical materials on Browning's works appended. Corson founded the Browning Society at Cornell, and this book is a product of his teaching and the society's activities; Browning himself wrote to the author expressing approval of the annotations in the book. As a classic introduction from the late nineteenth century, it is both an important early document in Browning studies and a stepping stone for today's readers to approach this "most difficult English poet."