Robert Browning - Delphi Poets Series

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by Robert Browning

Mere unintelligence prepared the way

  For either seed’s upsprouting: you repelled

  Their notion that both kinds could sow themselves.

  True! but admit ‘t is understanding delves

  And drops each germ, what else but folly thwarts

  The doer’s settled purpose? Let the sage

  Concede a use to evil, though there starts

  Full many a burgeon thence, to disengage

  With thumb and finger lest it spoil the yield

  Too much of good’s main tribute! But our main

  Tough-tendoned mandrake-monster — purge the field

  Of him for once and all? It follows plain

  Who set him there to grow beholds repealed

  His primal law: his ordinance proves vain:

  And what beseems a king who cannot reign,

  But to drop sceptre valid arm should wield?

  VI.

  “Still there’s a parable” — retorts my friend —

  “Shows agriculture with a difference!

  What of the crop and weeds which solely blend

  Because, once planted, none may pluck them thence?

  The Gardener contrived thus? Vain pretence!

  An enemy it was who unawares

  Ruined the wheat by interspersing tares.

  Where’s our desiderated forethought? Where’s

  Knowledge, where power and will in evidence

  ‘T is Man’s-play merely! Craft foils rectitude,

  Malignity defeats beneficence.

  And grant, at very last of all, the feud

  ‘T wixt good and evil ends, strange thoughts intrude

  Though good be garnered safely and good’s foe

  Bundled for burning. Thoughts steal: ‘even so —

  Why grant tares leave to thus o’ertop, o’ertower

  Their field-mate, boast the stalk and flaunt the flower,

  Triumph one sunny minute? Knowledge, power

  And will thus worked? Man’s fancy makes the fault!

  Man, with the narrow mind, must cram inside

  His finite God’s infinitude, — earth’s vault

  He bids comprise the heavenly far and wide,

  Since Man may claim a right to understand

  What passes understanding. So, succinct

  And trimly set in order, to be scanned

  And scrutinized, lo — the divine lies linked

  Fast to the human, free to move as moves

  Its proper match: awhile they keep the grooves,

  Discreetly side by side together pace,

  Till sudden comes a stumble incident

  Likely enough to Man’s weak-footed race,

  And he discovers — wings in rudiment,

  Such as he boasts, which full-grown, free-distent

  Would lift him skyward, fail of flight while pent

  Within humanity’s restricted space.

  Abjure each fond attempt to represent

  The formless, the illimitable! Trace

  No outline, try no hint of human face

  Or form or hand!”

  VII.

  Friend, here’s a tracing meant

  To help a guess at truth you never knew.

  Bend but those eyes now, using mind’s eye too,

  And note — sufficient for all purposes —

  The ground-plan — map you long have yearned for — yes,

  Made out in markings — more what artist can? —

  Goethe’s Estate in Weimar, — just a plan!

  A. is the House, and B. the Garden-gate,

  And C. the Grass-plot — you’ve the whole estate

  Letter by letter, down to Y. the Pond,

  And Z. the Pig-stye. Do you look beyond

  The algebraic signs, and captious say

  “Is A. the House? But where’s the Roof to A.,

  Where’s Door, where’s Window? Needs must House have such!”

  Ay, that were folly. Why so very much

  More foolish than our mortal purblind way

  Of seeking in the symbol no mere point

  To guide our gaze through what were else inane,

  But things — their solid selves? “Is, joint by joint,

  Orion man-like, — as these dots explain

  His constellation? Flesh composed of suns —

  How can such be?” exclaim the simple ones.

  Look through the sign to the thing signified —

  Shown nowise, point by point at best descried,

  Each an orb’s topmost sparkle: all beside

  Its shine is shadow: turn the orb one jot —

  Up flies the new flash to reveal ‘t was not

  The whole sphere late flamboyant in your ken!

  VIII.

  “What need of symbolizing? Fitlier men

  Would take on tongue mere facts — few, faint and far,

  Still facts not fancies: quite enough they are,

  That Power, that Knowledge, and that Will, — add then

  Immensity, Eternity: these jar

  Nowise with our permitted thought and speech.

  Why human attributes?”

  A myth may teach:

  Only, who better would expound it thus

  Must be Euripides not Æschylus.

  IX.

  Boundingly up through Night’s wall dense and dark,

  Embattled crags and clouds, outbroke the Sun

  Above the conscious earth, and one by one

  Her heights and depths absorbed to the last spark

  His fluid glory, from the far fine ridge

  Of mountain-granite which, transformed to gold,

  Laughed first the thanks back, to the vale’s dusk fold

  On fold of vapour-swathing, like a bridge

  Shattered beneath some giant’s stamp. Night wist

  Her work done and betook herself in mist

  To marsh and hollow there to bide her time

  Blindly in acquiescence. Everywhere

  Did earth acknowledge Sun’s embrace sublime

  Thrilling her to the heart of things: since there

  No ore ran liquid, no spar branched anew,

  No arrowy crystal gleamed, but straightway grew

  Glad through the inrush — glad nor more nor less

  Than, ‘neath his gaze, forest and wilderness,

  Hill, dale, land, sea, the whole vast stretch and spread,

  The universal world of creatures bred

  By Sun’s munificence, alike gave praise —

  All creatures but one only: gaze for gaze,

  Joyless and thankless, who — all scowling can —

  Protests against the innumerous praises? Man,

  Sullen and silent.

  Stand thou forth then, state

  Thy wrong, thou sole aggrieved — disconsolate —

  While every beast, bird, reptile, insect, gay

  And glad acknowledges the bounteous day!

  X.

  Man speaks now: “What avails Sun’s earth-felt thrill

  To me? Sun penetrates the ore, the plant —

  They feel and grow: perchance with subtler skill

  He interfuses fly, worm, brute, until

  Each favoured object pays life’s ministrant

  By pressing, in obedience to his will,

  Up to completion of the task prescribed,

  So stands and stays a type. Myself imbibed

  Such influence also, stood and stand complete —

  The perfect Man, — head, body, hands and feet,

  True to the pattern: but does that suffice?

  How of my superadded mind which needs

  — Not to be, simply, but to do, and pleads

  For — more than knowledge that by some device

  Sun quickens matter: mind is nobly fain

  To realize the marvel, make — for sense

  As mind — the unseen visible, condense

  — Myself — Sun’s all-pervading influence

  So as to se
rve the needs of mind, explain

  What now perplexes. Let the oak increase

  His corrugated strength on strength, the palm

  Lift joint by joint her fan-fruit, ball and balm, —

  Let the coiled serpent bask in bloated peace, —

  The eagle, like some skyey derelict,

  Drift in the blue, suspended, glorying, —

  The lion lord it by the desert-spring, —

  What know or care they of the power which pricked

  Nothingness to perfection? I, instead,

  When all-developed still am found a thing

  All-incomplete: for what though flesh had force

  Transcending theirs — hands able to unring

  The tightened snake’s coil, eyes that could outcourse

  The eagle’s soaring, voice whereat the king

  Of carnage couched discrowned? Mind seeks to see,

  Touch, understand, by mind inside of me,

  The outside mind — whose quickening I attain

  To recognize — I only. All in vain

  Would mind address itself to render plain

  The nature of the essence. Drag what lurks

  Behind the operation — that which works

  Latently everywhere by outward proof —

  Drag that mind forth to face mine? No! aloof

  I solely crave that one of all the beams

  Which do Sun’s work in darkness, at my will

  Should operate — myself for once have skill

  To realize the energy which streams

  Flooding the universe. Above, around,

  Beneath — why mocks that mind my own thus found

  Simply of service, when the world grows dark,

  To half-surmise — were Sun’s use understood,

  I might demonstrate him supplying food,

  Warmth, life, no less the while? To grant one spark

  Myself may deal with — make it thaw my blood

  And prompt my steps, were truer to the mark

  Of mind’s requirement than a half-surmise

  That somehow secretly is operant

  A power all matter feels, mind only tries

  To comprehend! Once more — no idle vaunt

  ‘Man comprehends the Sun’s self!’ Mysteries

  At source why probe into? Enough: display,

  Make demonstrable, how, by night as day,

  Earth’s centre and sky’s outspan, all’s informed

  Equally by Sun’s efflux! — source from whence

  If just one spark I drew, full evidence

  Were mine of fire ineffably enthroned —

  Sun’s self made palpable to Man!”

  XI.

  Thus moaned

  Man till Prometheus helped him, — as we learn, —

  Offered an artifice whereby he drew

  Sun’s rays into a focus, — plain and true,

  The very Sun in little: made fire burn

  And henceforth do Man service — glass-conglobed

  Though to a pin-point circle — all the same

  Comprising the Sun’s self, but Sun disrobed

  Of that else-unconceived essential flame

  Borne by no naked sight. Shall mind’s eye strive

  Achingly to companion as it may

  The supersubtle effluence, and contrive

  To follow beam and beam upon their way

  Hand-breadth by hand-breadth, till sense faint — confessed

  Frustrate, eluded by unknown unguessed

  Infinitude of action? Idle quest!

  Rather ask aid from optics. Sense, descry

  The spectrum — mind, infer immensity!

  Little? In little, light, warmth, life are blessed —

  Which, in the large, who sees to bless? Not I

  More than yourself: so, good my friend, keep still

  Trustful with — me? with thee, sage Mandeville!

  WITH DANIEL BARTOLI.

  I.

  Don , the divinest women that have walked

  Our world were scarce those saints of whom we talked.

  My saint, for instance — worship if you will!

  ‘Tis pity poets need historians’ skill:

  What legendary’s worth a chronicle?

  II.

  Come, now! A great lord once upon a time

  Visited — oh a king, of kings the prime,

  To sign a treaty such as never was:

  For the king’s minister had brought to pass

  That this same duke — so style him — must engage

  Two of his dukedoms as an heritage

  After his death to this exorbitant

  Craver of kingship. “Let who lacks go scant,

  Who owns much, give the more to!” Why rebuke?

  So bids the devil, so obeys the duke.

  III.

  Now, as it happened, at his sister’s house

  — Duchess herself — indeed the very spouse

  Of the king’s uncle, — while the deed of gift

  Whereby our duke should cut his rights adrift

  Was drawing, getting ripe to sign and seal —

  What does the frozen heart but uncongeal

  And, shaming his transcendent kin and kith,

  Whom do the duke’s eyes make acquaintance with?

  A girl. “What, sister, may this wonder be?”

  “Nobody! Good as beautiful is she,

  With gifts that match her goodness, no faint flaw

  I’ the white: she were the pearl you think you saw,

  But that she is — what corresponds to white?

  Some other stone, the true pearl’s opposite,

  As cheap as pearls are costly. She’s — now, guess

  Her parentage! Once — twice — thrice? Foiled, confess!

  Drugs, duke, her father deals in — faugh, the scents! —

  Manna and senna — such medicaments

  For payment he compounds you. Stay — stay — stay!

  I’ll have no rude speech wrong her! Whither away,

  The hot-head? Ah, the scapegrace! She deserves

  Respect — compassion, rather! Right it serves

  My folly, trusting secrets to a fool!

  Already at it, is he? She keeps cool —

  Helped by her fan’s spread. Well, our state atones

  For thus much license, and words break no bones!”

  (Hearts, though, sometimes.)

  IV.

  Next morn ‘t was “Reason, rate,

  Rave, sister, on till doomsday! Sure as fate,

  I wed that woman — what a woman is

  Now that I know, who never knew till this!”

  So swore the duke. “I wed her: once again —

  Rave, rate, and reason — spend your breath in vain!

  V.

  At once was made a contract firm and fast,

  Published the banns were, only marriage, last,

  Required completion when the Church’s rite

  Should bless and bid depart, make happy quite

  The coupled man and wife for evermore:

  Which rite was soon to follow. Just before —

  All things at all but end — the folk o’ the bride

  Flocked to a summons. Pomp the duke defied:

  “Of ceremony — so much as empowers,

  Nought that exceeds, suits best a tie like ours — ”

  He smiled — ”all else were mere futility.

  We vow, God hears us: God and you and I —

  Let the world keep at distance! This is why

  We choose the simplest forms that serve to bind

  Lover and lover of the human kind,

  No care of what degree — of kings or clowns —

  Come blood and breeding. Courtly smiles and frowns

  Miss of their mark, would idly soothe or strike

  My style and yours — in one style merged alike —

  God’s man and woman merely. Long ago

  ‘T was rounded in my e
ars ‘Duke, wherefore slow

  To use a privilege? Needs must one who reigns

  Pay reigning’s due: since statecraft so ordains —

  Wed for the commonweal’s sake! law prescribes

  One wife: but to submission license bribes

  Unruly nature: mistresses accept

  — Well, at discretion!’ Prove I so inept

  A scholar, thus instructed? Dearest, be

  Wife and all mistresses in one to me,

  Now, henceforth, and forever!” So smiled he.

  VI.

  Good: but the minister, the crafty one,

  Got ear of what was doing — all but done —

  Not sooner, though, than the king’s very self,

  Warned by the sister on how sheer a shelf

  Royalty’s ship was like to split. “I bar

  The abomination! Mix with muck my star?

  Shall earth behold prodigiously enorbed

  An upstart marsh-born meteor sun-absorbed?

  Nuptial me no such nuptials!” “Past dispute,

  Majesty speaks with wisdom absolute,”

  Admired the minister: “yet, all the same,

  I would we may not — while we play his game,

  The ducal meteor’s — also lose our own,

  The solar monarch’s: we relieve your throne

  Of an ungracious presence, like enough:

  Baulked of his project he departs in huff,

  And so cuts short — dare I remind the king? —

  Our not so unsuccessful bargaining.

  The contract for eventual heritage

  Happens to pari passu reach the stage

  Attained by just this other contract, — each

  Unfixed by signature though fast in speech.

  Off goes the duke in dudgeon — off withal

  Go with him his two dukedoms past recall.

  You save a fool from tasting folly’s fruit,

  Obtain small thanks thereby, and lose to boot

  Sagacity’s reward. The jest is grim:

  The man will mulct you — for amercing him?

  Nay, for . . . permit a poor similitude!

  A witless wight in some fantastic mood

  Would drown himself: you plunge into the wave,

  Pluck forth the undeserving: he, you save,

  Pulls you clean under also for your pains.

  Sire, little need that I should tax my brains

  To help your inspiration!” “Let him sink!

  Always contriving” — hints the royal wink —

  “To keep ourselves dry while we claim his clothes.”

  VII.

  Next day, the appointed day for plighting troths

  At eve, — so little time to lose, you see,

  Before the Church should weld indissolubly

  Bond into bond, wed these who, side by side,

  Sit each by other, bold groom, blushing bride, —

  At the preliminary banquet, graced

 

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