was the product of the later year. It possesses for many readers the
inspiration of farewell words; for all of us it has their pathos.

He was buried in Westminster Abbey, in Poets' Corner, on the 31st
of December, 1889. In this tardy act of national recognition England
claimed her own. A densely packed, reverent and sympathetic crowd of his
countrymen and countrywomen assisted at the consignment of the dead poet
to his historic resting place. Three verses of Mrs. Browning's poem,
'The Sleep', set to music by Dr. Bridge, were sung for the first time on
this occasion.

Conclusion

A few words must still be said upon that purport and tendency of Robert
Browning's work, which has been defined by a few persons, and felt by
very many as his 'message'.

The definition has been disputed on the ground of Art. We are told by
Mr. Sharp, though in somewhat different words, that the poet, qua poet,
cannot deliver a 'message' such as directly addresses itself to the
intellectual or moral sense; since his special appeal to us lies not
through the substance, but through the form, or presentment, of what he
has had to say; since, therefore (by implication), in claiming for it
an intellectual--as distinct from an aesthetic--character, we ignore its
function as poetry.

It is difficult to argue justly, where the question at issue turns
practically on the meaning of a word. Mr. Sharp would, I think, be the
first to admit this; and it appears to me that, in the present case, he
so formulates his theory as to satisfy his artistic conscience, and yet
leave room for the recognition of that intellectual quality so peculiar
to Mr. Browning's verse. But what one member of the aesthetic school may
express with a certain reserve is proclaimed unreservedly by many more;
and Mr. Sharp must forgive me, if for the moment I regard him as one of
these; and if I oppose his arguments in the words of another poet
and critic of poetry, whose claim to the double title is I believe
undisputed--Mr. Roden Noel. I quote from an unpublished fragment of a
published article on Mr. Sharp's 'Life of Browning'.

'Browning's message is an integral part of himself as writer; (whether
as poet, since we agree that he is a poet, were surely a too curious
and vain discussion;) but some of his finest things assuredly are the
outcome of certain very definite personal convictions. "The question,"
Mr. Sharp says, "is not one of weighty message, but of arti