e _Colombe's Birthday_ (1844) and _In a Balcony_ (1855),
which, however, met with scant appreciation on the stage, having too much
subtle analysis and too little action to satisfy the public. Nearly all his
best lyrics, dramas, and dramatic poems belong to this middle period of
labor; and when _The Ring and the Book_ appeared, in 1868, he had given to
the world the noblest expression of his poetic genius.

In the third period, beginning when Browning was nearly sixty years old, he
wrote even more industriously than before, and published on an average
nearly a volume of poetry a year. Such volumes as _Fifine at the Fair, Red
Cotton Night-Cap Country, The Inn Album, Jocoseria_, and many others, show
how Browning gains steadily in the power of revealing the hidden springs of
human action; but he often rambles most tiresomely, and in general his work
loses in sustained interest. It is perhaps significant that most of his
best work was done under Mrs. Browning's influence.

WHAT TO READ. Of the short miscellaneous poems there is such an unusual
variety that one must hesitate a little in suggesting this or that to the
beginner's attention. "My Star," "Evelyn Hope," "Wanting is--What?" "Home
Thoughts from Abroad," "Meeting at Night," "One Word More" (an exquisite
tribute to his dead wife), "Prospice" (Look Forward); songs from _Pippa
Passes;_ various love poems like "By the Fireside" and "The Last Ride
Together"; the inimitable "Pied Piper," and the ballads like "Herve Riel"
and "How They Brought the Good News,"--these are a mere suggestion,
expressing only the writer's personal preference; but a glance at the
contents of Browning's volumes will reveal scores of other poems, which
another writer might recommend as being better in themselves or more
characteristic of Browning.[237]

Among Browning's dramatic soul studies there is also a very wide choice.
"Andrea del Sarto" is one of the best, revealing as it does the strength
and the weakness of "the perfect painter," whose love for a soulless woman
with a pretty face saddens his life and hampers his best work. Next in
importance to "Andrea" stands "An Epistle," reciting the experiences of
Karshish, an Arab physician, which is one of the best examples of
Browning's peculiar method of presenting the truth. The half-scoffing,
half-earnest, and wholly bewildered state of this Oriental scientist's mind
is clearly indicated between the lines of his letter to his old master. His
des