The Project Gutenberg EBook of Browning's Shorter Poems, by Robert Browning

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Title: Browning's Shorter Poems

Author: Robert Browning

Editor: Franklin T. Baker

Release Date: July 28, 2005 [EBook #16376]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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BROWNING'S

SHORTER POEMS

SELECTED AND EDITED

BY

FRANKLIN T. BAKER, A.M.

PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH IN TEACHERS COLLEGE,
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

FOURTH EDITION. REVISED AND ENLARGED

New York

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

LONDON; MACMILLAN & CO., LTD.

1917

COPYRIGHT 1899,
BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.

* * * * *

Set up and electrotyped October, 1899. Reprinted January, 1901;
April, 1902; May, 1903; May, 1904; January, 1905; January, June,
1906; January, July, 1907; February, 1908; September, 1909;
February, 1910; March, 1911; July, 1912; July, 1913; January, July,
1915; July, 1916; January, September, 1917.

Norwood Press
J.S. Cushing Co.--Berwick & Smith Co.,
Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.

* * * * *

PREFACE

These selections from the poetry of Robert Browning have been made
with especial reference to the tastes and capacities of readers of the
high-school age. Every poem included has been found by experience to
be within the grasp of boys and girls. Most of Browning's best poetry
is within the ken of any reader of imagination and diligence. To the
reader who lacks these, not only Browning, but the great world of
literature, remains closed: Browning is not the only poet who requires
close study. The difficulties he offers are, in his best poems, not
more repellent to the thoughtful reader than the nut that protects and
contains the kernel. To a boy or girl of active mind, the difficulty
need rarely be more than a pleasant challenge to the exercise of a
little patience and ingenuity.

Browning, when at his best in vigor, clearness, and beauty, is
peculiarly a poet for young people. His freedom from sentimentalit