bs,
flowers, and fruits in Browning's poems are those of southern Europe.
His poetry of nature is almost as distinctively Italian as Tennyson's is
English. "The Englishman in Italy" is especially rich in vivid,
picturesque details of southern scenes.

36. _Liver-wing._ The right wing. The shot hit the king in the right
arm.

37. _Bourbon._ Mr. and Mrs. Browning were rejoicing at any indications
that the people of Italy were awake to revolt against the Bourbons. See
Mrs. Browning's "Casa Guidi Windows" and "First News from Villa Franca"
and Mr. Browning's "The Italian in England."

40. _Queen Mary's saying._ For two hundred years Calais had been one of
England's most important possessions. It was taken by the French in
1588, the last year of the reign of Queen Mary. What Queen Mary said of
Calais, Browning says of Italy.

HOME-THOUGHTS FROM ABROAD

Compare the sentiment of this poem with that of "De Gustibus--" written
ten years later. In "Home Thoughts from Abroad" we have one of
Browning's rare uses of the scenery of his own country.

14. _That's the wise thrush._ The power of these lines in presenting
both the musical and the emotional quality of the bird's song is rivaled
only by Wilson Flagg's "The Bobolink" (quoted in John Burroughs's _Birds
and Poets_) and Wordsworth's "To the Cuckoo."

HOME-THOUGHTS FROM THE SEA

This poem and the preceding one express two phases of the poet's love of
country; his affection for the physical beauty of England, and his pride
in her political freedom. In the first poem, he turns, in thought, from
the glowing color of Italy, to the more delicate loveliness of England
in April; in the second poem, he longs to repay the service his country
has rendered him in defeating foreign foes.

"Home-Thoughts from the Sea" was written at the same time and under the
same circumstances as "How they brought the Good News from Ghent to
Aix." The poet, aboard a vessel coasting along the shore of Africa,
could see to the northwest the Portuguese Cape Vincent, near which, in
1797, England won a naval victory over Spain; southeast of Cape Vincent,
on the Spanish coast, Cadiz Bay, where, in 1796, England defeated the
second Spanish Armada; and southeast of Cadiz Bay, Cape Trafalgar,
where, in 1805, Nelson won a famous victory over the allied fleets of
France and Spain. To the northeast, the poet could see Gibraltar, the
great fortress which England acquired from Spain by the Peace of
Utrec