rmed and
hopeless, is admirably rendered in the slow and solemn metre, whose firm
smoothness and regularity translate into sound the sentiment of the
speech. _A Serenade at the Villa_, which expresses a hopeless love from
the man's side, has a special picturesqueness, and something more than
picturesqueness: nature and life are seen in throbbing sympathy. The
little touches of description give one the very sense of the hot
thundrous summer night as it "sultrily suspires" in sympathy with the
disconsolate lover at his fruitless serenading. I can scarcely doubt
that this poem (some of which has been quoted on p. 25 above), was
suggested by one of the songs in Sidney's _Astrophel and Stella_, a poem
on the same subject in the same rare metre:--

"Who is it that this dark night
Underneath my window plaineth?
It is one who from thy sight
Being, ah! exiled, disdaineth
Every other vulgar light."

If Browning's love-poems have any model or anticipation in English
poetry, it is certainly in the love-songs of Sidney, in what Browning
himself has called,

"The silver speech,
Of Sidney's self, the starry paladin."

No lover in English poetry has been so much a man as Sidney and
Browning.

_Two in the Campagna_ presents a more intricate situation than most of
the love-poems. It is the lament of a man, addressed to the woman at his
side, whom he loves and by whom he is loved, over the imperfection and
innocent inconstancy of his love. The two can never quite grow to one,
and he, oppressed by the terrible burden of imperfect sympathies, is for
ever seeking, realising, losing, then again seeking the spiritual union
still for ever denied. The vague sense of the Roman Campagna is
distilled into exquisite words, and through all there sounds the sad and
weary undertone of baffled endeavour:--

"Infinite passion, and the pain
Of finite hearts that yearn."

_The Last Ride Together_ is one of those love-poems which I have spoken
of as specially noble and unique, and it is, I think, the noblest and
most truly unique of them all. Thought, emotion and melody are mingled
in perfect measure: it has the lyrical "cry," and the objectiveness of
the drama. The situation, sufficiently indicated in the title, is
selected with a choice and happy instinct: the very motion of riding is
given in the rhythm. Every line throbs with passion, or with a fervid
meditation which is almos