nd and stare? All's blue."

_House_ confirms or continues the primary contention in _At the
"Mermaid"_: this time by the image of a House of Life, which some poets
may choose to set on view: "for a ticket apply to the Publisher."
Browning not merely denounces but denies the so-called self-revelations
of poets. He answers Wordsworth's

"With this same key
Shakespeare unlocked his heart,"

by the characteristic retort:--

"Did Shakespeare? If so, the less Shakespeare he!"

In _Shop_ we have another keen piece of criticism: a protest against
poets who make their shop their home, and their song mere ware for sale.

After the personal and critical section we pass to half-a-dozen lyrics:
_Fears and Scruples_, a covert and startling poem, a doctrine embodied
in a character; then two beautiful little _Pisgah-Sights_, a dainty
experiment in metre, and in substance the expression of Browning's
favourite lesson, the worth of earth and the need of the mystery of
life; _Appearances_, a couple of stanzas whose telling simplicity
recalls the lovely earlier lilt, _Misconceptions; Natural Magic_ and
_Magical Nature_, two magical snatches, as perfect as the "first fine
careless rapture" of the earlier lyrics. I quote the latter:--

"MAGICAL NATURE.

1.

Flower--I never fancied, jewel--I profess you!
Bright I see and soft I feel the outside of a flower.
Save but glow inside and--jewel, I should guess you,
Dim to sight and rough to touch: the glory is the dower.

2.

You, forsooth, a flower? Nay, my love, a jewel--
Jewel at no mercy of a moment in your prime!
Time may fray the flower-face: kind be time or cruel,
Jewel, from each facet, flash your laugh at time!"

But the finest lyric in the volume is _St. Martin's Summer_, a poem
fantastically tragic, hauntingly melodious, mysterious and chilling as
the ghostly visitants at late love's pleasure-bower of whom it sings. I
do not think Browning has written many lyrical poems of more brilliant
and original quality. _Bifurcation_, as its name denotes, is a study of
divided paths in life, the paths of Love and Duty chosen severally by
two lovers whose epitaphs Browning gives. The moral problem, which is
sinner, which is saint, is stated and left open. The poem is an etching,
sharp, concise and suggestive. _Numpholeptos_ (nymph-entranced) has all
the mystery, the vague charm, the