Laurel · Robert Browning · Selections from the Poems and Plays of Robert Browning

House

iambic pentameter · ABAB · 40 lines · from Selections from the Poems and Plays of Robert Browning

Shall I sonnet-sing you about myself?Do I live in a house you would like to see?Is it scant of gear, has it store of pelf?"Unlock my heart with a sonnet-key"?

Invite the world, as my betters have done?"Take notice: this building remains on view,Its suites of reception every one,Its private apartment and bedroom too;

"For a ticket, apply to the Publisher."No: thanking the public, I must decline.A peep through my window, if folk prefer;But, please you, no foot over threshold of mine!

I have mixed with a crowd and heard free talkIn a foreign land where an earthquake chancedAnd a house stood gaping, naught to balkMan's eye wherever he gazed or glanced.

The whole of the frontage shaven sheer,The inside gaped; exposed to day,Right and wrong and common and queer,Bare, as the palm of your hand, it lay.

The owner? Oh, he had been crushed, no doubt!"Odd tables and chairs for a man of wealth!What a parcel of musty old books about!He smoked--no wonder he lost his health!

"I doubt if he bathed before he dressed.A brasier?--the pagan, he burned perfumes!You see it is proved, what the neighbors guessed:His wife and himself had separate rooms."

Friends, the goodman of the house at leastKept house to himself till an earthquake came;'Tis the fall of its frontage permits you feastOn the inside arrangement you praise or blame.

Outside should suffice for evidence;And whoso desires to penetrateDeeper, must dive by the spirit-sense--No optics like yours, at any rate!

"Hoity-toity! A street to explore,Your house the exception! 'With this same keyShakespeare unlocked his heart,' once more!"Did Shakespeare? If so, the less Shakespeare he!

Words in this poem 15

shall v. i.: To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
sonnet n.: A short poem, -- usually amatory. [F., fr. It. sonetto, fr. suono a sound, a song, fr. L. sonus a sound. See Sound noise.]
pelf n.: Money; riches; lucre; gain; -- generally conveying the idea of something ill-gotten or worthless. It has no plural. [OE. pelfir booty, OF. pelfre, akin to pelfrer to plunder, and perh. to E. pillage. Cf. Pilfer.]
unlock v. t.: To unfasten, as what is locked; as, to unlock a door or a chest. [Cf. AS. unl. See 1st Un-, and Lock, v. t.]
bedroom n.: A room or apartment intended or used for a bed; a lodging room.
publisher n.: One who publishes; as, a publisher of a book or magazine.
folk n.: In Anglo-Saxon times, the people of a group of townships or villages; a community; a tribe. [AS. folc; akin to D. volk, OS. & OHG. folk, G. volk, Icel. f, Sw. & Dan. folk, Lith. pulkas crowd, and perh. to E. follow.]
wherever adv.: At or in whatever place; wheresoever.
frontage n.: The front part of an edifice or lot; extent of front.
wealth n.: Weal; welfare; prosperity; good. [OE. welthe, from wele; cf. D. weelde luxury. See Weal prosperity.]
brasier n.: An artificer who works in brass. Franklin. [OE. brasiere, F. braise live coals. See Brass.]
goodman n.: A familiar appellation of civility, equivalent to [Good + man]
suffice v. i.: To be enough, or sufficient; to meet the need (of anything); to be equal to the end proposed; to be adequate. [OE. suffisen, OF. soufire, F. suffire (cf. suffisant, p.pr.), L. sufficere to put under, to substitute, to avail for, to suffice; sub under + facere to make. Se]
whoso pron.: Whosoever. Piers Plowman.
explore v. t.: To seek for or after; to strive to attain by search; to look wisely and carefully for. [L. explorare to explore; ex out+plorare to cry out aloud,prob. orig., to cause to flow; perh. akin to E. flow: cf. F. explorer.]

Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.

About this text

House is in the public domain. This text is taken from Selections from the Poems and Plays of Robert Browning, Project Gutenberg ebook #28041; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.

Cite as: Robert Browning, House, in Selections from the Poems and Plays of Robert Browning (1864), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #28041, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/browning-selections/house.html, id L25119.

Form and metre

House is 40 lines in 10 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 73%).

See other poems in iambic pentameter.

Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.

Rhyme words, stanza by stanza

The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.

1 ABAB myself^A · see^B · pelf^A · key^B
2 ABAB done^A · view^B · one^A · too^B
3 ABAB publisher^A · decline^B · prefer^A · mine^B
4 ABAB talk^A · chanced^B · balk^A · glanced^B
5 ABAB sheer^A · day^B · queer^A · lay^B
6 ABAB doubt^A · wealth^B · about^A · health^B
7 ABAB dressed^A · perfumes^B · guessed^A · rooms^B
8 ABAB least^A · came^B · feast^A · blame^B
9 ABAB evidence^A · penetrate^B · sense^A · rate^B
10 ABAB explore^A · key^B · more^A · he^B

Scansion, line by line

Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.

Line	Syl.	Stress
Shall I sonnet-sing you about myself?	10	··/˘·····/
Do I live in a house you would like to see?	11	···········
Is it scant of gear, has it store of pelf?	10	··········
"Unlock my heart with a sonnet-key"?	9	˘/····/˘·
Invite the world, as my betters have done?	10	˘/····/˘··
"Take notice: this building remains on view,	10	·/˘·/˘˘/··
Its suites of reception every one,	10	···˘/˘/˘˘·
Its private apartment and bedroom too;	10	·/˘˘/˘·/··
"For a ticket, apply to the Publisher."	11	··/˘˘/··/˘˘
No: thanking the public, I must decline.	10	·/˘·/˘··˘/
A peep through my window, if folk prefer;	10	····/˘··˘/
But, please you, no foot over threshold of mine!	10	······/···
I have mixed with a crowd and heard free talk	10	··········
In a foreign land where an earthquake chanced	10	··/˘···/··
And a house stood gaping, naught to balk	9	····/˘···
Man's eye wherever he gazed or glanced.	10	··˘/˘··˘··
The whole of the frontage shaven sheer,	9	····/˘/˘·
The inside gaped; exposed to day,	10	·˘/·˘˘/˘··
Right and wrong and common and queer,	8	····/˘··
Bare, as the palm of your hand, it lay.	9	·········
The owner? Oh, he had been crushed, no doubt!	10	·/˘·······
"Odd tables and chairs for a man of wealth!	10	·/˘·······
What a parcel of musty old books about!	11	··/˘·/˘····
He smoked--no wonder he lost his health!	10	··˘·/˘····
"I doubt if he bathed before he dressed.	10	·····˘····
A brasier?--the pagan, he burned perfumes!	10	····/˘··˘/
You see it is proved, what the neighbors guessed:	10	·······/˘·
His wife and himself had separate rooms."	10	···˘/·/˘··
Friends, the goodman of the house at least	9	··/˘·····
Kept house to himself till an earthquake came;	10	···˘/··/··
'Tis the fall of its frontage permits you feast	11	·····/˘/···
On the inside arrangement you praise or blame.	11	··˘/˘/˘····
Outside should suffice for evidence;	9	//·˘/·/˘˘
And whoso desires to penetrate	10	·/˘˘/˘·/˘·
Deeper, must dive by the spirit-sense--	9	/˘····/˘·
No optics like yours, at any rate!	9	·/˘···/˘·
"Hoity-toity! A street to explore,	9	/˘/˘···˘/
Your house the exception! 'With this same key	10	···˘/˘····
Shakespeare unlocked his heart,' once more!"	9	/·˘/˘····
Did Shakespeare? If so, the less Shakespeare he!	10	·/·····/··

On this poem

Three of Browning's poems, "At the Mermaid," "House," and "Shop," refer with more or less explicitness to Shakspere. The last stanza in "House" contains a quotation from Wordsworth's "Scorn not the Sonnet" to the effect that in his sonnets Shakspere revealed the most intimate facts of his life. "At the Mermaid" and "House" both combat this idea. In "At the Mermaid" Browning in the person of Shakspere says: "Which of you did I enable Once to slip within my breast, There to catalogue and label What I like least, what love best, Hope and fear, believe and doubt of, Seek and shun, respect--deride? Who has right to make a rout of Rarities he found inside?" As applied to Browning the poems represent the indignation with which he regarded such personal revelations, such utterance of sighs and groans, as characterized Byron (the "Last King" of "At the Mermaid"); but they overstate the impersonal nature of Browning's own work which is frequently a very direct statement of his own emotions and views, while even from his dramatic work it is not difficult to find his "hopes and fears, beliefs and doubts." In stanzas 10-12 of "At the Mermaid," for example, just after he has protested against "leaving bosom's gate ajar," he fully sets forth the joy, the optimism, of his own outlook on life. "Shop" is an indirect protest against the assumption that Shakspere wrote mainly for money, caring merely for the material success of his work. (See Poet-Lore, Vol. III, pp. 216-221, April, 1889,

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