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

The Lost Leader

dactylic tetrameter · 32 lines · from Selections from the Poems and Plays of Robert Browning

Just for a handful of silver he left us,Just for a riband to stick in his coat--Found the one gift of which fortune bereft us,Lost all the others she lets us devote;They, with the gold to give, doled him out silver,So much was theirs who so little allowed;How all our copper had gone for his service!Rags--were they purple, his heart had been proud!We that had loved him so, followed him, honored him,Lived in his mild and magnificent eye,Learned his great language, caught his clear accents,Made him our pattern to live and to die!Shakespeare was of us, Milton was for us,Burns, Shelley, were with us--they watch from their graves!He alone breaks from the van and the freemen,--He alone sinks to the rear and the slaves!We shall march prospering--not through his presence;Songs may inspirit us--not from his lyre;Deeds will be done--while he boasts his quiescence,Still bidding crouch whom the rest bade aspire.Blot out his name, then, record one lost soul more,One task more declined, one more footpath untrod,One more devils'-triumph and sorrow for angels,One wrong more to man, one more insult to God!Life's night begins; let him never come back to us!There would be doubt, hesitation and pain,Forced praise on our part--the glimmer of twilight,Never glad confident morning again!Best fight on well, for we taught him--strike gallantly,Menace our heart ere we master his own;Then let him receive the new knowledge and wait us,Pardoned in heaven, the first by the throne!

Words in this poem

handful n.: As much as the hand will grasp or contain. [AS. handfull.]
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,]
inspirit v. t.: To infuse new life or spirit into; to animate; to encourage; to invigorate.
quiescence n.: The state or quality of being quiescent. [L. quiescentia, fr. quiescens, p. pr.; cf. F. quiestence. See Quiesce.]
bade: A form of the pat tense of Bid.
aspire v. t.: To aspire to; to long for; to try to reach; to mount to.
footpath n.: A narrow path or way for pedestrains only; a footway.
gallantly adv.: In a polite or courtly manner; like a gallant or wooer.

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

About this text

The Lost Leader 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, The Lost Leader, in Selections from the Poems and Plays of Robert Browning (1864), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #28041, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/browning-selections/the-lost-leader.html, id L25080.

Form and metre

The Lost Leader is 32 lines in a single stanza. The metre is dactylic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 77%).

See other poems in dactylic tetrameter.

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 -ABA-CBC-D-D-E-EFGFG-H-H-----I-I us · coat^A · us^B · devote^A · silver · allowed^C · service^B · proud^C · him · eye^D · accents · die^D · us · graves^E · freemen · slaves^E · presence^F · lyre^G · quiescence^F · aspire^G · more · untrod^H · angels · god^H · us · pain · twilight · again · gallantly · own^I · us · throne^I

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 dactylic tetrameter. How this is done.

Line	Syl.	Stress
Just for a handful of silver he left us,	11	···/··/˘···
Just for a riband to stick in his coat--	10	···/˘·····
Found the one gift of which fortune bereft us,	11	······/˘˘/·
Lost all the others she lets us devote;	10	···/˘···˘/
They, with the gold to give, doled him out silver,	11	·········/˘
So much was theirs who so little allowed;	10	······/˘˘/
How all our copper had gone for his service!	11	··//˘····/˘
Rags--were they purple, his heart had been proud!	10	···/˘·····
We that had loved him so, followed him, honored him,	12	······/˘·/˘·
Lived in his mild and magnificent eye,	10	·····˘/˘˘·
Learned his great language, caught his clear accents,	10	···/˘···/˘
Made him our pattern to live and to die!	10	··//˘·····
Shakespeare was of us, Milton was for us,	10	/····/˘···
Burns, Shelley, were with us--they watch from their graves!	11	·/˘········
He alone breaks from the van and the freemen,	11	·˘/······/˘
--He alone sinks to the rear and the slaves!	10	·˘/·······
We shall march prospering--not through his presence;	11	···/˘˘···/˘
Songs may inspirit us--not from his lyre;	10	··˘/˘·····
Deeds will be done--while he boasts his quiescence,	10	··········
Still bidding crouch whom the rest bade aspire.	10	·/˘·····˘/
Blot out his name, then, record one lost soul more,	11	·····˘/····
One task more declined, one more footpath untrod,	11	···˘/··/···
One more devils'-triumph and sorrow for angels,	12	··/˘/˘·/˘·/˘
One wrong more to man, one more insult to God!	11	·······˘/··
Life's night begins; let him never come back to us!	11	··˘/··/····
There would be doubt, hesitation and pain,	10	·····˘/˘··
Forced praise on our part--the glimmer of twilight,	11	···/··/˘·/·
Never glad confident morning again!	10	/˘·/˘˘/˘˘/
Best fight on well, for we taught him--strike gallantly,	11	·········/˘
Menace our heart ere we master his own;	10	/˘/···/˘··
Then let him receive the new knowledge and wait us,	12	···˘/··/˘···
Pardoned in heaven, the first by the throne!	10	/˘·/˘·····

On this poem

This poem indignantly records a poet's defection from the cause of progress and liberty. Who this poet might be was for some time a matter of conjecture. Wordsworth, Southey, and Charles Kingsley, all of whom had gone from radicalism in their youth to conservatism in their old age, were severally proposed as the original of Browning's portrait. The poem was published in 1845, two years after Wordsworth was made poet laureate. Early in 1845 Wordsworth was presented at court, a proceeding which aroused comment--sometimes amused, sometimes indignant--from those who recalled the poet's early scorn of rank and titles. Browning and Miss Barrett exchanged several gay letters on this subject in May, 1845. In commenting on a letter from Miss Martineau describing Wordsworth in his home in 1846, Browning wrote, "Did not Shelley say long ago, 'He had no more imagination than a pint-pot'--though in those days he used to walk about France and Flanders like a man. Now, he is 'most comfortable in his worldly affairs' and just this comes of it! He lives the best twenty years of his life after the way of his own heart--and when one presses in to see the result of his rare experiment--what the one alchemist whom fortune has allowed to get all his coveted materials and set to work at last with fire and melting pot--what he produces after all the talk of him and the like of him; why, you get pulvis et cinis--a man at the mercy of the tongs and shovel." In later life, however,

Notes from the edition 2

Notes by Myra Reynolds, Selections from the Poems and Plays of Robert Browning (Project Gutenberg #28041).

Line 20 Whom. The reference is to the lower classes, whom the Liberals were endeavoring to rouse to aspiration and action. The Conservatives opposed such beginnings of independence.
Line 29 Best fight on well. It is the deserting leader who is exhorted to fight well. Though it is pain to have him desert their party, they have gloried in his power and it would be an even greater pain to see him weak. They wish him to fight well even though their cause is thereby menaced.

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