Robert Browning
How blind the toil that burrows like the mole,In winding graveyard pathways underground,For Browning's lineage! What if men have foundPoor footmen or rich merchants on the rollOf his forbears? Did they beget his soul?Nay, for he came of ancestry renownedThrough all the world,--the poets laurel-crownedWith wreaths from which the autumn takes no toll.
The blazons on his coat-of-arms are these:The flaming sign of Shelley's heart on fire,The golden globe of Shakespeare's human stage,The staff and scrip of Chaucer's pilgrimage,The rose of Dante's deep, divine desire,The tragic mask of wise Euripides.
Words in this poem
- graveyard n.
- A yard or inclosure for the interment of the dead; a cemetery.
- scrip n.
- A small bag; a wallet; a satchel. [OE. scrippe, probably of Scand. origin; cf. Icel. & OSw. skreppa, and also LL. scrippum, OF. esquerpe, escrepe, F. écharpe scarf. Cf. Scarp, Scarf a piece of dr]
- pilgrimage n.
- The journey of a pilgrim; a long journey; especially, a journey to a shrine or other sacred place. Fig., the journey of human life. [OE. pilgrimage, pelgrinage; cf. F. pèlerinage.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Robert Browning is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of Henry Van Dyke, Project Gutenberg ebook #16229; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Henry Van Dyke, Robert Browning, in The Poems of Henry Van Dyke (1925), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16229, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/van-dyke-poems/robert-browning.html, id L22959.
Form and metre
Robert Browning is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
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 ABBAABBA moleA · undergroundB · foundB · rollA · soulA · renownedB · crownedB · tollA
- 2 -ABBA- these · fireA · stageB · pilgrimageB · desireA · euripides
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 |
|---|---|---|
| How blind the toil that burrows like the mole, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| In winding graveyard pathways underground, | 10 | ·/˘/·/·/˘· |
| For Browning's lineage! What if men have found | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Poor footmen or rich merchants on the roll | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Of his forbears? Did they beget his soul? | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| Nay, for he came of ancestry renowned | 10 | ·····/˘˘˘/ |
| Through all the world,--the poets laurel-crowned | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| With wreaths from which the autumn takes no toll. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| The blazons on his coat-of-arms are these: | 10 | ·········· |
| The flaming sign of Shelley's heart on fire, | 11 | ·/˘··/˘··/˘ |
| The golden globe of Shakespeare's human stage, | 10 | ·/˘··/·/˘· |
| The staff and scrip of Chaucer's pilgrimage, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘˘ |
| The rose of Dante's deep, divine desire, | 11 | ···/˘·˘/˘/˘ |
| The tragic mask of wise Euripides. | 9 | ·/˘······ |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.