ers,

"Thy rare gold ring of verse (the poet praised)
Linking our England to his Italy."

The reference is to the inscription on Casa Guidi,
Via Maggiore, 9. Florence:

QUI SCRISSE E MORI
ELISABETTA BARRETT BROWNING
CHE IN CUORE DI DONNA CONCILIAVA
SCIENZA DI DOTTO E SPIRITO DI POETA
E FECE DEL SUO VERSO AUREO ANELLO
FRA ITALIA E INGHILTERRA
PONE QUESTO MEMORIA
FIRENZE GRATA
1861.
--

"his", v. 5, the sun's. "Yet human", v. 6: though `kindred'
to the sun, yet proved `human'. . .`when the first summons', etc.
"This is the same voice", v. 11, i.e., a voice of the same import
as was "the first summons"--one invoking help. The nouns
"interchange", "splendour", "benediction", vv. 17, 18, 19,
are appositives of "what", v. 17. "Never conclude", v. 20,
to be construed with "commence", v. 13: "Never {may I} conclude".
"Their utmost up and on", v. 23, to be construed with "yearn", v. 21.
"so", v. 23, looks back to "raising hand and head", etc.
"Some whiteness" . . . v. 25, "Some wanness" . . . v. 26,
to be construed with "blessing back".

See an elaborate analysis of this Invocation, by Dr. F. J. Furnivall,
read at the forty-eighth meeting of the Browning Society, February 25,
1887, being No. 39 of the Society's Papers.

But, after all, the difficulties in Browning which result from
the construction of the language, be that what it may,
are not the main difficulties, as has been too generally supposed.
THE MAIN DIFFICULTIES ARE QUITE INDEPENDENT OF THE CONSTRUCTION
OF THE LANGUAGE.

Many readers, especially those who take an intellectual attitude
toward all things, in the heavens above and in the earth beneath,
suppose that they are prepared to understand almost anything
which is understandable if it is only PUT right. This is a most
egregious mistake, especially in respect to the subtle and complex
spiritual experiences which the more deeply subjective poetry embodies.
What De Quincey says in his paper on Kant,* of the comprehension of
the higher philosophical truths, can, with still better reason,
be said of the responsiveness to the higher spiritual truths:
"No complex or very important truth was ever yet transferred
in full development from one mind to another: truth of that character
is not a piece of furniture to be shifted; it is a seed which must be sown,
and pass thr