Album_ and _Dramatic
Idylls_. Browning's last poem, _Asolando_, appeared in London on the
same day that its author died at Venice. As the great bell of San
Marco struck ten in the evening, Browning, as he lay in bed, asked his
son if there were any news of the new volume. A telegram was read
saying the book was well received. The aged poet smiled and breathed
his last.

In beginning the reading of Browning it is well to understand that at
least half or maybe two-thirds of his work should be discarded at the
outset, as it is of interest only to scholars. My suggestion to one
who would learn to love Browning is to get a little book, _Lyrical
Poems of Robert Browning_, by Dr. A.J. George. The editor in a preface
indicates the best work of Browning, and also brings out strongly the
fact that readers, and especially young readers, must be given poems
which interest them. His selections of lyrics have been made from this
standpoint, and his notes will be found very helpful. He develops the
point that Browning's great revelation to the world through his poems
was his strong and abiding assurance that man has in him the principle
of divinity, and that many of the experiences that the world calls
failures are really the stepping stones of the ascent to that conquest
of self and that development of the whole nature which means the
highest life. He says also that Browning is one of the most eloquent
expounders of the doctrine of the reality of a future life, in which
those who live a noble and unselfish life will get their reward in an
existence free from all physical ills.

In this little book will be found _Pippa Passes_, a noble series of
lyrics, which develops the idea of the silent influence of a little
silk weaver of Asolo upon four sets of people in the great crises of
their lives. In each episode Pippa sings a song that awakens remorse
or kindles manhood or arouses patriotism or duty. It is a perfect
poem. Among other lyrics given here are _Evelyn Hope_, which must be
bracketed with Burns' _To Mary in Heaven_ or with Wordsworth's _Lucy_
and _Prospice_, which sounds the note of deep personal love that is as
sure of immortality as of life. It is as beautiful and as inspiring as
Tennyson's _Crossing the Bar_. Other poems due to Browning's love for
his wife are _My Star_ and _One Word More_.

If these lyrics appeal to you, then take up some of Browning's longer
poems, _A Blot in the 'Scutcheon_, _Colombe's Birthday_, _A So