title
"dramatic," and describe love as bound up with such varieties of life
and character, that questions of life and character are necessarily
raised by them; the emotion thus conveyed being really more intense,
because more individual, than could be given in any purely lyric
effusion not warmed by the poet's own life. Some few, however, are
genuine lyrics, whether regarded as personal utterances or not; and in
the case of two or three of these, the personal utterance is
unmistakable.

Under the head of LYRICAL LOVE POEMS must be placed

"One Word More," to E. B. B. ("Men and Women." 1855.)
"Prospice." ("Dramatis Personae." 1864.)
"Numpholeptos." }
"Prologue." } "Pacchiarotto and other Poems."
"Natural Magic." } 1876.
"Magical Nature." }
"Introduction." } "The Two Poets of Croisic."
"A Tale." } 1878.

"ONE WORD MORE" is a message of love, as direct as it is beautiful; but
as such it also expresses an idea which makes it a fitting object of
study. Most men and women lay their highest gift at the feet of him or
of her they love, and with it such honour as the world may render it.
They value both, as making them more worthy of those they love, and for
their sake rejoice in the possession. Mr. Browning feels otherwise.
According to him the gifts by which we are known to the world have lost
graciousness through its contact. Their exercise is marred by its
remembered churlishness and ingratitude. Every artist, he declares,
longs "once" and for "one only," to utter himself in a language distinct
from his art; to "gain" in this manner, "the man's joy," while escaping
"the artist's sorrow." So Raphael, the painter, wrote a volume of
sonnets to be seen only by one. Dante, poet of the "Inferno," drew an
angel in memory of the one (of Beatrice). He--Mr. Browning--has only his
verse to offer. But as the fresco painter steals a camel's hair brush to
paint flowerets on his lady's missal--as he who blows through bronze may
also breathe through silver for the purpose of a serenade, so may _he_
lend his talent to a different use. He has completed his volume of "Men"
and "Women." He dedicates it to her to whom this poem is addressed. But
his special offering to her is not the book itself, in which he speaks
with the mouth of fifty other persons, but the word of dedication--the
"One Word More"--in which he speaks to her from his own. The dramatic
turns lyric poet fo