Hello Friends,
This blog is my response to a task of written assignment of Literature of the Victorians and my topic is Pippa's Song by the poet Robert Browning. Read and enjoy. Happy Learning.
Pippa’s Song
by Robert Browning
"The year’s at the spring,
And day’s at the morn;
Morning’s at seven;
The hill-side’s dew-pearl’d;
The lark’s on the wing;
The snail’s on the thorn;
God’s in His heaven–
All’s right with the world!"
Pippa’s Song by Robert Browning
‘Pippa’s Song’ celebrates the “rightness” of the world in a deceptively light-hearted and peaceful moment.
'Pippa’s Song,’ also known as ‘The year’s at spring,’ can be found in Browning’s verse drama, Pippa Passes. It was published in 1841 but it wasn’t until it was republished in 1848 in Poems that it received the critical attention it deserves. This excerpt from the dramatic verse is by far the most famous passage. It’s short, to the point, and has even been set to music as a kind of nursery rhyme for children.
☆ Summary of Pippa’s Song
‘Pippa’s Song’ by Robert Browning is a sweet-seeming poem about the natural world, it’s harmony, and God in heaven.
The short and simple lines of this poem depict everything “right” in the world. The season is spring, the morning is 7 o’clock and dew is on the hill. In the speaker’s eyes, everything is as it should be. The poem concludes with the speaker reiterating this and also mentioning God in heaven.
☆ Contact of Pippa’s Song
As mentioned above, ‘Pippa’s Song’ can be found in Pippa Passes. It follows a young girl in Asolo who sings as she walks, describing the various people she sees. There are several “matter of fact” portrayals of characters that caused controversy when the poem was released. The lines in this analysis come after two characters, Sebald and Ottima discuss their affair and the successful completion of their murder of Luca, Ottima’s husband. So, although the poem is quite upbeat and optimistic on its own, when placed in context, it’s much stranger, darker, and ironic.
☆ Structure and Form of Pippa’s Song
‘Pippa’s Song’ by Robert Browning is an eight-line poem that is contained within a single stanza of text. The lines follow a simple rhyme scheme of ABCDABCD. Although slightly unusual, this pattern is quite effective in creating a flowing feeling of unity from the first line to the last. This plays into the themes at the heart of the poem, interconnectivity, and the power of God. The same can be said for the metrical pattern. Each line contains five syllables the majority of which are made up of one iamb followed by an anapaest, or two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed. The first, second, fifth, and sixth lines are the best example of this pattern in action.
☆ Literary Devices in Pippa’s Song
Browning makes use of several literary devices in ‘Pippa’s Song.’ These include but are not limited to anaphora, imagery, parallelism. The latter is a formal device that occurs when the poet uses the same structure in multiple lines. For example, “at the” connecting “The year’s” to “spring” and “And day’s” to “morn.” The same can be said for lines five and six with “The lark’s on the wing” and “The snail’s on the thorn.”
Anaphora is a kind of repetition that occurs when the poet repeats a word or phrase at the beginning of multiple lines. For example, “The,” which starts lines one, five, and six. This technique, just like any kind of repetition, is quite effective and obvious in a short poem.
Imagery is another quite important technique. It refers to the moments in which a poet crafts lines and phrases that are particularly impactful and memorable. For example, the image of the dew-covered hill in line four and the snail on the thorn in line seven
☆ Analysis of Pippa’s Song
Lines 1-4
"The year’s at the spring,
And day’s at the morn;
Morning’s at seven;
The hill-side’s dew-pearl’d;"
In the first lines of ‘Pippa’s Song,’ the speaker begins by making several statements about the world. On their own they’re hard to understand, but after finishing the poem and returning to them, they make more sense. The speaker is celebrating how “right” the world feels in the moment. Everything, they explain, is as it should be. The first lines state a few of these “right” things. The first is the year, which is “at the spring.” This suggests first that it is the season of spring and second that something new and lively is on its way. This is likely meant to relate to Ottima and Sebald’s murder and their belief that it would allow them to start a new life. The same feeling is carried over into the next line when the poet mentions “day’s at the morn.”
The following lines are similar, with the fourth line using a great example of imagery to depict the hills covered in pearl-like dew. This is a beautiful image, one that is central to the idea of a new life, a new day, and new relationships free of old restraints.
Lines 5-8
"The lark’s on the wing;
The snail’s on the thorn;
God’s in His heaven,
All’s right with the world!"
In the following lines, the speaker brings in animals to their understanding of the word and its rightness. The “lark,” a kind of songbird, is flying and the “snail’s on the thorn.” The animals, season, time of day, and everything else is exactly as its supposed to be.
The poem concludes with a reference to God whose “in His heaven.” Without the context of the poem, these lines feel quite innocent and it’s easy to see why they were popularized.
☆ Similar Poetry
Readers who enjoyed ‘Pippa’s Song’ should also consider reading some of Browning’s other, better-known poems. For example:
‘Fra Lippo Lippi’ – details the scandalous life of the painter of the same name. The painter starts off being harassed by police officers and then starts to go into the story of his life.
‘Andrea del Sarto’ – is a dramatic monologue told from the perceptive of Renaissance painter, Andrea del Sarto. The poem appeared in Browning’s collection Men and Women. The speaker spends most of the poem talking about how his work compares to that of other artists.
‘Boot and Saddle’ – depicts an Englishman gong off to fight during the English Civil War.
‘My Last Duchess’ – is by far Browning’s most famous poem. This piece is studied by students all around the world who are asked to analyze the dead of Duchess Ferarra and her husband’s guilt.
☆ "Now" by Robert Browning
Robert Browning’s ‘Now’ is a short lyric poem. Despite consisting of fourteen lines of roughly equal length, it conforms to neither the Petrarchan nor the Shakespearean sonnet style. The rhyming scheme is rather irregular, and although it contains some iambic pentameter, the syllable stresses are not completely consistent. Therefore, it can be considered an improvisation on the traditional sonnet and it deals with the theme of love.
The theme of ideal love was one that greatly preoccupied Browning, and can be found in ‘Now’. This lyrical sonnet provides the perfect frame in which to explore all the pleasure of life and love contained within one pure and perfect moment.
In 1846 Browning was married to the older poet Elizabeth Barrett whose work was, at the time, much more well-known than his own. They then began one of the most famous literary romances in history and we may therefore regard this poet as a dedication to Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
The concept of ideal love can be best described as two people perfectly complementing each other in such a way as to achieve harmony; a perfect union of love without flaw or difficulty. Therefore, by this very nature, it is ideal. Love of this type cannot realistically exist in everyday life, as a love of such purity could only survive isolated from the external factors of reality. Thus it finds its perfect home at the moment: an entity that is fleeting enough to be able to contain such perfection.
The poem is meta in that what it expresses in content, it mirrors in form. That is to say that the poem, in its improvisation on the norms of the standard sonnet, does not have much progression and seems to end more or less where it began. In this way, it reflects the very thing it describes: one ephemeral moment of loving union which, like ‘Now’, contains so much in such a small and brief entity. This poem is perfect in its condensation of the purest and most joyful aspects of love into a concise sequence of flowing verses. In fact, the way in which the lines smoothly run into each other, best appreciated when the poem is read aloud, render it one magnificently formed, isolated representation of ideal love.
☆ "Now" Poem Analysis
"Out of your whole life give but a moment!
All of your life that has gone before,
All to come after it, — so you ignore,"
In these first three lines, Browning allows us to understand the poem’s title. He asks his lover to give him just one moment; one instance of complete ideal love which will render all the rest of their lives utterly insignificant. The poet shows here his awareness that ideal love can only exist for a fleeting moment and thus simply asks his lover to totally commit to the ephemeral now, in order to give sincerity and strength to the rest of their lives together.
"So you make perfect the present, condense,
In a rapture of rage, for perfection’s endowment,
Thought and feeling and soul and sense,"
In an interesting play on words, we may understand the idea of “make perfect the present” to be rendering the current moment flawless, however, we may equally regard it in a grammatical sense. In grammatical terms, the perfect tense indicates a completed action in the past, while the present tense refers to what is happening at the time. In this way, this moment of ideal love will, in a powerful swell of emotions – a “rapture of rage” – seal the past and protect it with an endowment of perfection. All of the details and attributes that make up the love between them is contained within the now, concentrated into one climactic and beautiful moment of ecstasy.
"Merged in a moment which gives me at last
You around me for once, you beneath me, above me —
Me, sure that, despite of time future, time past,
This tick of life-time’s one moment you love me!"
These lines, particularly the phrase “at last” draw attention to just how powerful is the brief achievement of ideal love. Although short-lived, this ecstatic union of the two has effects that touch not only the present moment, but also reach all that came before and all that is yet to come. Browning uses more physical language when he describes how his lover will totally surround him, showing how he will be utterly lost in her, in them, and in their love. This is the all-consuming desired effect; to be so completely positive of the love of the other that all past, present, and future doubts are eradicated. Their entire lives will be thus endowed with the protection and perfection of the moment.
"How long such suspension may linger? Ah, Sweet,
The moment eternal — just that and no more —
When ecstasy’s utmost we clutch at the core,
While cheeks burn, arms open, eyes shut, and lips meet!"
Here, Browning wonders how long he can feasibly prolong this utter immersion in the other, which takes them outside of their normal lives. He expresses his desire to live in the moment forever, a contradiction in terms since this would evidently undermine the point and purpose of such an instance. The phrase “just that and no more” can be seen as slightly ironic and highlights the impossibility of the aforementioned wish. Finally, he describes how when the two lovers reach this moment of ideal love they grasp at its very essence – “ecstasy’s utmost” – and he complements this with a final physical description of the two bodies meeting in a glorious corporeal expression of their union and harmony.
In ‘Now’, Robert Browning beautifully expresses his desire for a perfect union with his wife through the wonderfully poetic theme of ideal love. This short, lyric poem encapsulates the very best parts of the love between two people and attempts to irrevocably isolate these aspects in one isolated moment. Despite the apparent impossibility of this endeavour, Browning presents a nonetheless infinitely noble idea: the importance of focusing on the special moments in life and love; those which overpower all the impure and mundane attributes of everyday existence. Through the expression of this theme in poetry, Browning in some way rendered the love in his life eternal and untouchable.
☆ About Robert Browning
Robert Browning (7 May 1812 – 12 December 1889) was an English poet and playwright. He was an exceptionally intelligent child, learning Greek, Latin, and French by the age of fourteen and penning a volume of Byronic verse at twelve years old. His first two published works, Pauline in 1833 and Sordello in 1840 were not well received and his plays were largely unsuccessful. Nevertheless, his uses of diction, rhyme, and symbols are widely considered to be significant and influential contributions to poetry. After reading her works and corresponding with her for a while, Browning married Elizabeth Barrett and the couple moved to Italy where they wrote and had their first and only child. Browning only received renown and critical acclaim after the death of his wife towards the end of his life and was rewarded honorary degrees from the Universities of Edinburgh and Oxford.
2,314 Words.
Works Cited:
1. Baldwin, Emma. "Pippa’s Song by Robert Browning." Poem Analysis, 9 Dec. 2020, poemanalysis.com/robert-browning/pippas-song/.
2. Gilmour, Lara. "Now by Robert Browning." Poem Analysis, 10 Jan. 2021, poemanalysis.com/robert-browning/now/.
3. "Pippa's Song (The Year's at the Spring)." Song of America, 27 May 2018, songofamerica.net/song/pippas-song-the-years-at-the-spring-1/.