Robert Browning

“ My Science of Man's Life: one blank's the whole!
"Love, war, song, statesmanship—no gain, all loss,
The stars' bestowment! We on our return
To-morrow merely find—not gold but dross,
"The body not the soul. Come, friends, we learn ⁠640
At least thus much by our experiment—
That—that . . . well, find what, whom it may concern!"
But next day through the city rumours went
Of a new persecution; so, they fled
All Israel, each man,—this time,—from his tent,
Tsaddik among the foremost. ”

“ Do I need acquaint
"The Chosen how self-sacrifice ensures
Tenfold requital?—urge ye emulate
The fame of those Old Just Ones death procures
"Such praise for, that 'tis now men's sole debate
Which of the Ten who volunteered at Rome ⁠170
To die for glory to our Race, was great
"Beyond his fellows? Was it thou—the comb
Of iron carded, flesh from bone, away,
While thy lips sputtered thro' their bloody foam
"Without a stoppage (O brave Akiba!)
'Hear, Israel, our Lord God is One'? Or thou,
Jischab?—who smiledst, burning, since there lay,
"Burning along with thee, our Law! ”

“ With hiss of 'What if sorrows end delights?' ⁠690
"Fear which stings ease with 'Work the Master wills!'
Experience which coils round and strangles quick
Each hope with 'Ask the Past if hoping skills
" 'To work accomplishment, or proves a trick
Wiling thee to endeavour! Strive, fool, stop
Nowise, so live, so die—that's law! why kick
" 'Against the pricks?' All out-wormed! ”

“ Juicy with sapience thou hast sought, not sucked?
"Say, does agn acquiesce in vanished youth? ⁠40
Still towers thy purity above—as erst—
Our pleasant follies? Be thy last word—truth!"
The Rabbi groaned; then, grimly, "Last as first
The truth speak I—in boyhood who began
Striving to live an angel, and, amerced
"For such presumption, die now hardly man. ”

“ Youth indeed sees plain a clue
To guide man where life's wood is intricate:
How shall he fail to thrid its thickets through
"When every oak-trunk takes the eye? Elate
He goes from bole to brushwood, plunging finds—
Smothered in briars—that the small's the great!
"All men are men: I would all minds were minds!
Whereas 'tis just the many's mindless mass
That most needs helping: labourers and hinds ⁠600
"We legislate for—not the cultured class
Which law-makes for itself nor needs the whip
And bridle,—proper help for mule and ass,
"Did the brutes know! ”

“ Deceptive show, unaided optics fail
"To transpierce,—hast entrusted to the lute's
Soft but sure guardianship some unrevealed
Secret shall lift mankind above the brutes
"As only knowledge can?" "A fount unsealed"
(Sighed Jochanan) "should seek the heaven in leaps
To die in dew-gems—not find death, congealed ⁠510 ”

“ Its radiant birth before there come to pass ⁠390
"Some push external,—strong to set at large
Those dormant fire-seeds, whirl them in a trice
Through heaven, and light up earth from marge to marge:
"Since force by motion makes—what erst was ice—
Crash into fervency and so expire,
Because some Djinn has hit on a device
"For proving the full prettiness of fire! ”

“ O'er our strong male-stuff, we of Adam's clay.'
"Ay, if my physics taught not why and whence
The attraction! Am I like the simple steer
Who, from his pasture lured inside the fence,
"Where yoke and goad await him, holds that mere
Kindliness prompts extension of the hand
Hollowed for barley, which drew near and near
"His nose—in proof that, of the horned band,
The farmer best affected him? Beside, ⁠320
Steer, long since calfhood, got to understand
"Farmers a many in the world so wide
Were ready with a handful just as choice
Or choicer—maize and cummin, treats untried. ”

“ Seeing too late the blade's true use which erst
" 'How was I blind to! My cry swells the peal—
Unwise I fought!' That's three. But wherefore waste
Breath on the wailings longer? Why reveal
"A root of bitterness whereof the taste
Is noisome to Humanity at large? ⁠110
First we get Power, but Power absurdly placed
"In Folly's keeping, who resigns her charge
To Wisdom when all Power grows nothing worth
Bones marrowless are mocked with helm and targe
"When, like your Master's, soon below the earth
With worms shall warfare only be. ”

“ Saul's harness forth: whereat, 'Alack, I need
" 'Armour to arm me, but have never fought
With sword and spear, nor tried to manage shield,
Proving arms' use, as well-trained warrior ought.
" 'Only a sling and pebbles can I wield!'
So he: while I, contrariwise, 'No trick
Of weapon helpful on the battle-field
"Comes unfamiliar to my theoric:
But, bid me put in practice what I know,
Give me a sword—it stings like Moses' stick, ⁠60
" 'A serpent I let drop apace.' E'en so,
I,—able to comport me at each stage
Of human life as never here below ”

“ Man goes the swiftliest to the uttermost—
"Takes the straight way thro' lands yet unexplored
To absolute Right and Good,—may so obtain
God's glory and man's weal too long ignored,
"Too late attained by preachments all in vain— ⁠370
The passive process. Knots get tangled worse
By toying with: does cut cord close again?
"Moreover there is blessing in the curse
Peace-praisers call war. What so sure evolves
All the capacities of soul, proves nurse
"Of that self-sacrifice in men which solves
The riddle—Wherein differs Man from beast? ”

“ Alongside of: respect to Moses, though!
III
Og's thigh-bone—if ye deem its measure strange,
Myself can witness to much length of shank
Even in birds. Upon a water's bank
Once halting, I was minded to exchange
Noon heat for cool. Quoth I, "On many a grange
I have seen storks perch—legs both long and lank:
Yon stork's must touch the bottom of this tank,
Since on its top doth wet no plume derange
Of the smooth breast. I'll bathe there!" "Do not so!" ”