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A poem by Robert Browning |
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Prologue To Pacchiarotto [A Wall] |
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Title: Prologue To Pacchiarotto [A Wall] Author: Robert Browning [More Titles by Browning] Oh, the old wall here! How I could pass And lush and lithe do the creepers clothe Now, what is it makes pulsate the robe? And there again! But my heart may guess Wall upon wall are between us; life Hold on, hope hard in the subtle thing
NOTE This poem was written and printed as the Prologue to _Pacchiarotto and How he Worked in Distemper_, published in 1876. It was, however, given the title "A Wall" when published in 1880 in _Selections from Robert Browning's Poems, Second Series_. The last two stanzas express one of the fundamental ideas of Browning's poetry. Under the figure of the wall with its pulsating robe of vines and the eagerness of the lover to penetrate to the life within the house, he sets forth his thought of the barrier between himself and a longed-for future life in heaven. The "forth to thee" is to be interpreted as referring to his wife. [The end] GO TO TOP OF SCREEN |