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 Soul's
Tragedy_, _Fra Lippo Lippi_ and _Rabbi Ben Ezra_. Very few readers in
these days have time or patience to read _The Ring and the Book_, but
it will repay your attention, as it is the most remarkable attempt in
all literature to revive the tragedy of the great and innocent love of
a woman and a priest.
Among the many fine passages in Browning, I think there is nothing
which equals these lines in _O Lyric Love_, the beautiful invocation
to his wife:
O lyric Love, half angel and half bird
And all a wonder and a wild desire--
Boldest of hearts that ever braved the sun,
Took sanctuary within the holier blue
And sang a kindred soul out to his face--
Hail then, and hearken from the realms of help!
Never may I commence my song, my due
To God who best taught song by gift of thee,
Except with bent head and beseeching hand--
That shall despite the distance and the dark,
What was, again may be; some interchange
Of grace, some splendor once thy very thought,
Some benediction anciently thy smile.
The songs in _Pippa Passes_ should be read, as they are as near
perfect as Shakespeare's songs or the songs of Tennyson in _The
Princess_.
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