Poems and Poets
4.Robert Browning
Robert Browning is one of the toughest English poets. But like in all tough things in life, the reward of study and labour in understanding his poetry is great.
The difficulty derives both from the form and substance of his poems and their subjects. His language has been called 'awkward' by some, certainly not easy . His subjects are mostly from the Renaissance Italy and Classical world. The form he adopted and made famous is the 'dramatic monologue' where different characters in the same poem speak and express different thoughts; so it is difficult to say when the poet himself speaks his mind!
It is said that Browning is noted for his obscurity and optimism. The obscurity is due both to his language and its intellectual style. He did not adopt the language of the common man, as others like Wordsworth did. So it demands real study. But his optimism is important. He lived in the era of Darwin when the advances in science had removed faith in the Christian scriptures and their dogma.. Believers felt great discomfort, and Tennyson became melancholic and pessimistic. Romantics like Wordsworth went beyond the ordinary Christian dogma and embraced a sort of Universal Oneness, which revealed Nature in a different light. Browning on the other hand was an optimist. Says he:
"Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp.
Or, what is a heaven for?"
We will see extracts from his poem Abt Vogler. He has just invented a new musical instrument and is extemporizing and musing on that. He considers that music is superior to other arts like painting and poetry; for they obey definite ( and therefore limiting) laws, but music is different.
Abt Vogler
All through my keys that gave their sounds to a wish of my soul,
All through my soul that praised as its wish flowed visibly forth,
All through music and me! For think, had I painted the whole,
Why, there it had stood,to see, nor the process so wonder-worth:
Had I written the same, made verse- still, effect proceeds from cause,
Ye know why the forms are fair, ye hear how the tale is told,
It is all triumphant art, but art in obedience to laws,
Painter and poet are proud in the artist list enrolled:-
-7-
But here is the finger of God, a flash of the will that can,
Existent behind all laws that made them, and lo, they are!
And I know not if save in this, such gift be allowed to man,
That out of three sounds he frame, not a fourth sound, but a star.
Consider it well: each tone of our scale in itself is nought,
It is everywhere in the world- loud, soft, and all is said:
Give it to me to use! I mix it with two in my thought:
And ,there! ye have heard and seen: consider and bow the head!
--9-
Therefore to whom turn I but to thee, the ineffable Name?
Builder and maker, thou, of houses not made with hands!
What, have fear of change from thee who art ever the same?
Doubt that thy power can fill the heart that thy power expands?
There shall never be one lost good!
What was, shall live as before;
The evil is null, is nought, is silence implying sound;
What was good shall be good,with, for evil, so much good more;
On the earth the broken arcs; in the heaven, a perfect round.
-10-
All we have willed or hoped or dreamed of good shall exist;
Not its semblance, but itself; no beauty, nor good, nor power
Whose voice has gone forth, but each survives for the melodist,
When eternity affirms the conception of an hour.
The high that proved too high, the heroic for earth too hard,
The passion that left the ground to lose itself in the sky,
Are music sent up to God by the lover and the bard;
Enough that he heard it once: we shall hear it by-and-by.
-11-
And what is our failure here but a triumph's evidence
For the fulness of the days? Have we withered or agonized?
Why else was the pause prolonged but that singing might issue thence?
Why rushed the discords in but that harmony should be prized?
Sorrow is hard to bear, and doubt is slow to clear,
Each sufferer says his say, his scheme of the weal and woe:
But God has a few of us whom he whispers in the ear;
The rest may reason and welcome: 'tis we musicians know.
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I do not know of many poems which brim with such tremendous optimism. Thank God, there is no classical allusion, though some obscurity is there.. Browning the poet is praising the musician and his superiority! We are not sure whether it is Browning speaking or Abt Vogler, the character. The superiority of the musician is because of his direct communion with God- God whispers in his very ears! We who are students of Tyagaraja know how true it is! For Tyagaraja says that Rama directly imparted him Kirtanas that both confer benefits of this world and liberation- bhukti mukti galgu nani kirtamu bodhinche vadu ! ( Kirtana implies both Sahitya and the melody, so we take it that he got both from Rama!)
But then, poets too can claim such direct communion and vision. Even if Valmiki and Kalidasa are dismissed as legendary, we have Arunagrinatha and many other saint-singers of medieval India who were inspired to great poetry by divine intervention. In recent times, we have both Tyagaraja and Muthuswamy Dikshitar who were inspired thus. And the last two were both musicians and poets.
But we can surely agree that music is more innately divine than even poetry, for it can rise beyond words, or even dispense with words, though the blend of melody and meaning is also sublime! Let us not forget, in India till recently poetry was sung! 55 years ago that is how we were taught in schools. And each type of Tamil verse ( Venba, viruttam, etc) was set to a distinct melody and rhythm! Dr. U. V. Swaminatha Iyer has written about it. I have heard Aiyamperumal Konar, the Tamil scholar, recite Kamba Ramayana in melodious tunes. Of course, our Kirtana performers still recite the slokas from Ramayana, Bhagavatam etc in specific tunes. They are not just read. It is clear that the melody enhances the effect of the words, their emotional impact called Bhava.
In a way, true poetry has to take us beyond the immediate sense of the words. To some extent we already see this in idioms, where the words taken together mean more than or different from what individual words convey!
One more reflection: THERE SHALL NEVER BE ONE LOST GOOD! This reminds us instantly of the injunction of the Gita in 6.40 that the doer of good shall never come to grief: nahi kalyanakrut kaschid durgatim gachchati ! This actually implies that the good is not lost!
Abt Vogler is typical Browning. Demands great attention and effort.
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