Poetry claims to see and feel the truth at once.

When the poet does not assert that claim, and act on it, he is becoming faithless to his art.
Browning's method in these poems is the method of a scientific philosopher, not of an artist.

He gets his man into a debateable situation; the man debates it from various points of view; persons are introduced who take other aspects of the question, or personified abstractions such as _Sagacity, Reason, Fancy_ give their opinions.

Not satisfied with this, Browning discusses it again from his own point of view.

He is then like the chess-player who himself plays both red and white; who tries to keep both distinct in his mind, but cannot help now and again taking one side more than the other; and who is frequently a third person aware of himself as playing red, and also of himself as playing white; and again of himself as outside both the players and criticising their several games.