_THE LAST POEMS_ Two Volumes of Dramatic Idyls, one in 1879, the other in 1880, followed _La Saisiaz_ and _The Two Poets of Croisic_.

These are also mixed books, composed, partly of studies of character written in rhythmical prose, and partly of poems wrought out of the pure imagination.

Three of them--if they were written at this time--show how the Greek legends still dwelt with Browning; and they brought with them the ocean-scent, heroic life, and mythical charm of Athenian thought.

It would be difficult, if one could write of them at all, not to write of them poetically; and _Pheidippides, Echetlos, Pan and Luna_ are alive with force, imaginative joy, and the victorious sense the poet has of having conquered his material.

_Pheidippides_ is as full of fire, of careless heroism as _Herve Riel_, and told in as ringing verse.