[The Poetry Of Robert Browning by Stopford A. Brooke]@TWC D-Link book
The Poetry Of Robert Browning

CHAPTER II
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Nor does Browning conceive, as Wordsworth conceived, of any pre-established harmony between us and the natural world, so that Humanity and Nature can easily converse and live together; so that we can express our thoughts and emotions in terms of Nature; or so that Nature can have, as it were, a human soul.

This is not Browning's conception.

If he had such a conception he would frequently use in his descriptions what Ruskin calls the "pathetic fallacy," the use of which is excessively common in Tennyson.

I can scarcely recall more than a very few instances of this in all the poetry of Browning.

Even where it seems to occur, where Nature is spoken of in human terms, it does not really occur.


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