In Keats and in Shelley he found poetic energies not less glowing and intense, bent upon making palpable to eye and ear visions of beauty which, with less of superficial realism, were fed by far more exquisite and penetrating senses, and attached by more and subtler filaments to the truth of things.

Beyond question this was the decisive literary experience of Browning's early years.

Probably it had a chief part in making the poet's career his fixed ideal, and ultimately, with his father's willing consent, his definite choice.

What we know of his inner and outer life during the important years which turned the boy into the man is slight and baffling enough.

The fiery spirit of poetry can rarely have worked out its way with so little disturbance to the frame.