OF ROBERT BROWNING SELECTED AND EDITED BY CHARLES W. HODELL PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH LITERATURE, GOUCHER COLLEGE, BALTIMORE Οὐ πολλὰ NEW YORK HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY PREFATORY NOTE These selections from Browning include the poems prescribed by the National Conference on Uniform Entrance Requirements in English, and such other poems as may appeal to students in the secondary school. The editor has also added a few numbers to which the student may be lifted by the power of a skilled teacher, such as Saul and Rabbi Ben Ezra. The poems are arranged in groups, proceeding from the easier to the more difficult. The notes and comment are interpretative rather than grammatical, philological, or historical, their aim being to stimulate the reader rather than to inform him. This method is made necessary by the peculiar difficulties which confront the beginner in approaching Browning. Oral reading will be found indispensable to a right understanding of the poems. A few poems (not among those prescribed for entrance to college) have been cut down considerably. Two hundred lines, for example, have been shorn from The Flight of the Duchess in order to bring it within the compass of this volume. The epistolary stanzas of The Guardian Angel are omitted, as are the closing lines of The Glove and two of the more difficult stanzas of At the Mermaid. The volume will have served its purpose if it aids in making Browning not a mere name, but a vital stimulus, to beginners in the study of poetry. |