, or N., departed from this life,
Day the this or that, month and year the so and so_.
What i' the way of final flourish? Prose, verse? Try!
_Affliction sore long time he bore_, or, what is it to be?
_Till God did please to grant him ease_. Do end!" quoth I:
"I end with--Love is all and Death is nought!" quoth She.
The same thought--the dramatic contrast between the free spirit and
its prison-house--is the basis of the two lyrics that serve as
prologues to _Pacchiarotto_ and to _La Saisiaz_. As Dryden's
prefaces are far better than his plays, so Browning's _Prologues_ to
_Pacchiarotto_, to _La Saisiaz_, to _The Two Poets of Croisic_, to
_Jocoseria_ are decidedly superior in poetic art and beauty to the
volumes they introduce. Indeed the prologue to _The Two Poets of
Croisic_ is one of the most beautiful and perfect lyrics in the
English language.
PROLOGUE
1878
I
Such a starved bank of moss
Till that May-morn,
Blue ran the flash across:
Violets were born!
II
Sky--what a scowl of cloud
Till, near and far,
Ray on ray split the shroud.
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