The words he speaks
came from the poet's own heart:
The world and life's too big to pass for a dream....
It makes me mad to see what men shall do
And we in our graves! This world's no blot for us,
Nor blank; it means intensely, and means good:
To find its meaning is my meat and drink.
The change from _Fra Lippo Lippi_ to _Andrea del Sarto_ is the
change from a blustering March day to a mild autumn twilight. The
original picture in Florence which inspired the poem represents
Andrea and his wife sitting together, while she is holding the
letter from King Francis. This is a poem of acquiescence, as the
other is a poem of protest, and never was language more fittingly
adapted to the mood in each instance. One can usually recognise
Andrea's pictures clear across the gallery rooms; he has enveloped
them all in a silver-grey gossamer mist, and in some extraordinary
manner Browning has contrived to clothe his poem in the same
diaphanous garment. It is a poem of twilight, of calm, of failure in
success.
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