The poem _Pauline_ shows that Browning had his _Sturm und Drang_, in
common with all thoughtful young men. Keats' immortal preface to
_Endymion_ would be equally applicable to this youthful work.
"The imagination of a boy is healthy, and the mature imagination of
a man is healthy; but there is a space of life between, in which the
soul is in a ferment, the character undecided, the way of life
uncertain, the ambition thick-sighted: thence proceeds mawkishness,
and all the thousand bitters which those men I speak of must
necessarily taste in going over the following pages." The
astonishing thing is, that Browning emerged from the slough of
despond at just the time when most young men are entering it. He not
only climbed out, but set his face resolutely toward the Celestial
City.
The poem _Pauline_ shows that young Browning passed through
skepticism, atheism, pessimism, cynicism, and that particularly dark
state when the mind reacts on itself; when enthusiasms, high hopes,
and true faith seem childish; when wit and mockery take the place of
zeal, this diabolical substitution seeming for the moment to be an
intellectual advance.
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