Browning is not
satisfied with Keats's doctrine:
"Beauty is truth, truth beauty,"--that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.
He shows us what happened to Aprile with this philosophy. Browning
adds the doctrine of love. The moment we realise that the universe
is conceived in terms of beauty, love fills our hearts: love for our
fellow-beings, who are making the journey through life with us; and
love for God, the author of it all, just as a child loves one who
gives it the gift of its heart's desire. That the supreme duty of
life is love is simply one more illustration of Browning's steadfast
adherence to the Gospel of Christ.
THE GUARDIAN-ANGEL
A PICTURE AT FANO
1855
I
Dear and great Angel, wouldst thou only leave
That child, when thou hast done with him, for me!
Let me sit all the day here, that when eve
Shall find performed thy special ministry,
And time come for departure, thou, suspending
Thy flight, mayst see another child for tending,
Another still, to quiet and retrieve.
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