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> North Shore Bie * 
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No. 19 
Vol. X May 10, 1912 
Robert Browning. 
The calendar is governed by ris- 
ing and setting suns, a day is the 
measure of activity, and a year the 
counting unit of time. But life is 
measured by periods, epochs, and 
events and the time unit becomes 
subordinate to the more significant 
events of experience. The calendar 
is governed in its increasing units of 
years by the greatest event in his- 
tory, the birth of Christ. But there 
are lesser events, while not worthy 
of recognition as events from which 
to measure time are nevertheless 
worthy of notice. Why, centenaries? 
Because of this very evident course 
of human life not alone to remember 
life by the passing of days but life 
is to be remembered in relation to 
a great day or pronounced period 
of days. It is well to pause in life 
and let the return of these centen- 
aries have their influence in life. 
The centenary of the birth of 
Browning is worthy of notice. 
Robert Browning was fortunate in 
his endowments. His early hfe was 
influenced constantly by books and 
NORTH SHORE BREEZE 
scholarly- opportunities. To this at- 
mosphere his young life responded 
naturally and what was environ- 
ment without option on his own part 
soon became the spirit and love of 
his life. Fortunately endowed with 
funds he was enabled to satisfy his 
insatiable desire to acquire knowl- 
edge and to develop the splendid 
brain with which nature had_ so 
kindly blessed him. This oppor- 
tunity for leisure he redeemed and 
his poems reveal the sincerity of 
his life, the religious devotion of his 
spirit and the splendid optimism of 
his outlook on life. 
He was a student of life, manners, 
nature and men. But his view and 
understanding of the ways of life 
and men never equaled Shake- 
speare. As an interpreter of nature 
and all the great lower world he is 
surpassed by Wadsworth and 
Tennyson. In the knowledge, un- 
derstanding and compass of the hu- 
man mind and soul is is unequaled 
in English letters. He was and 
is more than a poet, a dreamer of 
fancies and a skilled artist in catch- 
ing the floating cloud lights of the 
imagination, imprisoning them in 
cold type that others may see what 
he sees. He was not a creator of 
fancies, the servant of the imagina- 
tion but the interpreter of the in- 
ner soul of Man, a philosopher of 
life, a revelator of things that are 
in their deeper meanings. This is 
quite clearly shown in a little poem, 
My Star. Elusive, almost without 
meaning at first reading, like a star, 
discovered in cloud mist, the be- 
holder waits until the mist goes and 
the full power of the star light is 
shown. 
All that I know 
Of a certain star, 
Is, it can throw 
(Like the angel spar) 
Now a dart of red 
Now a dart of blue; 
Till my friends have said 
They would fain see, too, 
My star that dartles the red and 
the blue. 
Then it stops like a bird; like a 
flower furled; 
They must solace themselves with 
the Saturn above it 
What matter to me if their star is 
a world? 
Mine has opened its soul to me; 
therefore I love 
The key to the starlight is the last 
verse, ‘‘Mine has opened its soul to 
me: therefore I love it.’’ 
Browning is often opaque. This 
is often his fault and more often 
the reader’s fault. And as the con- 
scientious student worries through 
some of his poems written at 
Browning’s leisure he cannot re- 
press the conviction that Browning 
must be read to be enjoyed when 
one may have that same leisure. The 
reader has anxious fear of his own 
intelligence and a nervous anxiety 
to keep the dictionary near lest 
the shades and forces of meaning 
buried beneath that dark line 
should remain unknown and not un- 
derstood. 
Browning had a heart and his 
poems are rich in human sympa- 
thies. And these sympathies are 
quickly found. At the final court of 
decision the heart will have its way 
in poetry as in all life. We love we 
know not why, nor do we try to 
understand but love finds and holds 
its sway. So the mighty heart of 
Browning has been a source of help 
to the world. The utilitarian stand- 
ard in life and poetry may not be 
the highest but it most surely have 
its value in life. So perhaps no one 
can ever be able to measure the 
soul courage that the first lines of 
Rabbi Ben Ezra have contributed to 
the world. A single example is its 
own beautiful story. A woman, not 
broken with years, but struggling 
against a normal human experience 
the almost inevitable consequence 
of a normal life went bravely then 
to the opening days of later life, be- 
fore and after the surgeon had done 
his life saving work: but 
Grow old along with me! 
The best is yet to be, 
The last of life, for which 
The first was made: 
Our times are in his hand 
Who saith, ‘‘A whole I planned, 
Youth shows but half: trust God 
See all, nor be afraid!’’ 
Carried the mind through the 
dark hours. The experience of one 
life has made that one poem worth 
while. 
The wholesome interpretations of 
life, which Browning make are al- 
ways optimistic. He is a christian 
in heart, spirit and mind. No ‘‘sty- 
gian darkness’? mars his light 
serene. He lives in bright day 
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