browining
There can be no reduction of Robert Browning to optimism or pessimism. His renowned dramatic monologues are intense psychological studies often mad and horrific minds. In Fra Lippo Lippi, for instance, Browning takes a very unsavory character and challenges readers to discover the goodness, or life-affirming qualities. In addition, there is a satiric tone to this as it mocks the speaker's contemporaneous judges.
Browning optimism is not based on any discount of the suffering of life, nor on any attempt to overlook such gross realities as sin and pain. he face the unpleasant reality of the world, but he is confident that these are temporary phases which must be overcome. thus we have his poem such as a "Grammarian's Funeral", dealing with frustrated love or unfulfilled aims.
Optimism does not flow from Browning's dramatic monologues. He may have been optimistic in his pursuit of Elizabeth Barret's love, but such optimism surely did not flow into his dramatic monologues--unless optimism is seen in a job neatly done:
In one long yellow string l wound
Three times her little throat around,
And strangled her. .... ("Porphyria's Lover")
This is an interesting qustion, as #2 makes clear. I must admit, I tend to think of the dramatic monologues of Robert Browning focusing more on a pessimistic view of human nature than looking at its positives. Consider poems such as "Porphyria's Lover" or " My Last Duchess," both of which involve arrogance, possession, and murder. I can't see how such poems could be described as "positive." Part of the genius of Browning is the way in which he is able to present the subtle nuances of various characters through his dramatic monologues.
The meaning of the word optimism (according to Dictionary.com) means:
a disposition or tendency to look on the more favorable side of events or conditions and to expect the most favorable outcome.
Therefore, to write poetry with an optimistic perspective, the poetry must prove that
Browning optimism is not based on any discount of the suffering of life, nor on any attempt to overlook such gross realities as sin and pain. he face the unpleasant reality of the world, but he is confident that these are temporary phases which must be overcome. thus we have his poem such as a "Grammarian's Funeral", dealing with frustrated love or unfulfilled aims.
Optimism does not flow from Browning's dramatic monologues. He may have been optimistic in his pursuit of Elizabeth Barret's love, but such optimism surely did not flow into his dramatic monologues--unless optimism is seen in a job neatly done:
In one long yellow string l wound
Three times her little throat around,
And strangled her. .... ("Porphyria's Lover")
This is an interesting qustion, as #2 makes clear. I must admit, I tend to think of the dramatic monologues of Robert Browning focusing more on a pessimistic view of human nature than looking at its positives. Consider poems such as "Porphyria's Lover" or " My Last Duchess," both of which involve arrogance, possession, and murder. I can't see how such poems could be described as "positive." Part of the genius of Browning is the way in which he is able to present the subtle nuances of various characters through his dramatic monologues.
The meaning of the word optimism (according to Dictionary.com) means:
a disposition or tendency to look on the more favorable side of events or conditions and to expect the most favorable outcome.
Therefore, to write poetry with an optimistic perspective, the poetry must prove that