Confessions
What
is
he
buzzing
in
my
ears?
"Now
that
I
come
to
die,
Do
I
view
the
world
as
a
vale
of
tears?"
Ah,
reverend
sir,
not
I!
What
I
viewed
there
once,
what
I
view
again
Where
the
physic
bottles
stand
On
the
table's
edge,—is
a
suburb
lane,
With
a
wall
to
my
bedside
hand.
That
lane
sloped,
much
as
the
bottles
do,
From
a
house
you
could
descry
O'er
the
garden-wall;
is
the
curtain
blue
Or
green
to
a
healthy
eye?
To
mine,
it
serves
for
the
old
June
weather
Blue
above
lane
and
wall;
And
that
farthest
bottle
labelled
"Ether"
Is
the
house
o'ertopping
all.
At
a
terrace,
somewhere
near
the
stopper,
There
watched
for
me,
one
June,
A
girl:
I
know,
sir,
it's
improper,
My
poor
mind's
out
of
tune.
Only,
there
was
a
way…
you
crept
Close
by
the
side,
to
dodge
Eyes
in
the
house,
two
eyes
except:
They
styled
their
house
"The
Lodge."
What
right
had
a
lounger
up
their
lane?
But,
by
creeping
very
close,
With
the
good
wall's
help,—their
eyes
might
strain
And
stretch
themselves
to
Oes,
Yet
never
catch
her
and
me
together,
As
she
left
the
attic,
there,
By
the
rim
of
the
bottle
labelled
"Ether,"
And
stole
from
stair
to
stair,
And
stood
by
the
rose-wreathed
gate.
Alas,
We
loved,
sir—used
to
meet:
How
sad
and
bad
and
mad
it
was—
But
then,
how
it
was
sweet!
Robert Browning
Robert Browning (born May 7, 1812, London—died Dec. 12, 1889, Venice) major English poet of the Victorian age, noted for his mastery of dramatic monologue and psychological portraiture. His most noted work was The Ring and the Book (1868–69), the story of a Roman murder trial in 12 books. Through all the vicissitudes of critical reputation, however, Browning’s major contribution to the canon of children’s literature, “The Pied Piper of Hamelin,” has retained its popular audience. At the time of his death in 1889, he was one of the most popular poets in England.