De Gustibus---
I.
Your
ghost
will
walk,
you
lover
of
trees,
(If
our
loves
remain)
In
an
English
lane,
By
a
cornfield-side
a-flutter
with
poppies.
Hark,
those
two
in
the
hazel
coppice—-
A
boy
and
a
girl,
if
the
good
fates
please,
Making
love,
say,—-
The
happier
they!
Draw
yourself
up
from
the
light
of
the
moon,
And
let
them
pass,
as
they
will
too
soon,
With
the
bean-flowers'
boon,
And
the
blackbird's
tune,
And
May,
and
June!
II.
What
I
love
best
in
all
the
world
Is
a
castle,
precipice-encurled,
In
a
gash
of
the
wind-grieved
Apennine
Or
look
for
me,
old
fellow
of
mine,
(If
I
get
my
head
from
out
the
mouth
O'
the
grave,
and
loose
my
spirit's
bands,
And
come
again
to
the
land
of
lands)—-
In
a
sea-side
house
to
the
farther
South,
Where
the
baked
cicala
dies
of
drouth,
And
one
sharp
tree—-'tis
a
cypress—-stands,
By
the
many
hundred
years
red-rusted,
Rough
iron-spiked,
ripe
fruit-o'ercrusted,
My
sentinel
to
guard
the
sands
To
the
water's
edge.
For,
what
expands
Before
the
house,
but
the
great
opaque
Blue
breadth
of
sea
without
a
break?
While,
in
the
house,
for
ever
crumbles
Some
fragment
of
the
frescoed
walls,
From
blisters
where
a
scorpion
sprawls.
A
girl
bare-footed
brings,
and
tumbles
Down
on
the
pavement,
green-flesh
melons,
And
says
there's
news
to-day—-the
king
Was
shot
at,
touched
in
the
liver-wing,
Goes
with
his
Bourbon
arm
in
a
sling:
—-She
hopes
they
have
not
caught
the
felons.
Italy,
my
Italy!
Queen
Mary's
saying
serves
for
me—-
(When
fortune's
malice
Lost
her—-Calais)—-
Open
my
heart
and
you
will
see
Graved
inside
of
it,
``Italy.''
Such
lovers
old
are
I
and
she:
So
it
always
was,
so
shall
ever
be!
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.