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Robert Brauning rodilsya v sem'e bankovskogo chinovnika. S detstva uvlekalsya romanticheskoj poeziej. Vhodil v literaturnyj kruzhok Dikkensa i Vordsvorta, druzhil s Tennisonom. Posetil Rossiyu v 1833 g. Izvestnost' emu prinesla p'esa (1841) i sbornik stihov (1842). Brauning zhenilsya na poetesse Elizabet Barrett Moulton v 1846 g. Zhil, v osnovnom, vo Florentsii. Umer v Venetsii v 1889 g. Pohoronen v Vestminsterskom abbatstve, v Londone.
48 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1841
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About the author
Robert Browning
2,700 books449 followersRobert Browning (1812-1889) was a British poet and playwright whose mastery of dramatic verse, especially dramatic monologues, made him one of the foremost Victorian poets.
Browning began writing poetry at age 13. These poems were eventually collected, but were later destroyed by Browning himself. In 1833, Browning's "Pauline" was published and received a cool reception. Harold Bloom believes that John Stuart Mill's review of the poem pointed Browning in the direction of the dramatic monologue.
In 1845, Browning wrote a letter to the poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning, professing that he loved her poetry and her. In 1846, the couple eloped to Europe, eventually settling in Florence in 1847. They had a son Pen.
Upon Elizabeth Barrett Browning's death in 1861, Browning returned to London with his son. While in London, he published Dramatis Personae (1864) and The Ring and the Book (1869), both of which gained him critical priase and respect. His last book Asolando was published in 1889 when the poet was 77.
In 1889, Browning traveled to Italy to visit friends. He died in Venice on December 12 while visiting his sister.
Browning began writing poetry at age 13. These poems were eventually collected, but were later destroyed by Browning himself. In 1833, Browning's "Pauline" was published and received a cool reception. Harold Bloom believes that John Stuart Mill's review of the poem pointed Browning in the direction of the dramatic monologue.
In 1845, Browning wrote a letter to the poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning, professing that he loved her poetry and her. In 1846, the couple eloped to Europe, eventually settling in Florence in 1847. They had a son Pen.
Upon Elizabeth Barrett Browning's death in 1861, Browning returned to London with his son. While in London, he published Dramatis Personae (1864) and The Ring and the Book (1869), both of which gained him critical priase and respect. His last book Asolando was published in 1889 when the poet was 77.
In 1889, Browning traveled to Italy to visit friends. He died in Venice on December 12 while visiting his sister.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
May 31, 2025
who knew that beloved literary quotations can come from so boring of sources
May 28, 2013
Somewhat like Dickens' Pip in Great Expectations, Pippa is an heiress without knowing it. She is also a touching ingenue, with a day off from her job winding silks at a factory who sings her way through the day having powerful effects on a series of very tarnished characters the reader comes to know far better than she does. Published in 1841, this brief drama was the beginning of Browning's self rehabilitation after having failed to obtain favor with his very difficult Sordello. Professor R.B. Pearsall stated "The sheer energy of the poem, its boldness of conception, its masterly combination of styles, its fearless progress through the proscribed and forbidden, and, above all, its swarming field of folk, make it one of the finest single pieces of English literature..." I can't help but mention the beautiful song Amy Beach composed to the most famous of the many fine lyrics of Pippa : "The year's at the Spring" of which there are several versions available on YouTube.
April 25, 2025
(1841). Murder, political assassination, hijinks, all in the cozy village of Asolo, outside Treviso at the foot of the Alps.
The "closet drama" starts with a nice metaphor about the day boiling over the dark horizon, and a relatable plea by Pippa that her one day off (in the year!) has good weather. Then it moves on to the various dramas unfolding about town. Each vignette is pretty suspenseful. The central conceit is how an obscure silk-winder can unwittingly, through her own innocence, influence all these worldly affairs. "[Pippa passes]" is the recurring stage direction, and it's always funny to watch the effect our silly heroine has on the players.
I always thought living in Italy influenced the direction of Browning's work but it's all right here in this early poem: the Italian setting, the preoccupation with visual art (especially the craft and process of it), the colorful characters. His tendency towards obscurity is also in evidence too. The verse becomes at times so dense it's opaque. And then Browning likes to do this thing that James Joyce does, where he makes you blindly try to puzzle together what's going on based on aural clues. In fact, the way life in the village is conveyed in disembodied snippets, or perceived through the wandering thoughts of our peripatetic main character, reminded me of Joyce's Ulysses. Ulysses meets Murder She Wrote.
4.5 stars despite the verging into unruliness. Almost immediately you see signs that a shockingly masterful poet is in our midst:
"Buried in woods we lay, you recollect;
Swift ran the searching tempest overhead;
And ever and anon some bright white shaft
Burned thro’ the pine-tree roof, here burned and there,
As if God’s messenger thro’ the close wood screen
Plunged and replunged his weapon at a venture,
Feeling for guilty thee and me: then broke
The thunder like a whole sea overhead--"
Marginalia:
*The poem is set during the Austrian rule of northern Italy, hence the assassination plot by the Italian patriot.
*I was confused why a work so famously about springtime should take place on New Year's Day. Back then it was celebrated March 25th, in honor of the Annunciation, Gabriel's announcement to Mary about Christ, exactly nine months before Christmas.
*Jules the sculptor seems to become more and more an alter ego for Browning as the poem goes on. His artistic epiphany at the end mirrors the author's own in regards to writing about "the people," here embodied by Pippa.
Another good quote:
"...To Ancona—Greece—some isle!
I wanted silence only: there is clay
Everywhere. One may do whate’er one likes
In Art: the only thing is, to make sure
That one does like it—which takes pains to know."
"I wanted silence only. There is clay everywhere..." So says the young sculptor, as he muses on fleeing. A reminder to artists that they can practice their craft most anywhere.
The "closet drama" starts with a nice metaphor about the day boiling over the dark horizon, and a relatable plea by Pippa that her one day off (in the year!) has good weather. Then it moves on to the various dramas unfolding about town. Each vignette is pretty suspenseful. The central conceit is how an obscure silk-winder can unwittingly, through her own innocence, influence all these worldly affairs. "[Pippa passes]" is the recurring stage direction, and it's always funny to watch the effect our silly heroine has on the players.
I always thought living in Italy influenced the direction of Browning's work but it's all right here in this early poem: the Italian setting, the preoccupation with visual art (especially the craft and process of it), the colorful characters. His tendency towards obscurity is also in evidence too. The verse becomes at times so dense it's opaque. And then Browning likes to do this thing that James Joyce does, where he makes you blindly try to puzzle together what's going on based on aural clues. In fact, the way life in the village is conveyed in disembodied snippets, or perceived through the wandering thoughts of our peripatetic main character, reminded me of Joyce's Ulysses. Ulysses meets Murder She Wrote.
4.5 stars despite the verging into unruliness. Almost immediately you see signs that a shockingly masterful poet is in our midst:
"Buried in woods we lay, you recollect;
Swift ran the searching tempest overhead;
And ever and anon some bright white shaft
Burned thro’ the pine-tree roof, here burned and there,
As if God’s messenger thro’ the close wood screen
Plunged and replunged his weapon at a venture,
Feeling for guilty thee and me: then broke
The thunder like a whole sea overhead--"
Marginalia:
*The poem is set during the Austrian rule of northern Italy, hence the assassination plot by the Italian patriot.
*I was confused why a work so famously about springtime should take place on New Year's Day. Back then it was celebrated March 25th, in honor of the Annunciation, Gabriel's announcement to Mary about Christ, exactly nine months before Christmas.
*Jules the sculptor seems to become more and more an alter ego for Browning as the poem goes on. His artistic epiphany at the end mirrors the author's own in regards to writing about "the people," here embodied by Pippa.
Another good quote:
"...To Ancona—Greece—some isle!
I wanted silence only: there is clay
Everywhere. One may do whate’er one likes
In Art: the only thing is, to make sure
That one does like it—which takes pains to know."
"I wanted silence only. There is clay everywhere..." So says the young sculptor, as he muses on fleeing. A reminder to artists that they can practice their craft most anywhere.
Read
June 18, 2018We didn't name our daughter Pippa after this poem, but it certainly didn't hurt the name in our eyes to know about this Pippa, who assumes the best in everyone and makes every life she touches better.
June 14, 2011
I didn't really get into this. Some of the rhyming was amazingly clever though.
July 23, 2015
I'm not sure I understood it all so I think I'll read it again in book form instead of audio book.
October 31, 2023
This was a fascinating poem written by the husband of the author of Aurora Leigh. We don’t learn much about the central character, a girl named Pippa, except that she is a silk-winder and loves to sing. On New Year’s Day, her single day off in the whole year, she travels around her city of Asolo, coming into contact with the four people who she considers to be the happiest in the city–adulterous Ottima, deceived Jules, scheming Luigi, and sinful Monsignor. But Pippa believes them all to be innocent, and as her blithe songs reach their ears, each one of them is impressed in some way by her music.
I loved the poetry of this work, especially in the beginning and ending parts, when we get a glimpse into Pippa’s thoughts and feelings. In the middle, though, I was a little confused by the many characters whose roles in the story were sometimes hard to grasp. Approaching the end, I thought the mostly unresolved way the story ends would be disappointing, but I found that it meant more than a contrived storybook conclusion.
This story is centered around the theme of how even the most seemingly inconsequential of people can spread good in the world, and it was truly well-done and inspiring. Though the middle may introduce too many unfamiliar characters for my preference, this book is worth reading for the theme–and the famous lines: “God’s in His heaven–all’s right with the world!” And this narrative poem is so short it could probably be read in a single day, though I finished it in two. I definitely recommend Pippa Passes to anyone with an interest in Victorian poetry.
I loved the poetry of this work, especially in the beginning and ending parts, when we get a glimpse into Pippa’s thoughts and feelings. In the middle, though, I was a little confused by the many characters whose roles in the story were sometimes hard to grasp. Approaching the end, I thought the mostly unresolved way the story ends would be disappointing, but I found that it meant more than a contrived storybook conclusion.
This story is centered around the theme of how even the most seemingly inconsequential of people can spread good in the world, and it was truly well-done and inspiring. Though the middle may introduce too many unfamiliar characters for my preference, this book is worth reading for the theme–and the famous lines: “God’s in His heaven–all’s right with the world!” And this narrative poem is so short it could probably be read in a single day, though I finished it in two. I definitely recommend Pippa Passes to anyone with an interest in Victorian poetry.
December 5, 2022
I really enjoyed this verse drama about Pippa and the drama that she's unknowingly caught up in.
August 21, 2023
"God ’s in his heaven—All’s right with the world!"
lembra Grandes Esperanças, do Dickens, com versos rebuscados e rimas certeiras. é interessante observar a questão da "moral da história": o drama foi publicado durante a era vitoriana, quando costumava-se ter uma preocupação com a moralidade, devido o crescimento do desenvolvimento econômico e mercado de bens.
lembra Grandes Esperanças, do Dickens, com versos rebuscados e rimas certeiras. é interessante observar a questão da "moral da história": o drama foi publicado durante a era vitoriana, quando costumava-se ter uma preocupação com a moralidade, devido o crescimento do desenvolvimento econômico e mercado de bens.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews