Robert Browning Poems : Which?
Their trial of who judged best
In esteeming the love of a man:
Who preferred with most reason was thereby confessed
Boy-Cupid's exemplary catcher and cager;
An Abbé crossed legs to decide on the wager.
First the Duchess: "Mine for me--
Who were it but God's for Him,
And the King's for--who but he?
Both faithful and loyal, one grace more shall brim
His cup with perfection: a lady's true lover,
He holds--save his God and his king--none above her."
"I require"--outspoke the Marquise--
"Pure thoughts, ay, but also fine deeds:
Play the paladin must he, to please
My whim, and--to prove my knight's service exceeds
Your saint's and your loyalist's praying and kneeling--
Show wounds, each wide mouth to my mercy appealing."
Then the Comtesse: "My choice be a wretch,
Mere losel in body and soul,
Thrice accurst! What care I, so he stretch
Arms to me his sole saviour, love's ultimate goal,
Out of earth and men's noise--names of 'infidel,' 'traitor,'
Cast up at him? Crown me, crown's adjudicator!"
And the Abbé uncrossed his legs,
Took snuff, a reflective pinch,
Broke silence: "The question begs
Much pondering ere I pronounce. Shall I flinch?
The love which to one and one only has reference
Seems terribly like what perhaps gains God's preference."
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other contents of Robert Browning
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Last Post |
Language | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Poesia Consagrada/General | Robert Browning Poems : Why I Am a Liberal | 0 | 2.043 | 05/04/2011 - 01:50 | English | |
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| Poesia Consagrada/General | Robert Browning Poems : Which? | 0 | 1.890 | 05/04/2011 - 01:48 | English | |
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| Poesia Consagrada/General | Robert Browning Poems : Tray | 0 | 2.020 | 05/04/2011 - 01:45 | English | |
| Poesia Consagrada/General | Robert Browning Poems : A Toccata of Galuppi's | 0 | 2.126 | 05/04/2011 - 01:44 | English | |
| Poesia Consagrada/General | Robert Browning Poems : A Tale | 0 | 1.887 | 05/04/2011 - 01:44 | English | |
| Poesia Consagrada/General | Robert Browning Poems : Summum Bonum | 0 | 2.036 | 05/04/2011 - 01:43 | English | |
| Poesia Consagrada/General | Robert Browning Poems : Speculative | 0 | 2.027 | 05/04/2011 - 01:42 | English | |
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| Poesia Consagrada/General | Robert Browning Poems : Rosny | 0 | 1.783 | 05/04/2011 - 01:40 | English | |
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| Poesia Consagrada/General | Robert Browning Poems : Prospice | 0 | 2.521 | 05/04/2011 - 01:36 | English | |
| Poesia Consagrada/General | Robert Browning Poems : A Pretty Woman | 0 | 1.619 | 05/04/2011 - 01:35 | English | |
| Poesia Consagrada/General | Robert Browning Poems : The Pope and the Net | 0 | 1.890 | 05/04/2011 - 01:30 | English | |
| Poesia Consagrada/General | Robert Browning Poems : The Pied Piper of Hamelin | 0 | 2.468 | 05/04/2011 - 01:29 | English | |
| Poesia Consagrada/General | Robert Browning Poems : Pheidippides | 0 | 2.261 | 05/04/2011 - 01:27 | English | |
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| Poesia Consagrada/General | Robert Browning Poems : The Patriot | 0 | 2.035 | 05/04/2011 - 01:25 | English | |
| Poesia Consagrada/General | Robert Browning Poems : Now | 0 | 1.913 | 05/04/2011 - 01:24 | English | |
| Poesia Consagrada/General | Robert Browning Poems : Natural Magic | 0 | 1.821 | 05/04/2011 - 01:23 | English |






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