Browning's lyrics are favourite choices for anthologies but are
rarely examined closely. This is the first full-length study of the lyrics, and
includes detailed analyses of such well-known poems as Love Among the
Ruins, Two in the Campagna, A Serenade at the Villa, A
Toccata of Galuppi's, By the Fireside, and James Lee's
Wife. Eleanor Cook explores Browning's use of repeated images and themes in
the lyrics, examines these patterns in other poems and in his letters, and analyses
their growth and change in all his work. She demonstrates how the lyrics may be
linked with Browning's other work and shows something of his essential artistic
unity. His imaginary is found to be more consistent and complex than is usually
assumed.

Students of Browning will find this work stimulating and instructive,
while lovers of Browning will read it with pure pleasure. The reader will return to
many of the poems with a rciher sense of their continuing vitality.

In
an earlier form this study was awarded the first A.S.P. Woodhouse Prize by the
University of Toronto.

Eleanor Cook is a professor emerita of the Department of English at Victoria College, University of Toronto.

Eleanor Cook's profile page