description: Excerpt from The Poetical Works of Robert Browning, Vol. 8: The Ring and the Book The Ring and The Book Virgin as oval tawny pendent tearAt beehive-edge when ripened combs o'erflow, -To bear the file's tooth and the hammer's tap: Since hammer needs must widen out the round, And file emboss it fine with lily-flowers, Ere the stuff grow a ring-thing right to wear.That trick is, the artificer melts up waxWith honey, so to speak; he mingles goldWith gold's alloy, and, duly tempering both, Effects a manageable mass, then works: But his work ended, once the thing a ring, Oh, there's repristination! Just a spirtO' the proper fiery acid o'er its face, And forth the alloy unfastened flies in fume;While, self-sufficient now, the shape remains, The rondure brave, the lilied loveliness, Gold as it was, is, shall be evermore: Prime nature with an added artistry -No carat lost, and you have gained a ring.What of it? 'T is a figure, a symbol, say;A thing's sign: now for the thing signified. Do you see this square old yellow Book, I tossI' the air, and catch again, and twirl aboutBy the crumpled vellum covers, - pure crude factSecreted from man's life when hearts beat hard,
language: English
title: The Poetical Works of Robert Browning, Volume 8: The Ring and the Book, Books V-VIII
titlecomplete: The Poetical Works of Robert Browning, Volume 8: The Ring and the Book, Books V-VIII
ratings_count: 4
publisher: Clarendon Press