One thing that Browning's readers have passed without seeing, or at least without remarking upon, is the circular conclusion in so many of his poems. These sixty span his entire career and include both well-known and neglected poems.
Browning works many and comp lex variations on it.
Also, by incorporating the repeated words or phrases within the body of the poems, he uses them to make structural divisions. And above all, by selecting for repetition key words or phrases, he indicates central themes in the poems . An analysis of repetition in the poems allows us to see more clearly their circularity, the divisions of the circles, and their themes. It also brings to light the thematic dynamism of the poems, some of them concluding with a restatement of the theme set forth in the introduction, some moving forward by incremental repetition to end at a point beyond the original idea, some reversing in their conclusions the statement made in the introduction, and some restating at the end the introductory statement aft er two reversals. Finally, by focusing on the introductions and conclusions of the poems, we clarify the dramatic situations, which are ordinarily established in these two places, and come to see their relationships with the monologues they encircle.