The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1902-01-08
POETRY OF BROWNING.
Discussed by Rev. L. B. Mclaughlin
Before Catholic Historical Soci-
ETY. Last Night.

Rev. L. e. Mclaughlin delivered an
interesting and instructive lecture
last evening on the poet Browning be-
fore the Catholic Historical society and
Newman Magazine club in the Knights
OF Columbus hall on Washington ave-
nue.. There was a fair sized and APP
preciative audience. The lecturer was
introduced by T. p. Hoban.
Father Mclaughlin said that no.
body, he thought, would pretend to
even know the most superficial knowl-
edge of English poetry without some
acquaintance with the works of
Browning. At one time one of the most
ignored of the English poets, today
Browning is one of the most deeply
admired. He died in 1889 in Venice on
December II, and on the last day of
that month and on the eve of the
new year his body was brought to
England and laid in Westminster Alb
hey by the side of Shakespeare,
Wordsworth and Tennyson and a
dense crowd Of his sympathetic coun-
trymen We're present to see his re-
mains consigned to their last resting
place.
Italy honored him, too. In Venice
in one of the public buildings is a
memorial tablet denoting the date of
his birth and death, and with the in
scription from one of his own poems,
open my heart and you will see en-
graved inside of it italy,"
'There is nothing in English litera-
ture so remarkable as the manner in
which this great English poet Brown
ing was in the beginning of his career
ignored" said Father Mclaughlin.
'"rhose who could not understand him
charged him with being obscure. They
said he was like Il blind man leading
the blind, that he had built a beautl-
full edifice with many beautiful rooms,
but that he had forgotten the stair
case. But Browning was conscious
of his power and he had no fear that
his works would in the time to come
be ignored or misinterpreted or misun-
derstood. Many have been frightened
away from reading Browning because
of the charge that he is obscure. and
many have been forced to admit that
he is obscure, not because he is OBJ
scure, but because they have gone
about reading him in the wrong way.
He demands new standards and new
habits Of thought and feeling before
we can understood and appreciate
him."
The lecturer, after referring to the
poets marriage to Eliza beth Barrett
and the happiness of their union for
fifteen years, continued as follows:
During the last years of his life
Browning became sort of semi-public
man. He was asked for in all direc-
tions; he was invited out to dine by
everybody and he did his best to
crafty everybody. People were slow
to recognize his genius, but when they
did recognize it they paid him great
honor.
ITO read any book that is worth
reading, it is necessary to be in a
proper frame of mind, and the proper
time to read Browning is when the
mind is fresh and most active. If we
omit some of his early writings, we
will not find him so difficult to under
stand as Mr.. Swinburne would lead us
to suppose. Read his Men and Wo-
men and all of his shorter lyrics, and
you wonder how anyone could say that
the author of them is obscure.
You may say, what need of Brown
ing, anyway? Have we not Shakes
peare and Dante and Tennyson and
Wordsworth and Ruskln? But books
are our friends, and the more friends
we have the better, And besides that,
every great author has something
which Nnone of the others, singly or
together, can give us, and Browning
has u message to deliver TO the age,
and that message is one of cheerful
ness and hope and high endeavor, sub
"a MIL
and IL you will only let that message
sink into your hearts, 1t will keep it
singing all sorts of songs of triumph"