Chapter 5 of 44

MERTOUN'S SONG FROM A BLOT IN THE 'SCUTCHEON

1843

  There's a woman like a dew-drop, she's so purer than the purest;
  And her noble heart's the noblest, yes, and her sure faith's the
       surest:
  And her eyes are dark and humid, like the depth on depth of lustre
  Hid i' the harebell, while her tresses, sunnier than the
       wild-grape cluster,
  Gush in golden-tinted plenty down her neck's rose-misted marble:
  Then her voice's music … call it the well's bubbling, the bird's
       warble!
  And this woman says, "My days were sunless and my nights were
       moonless,
  Parched the pleasant April herbage, and the lark's heart's
       outbreak tuneless,
  If you loved me not!" And I who—(ah, for words of flame!) adore
       her,
  Who am mad to lay my spirit prostrate palpably before her—
  I may enter at her portal soon, as now her lattice takes me,
  And by noontide as by midnight make her mine, as hers she makes me!

The two lyrics, Home-Thoughts, from the Sea and Home-Thoughts, from Abroad, were written during Browning's first Italian journey in 1838; and it seems strange that he did not print them among the Dramatic Lyrics of 1842 but reserved them for the Dramatic Romances of 1845; especially as he subsequently transferred them to the Lyrics. They are both notable on account of the strong feeling for England which they express. No great English poet has said so little of England as Browning, though his own feelings were always keenly patriotic. Even in Pauline, a poem without a country, there occur the two lines

… and I cherish most My love of England—how her name, a word Of hers in a strange tongue makes my heart beat!

The allusion to the English thrush has given immortality to Home-Thoughts, from Abroad. Many had observed that the thrush sings a lilt, and immediately repeats it: but Browning was the first to give a pretty reason for it. The thrush seems to say, "You think that beautiful melody is an accident? Well, I will show you it is no fluke, I will sing it correctly right over again." Browning was not in Italy in April—perhaps he wrote the first stanza on the voyage, as he wrote Home-Thoughts, from the Sea, and added the second stanza about May and June after he had reached the country of his quest.