In truth Browning had all the merits of a great
poet except one—assuming with Milton that poetry to be complete must be "simple, sensuous, passionate." Every line he wrote is instinct with passion, and the appeal to the senses through all the arts of metre and rhetoric is overwhelming. Where be i failed was in that simplicity and directness which alone can .pierce the mind. The rush of subtle thoughts overwhelmed him. He could not select, but threw them all together at our heads. Hie poetry is the splutter of a shower bath rather than immersion in the limpidity of a rook pool. Yet at the celebra- tion of his centenary the lover of Browning may be excused if he borrows the magnificent compliment which Dryden pays to Chaucer. Comparing him with the other poets of his age we • dare assert
"He matched their beauties whore they most excel; Of love sang better and of life as well."
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