Men and Women

About this book

In fifty-one poems, Robert Browning lets men and women from many ages speak for themselves in dramatic monologues. Fra Lippo Lippi, a Renaissance monk and painter caught by the night watch, defends his love of the flesh; the painter Andrea del Sarto, technically perfect but uninspired, says 'a man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for?'; a knight rides through a nightmare landscape in 'Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came'; and in 'An Epistle', Karshish, an Arab physician, writes to his teacher about a strange case he met in Bethany, a man named Lazarus.

Context and significance

Browning published the collection in 1855, nine years after his secret marriage to Elizabeth Barrett, and closed it with 'One Word More', addressed to her. These poems, difficult and brilliant, taught later poets how to speak through other voices. His best-loved poem for children is The Pied Piper of Hamelin.

About the author