ROBERT BROWNING (1812—1889) stands alongside Tennyson as one of the colossi of Victorian poetry; yet, owing partly to the formal and linguistic complexity of his work, partly to his use of rich topographical and historical detail, he achieved recognition only late in life, with the publication of the dauntingly elaborate The Ring and the Book (1868— 69), an ambitious fusion of novel, drama and epic poem. Among his most noteworthy collections of shorter verse are Dramatic Lyrics (1842), Dramatic Romances and Lyrics (1845), Men and Women (1855) and Dramatis Personae (1864). Browning began his literary career as a dramatist, and although his plays are now little read, he is celebrated for having created the poetic form known as the dramatic monologue, among which some of his best known are “My Last Duchess,” “Fra Lippo Lippi” and “Andrea del Sarto.” Besides these poems, the present selection also includes many of the other high points from throughout the writers creative life, among which are the narrative children’s poem “The Pied Piper of Hamelin”; the famous attack on Wordsworth, “The Lost Leader”; the love poems “Meeting at Night” and “The Last Ride Together”; and the lyric “Home-Thoughts from Abroad.” The song from Pippa Passes, perhaps Browning’s most well-known piece of verse, is the only extract included here.