It's Robert Browning's birthday today (born 1811), so here is his great poem in the voice of the 'perfect painter' Andrea del Sarto (that's his eloquent self-portait above). The poem includes not only 'A man's reach should exceed his grasp...' but also 'Less is more', a maxim which seemed to become popular currency some time in the 1970s - was it a recoinage or conscious quotation? No matter. The poem is a wonderfully acute psychological study, as well as a vivid evocation of a time and a place and a painful situation. Unlike much of Tennyson (and, to be fair, quite a lot of Browning - he wrote too much), it seems timeless in its freshness and directness of address. Browning will surely last.
As for me, I'm off to Lincolnshire for a few days and won't be able to blog. I'm looking forward to Lincoln Minster...
Mies said 'less is more' which made it fashionable in architecture and design circles.
ReplyDeleteAh yes, and it's a fair indication of the mushy state of my brain just now that 'less is more' is just what Browning says too. D'Oh! Better correct that...
ReplyDeleteWasn't Browning the "twat" chap?
ReplyDeleteI fell in love with Robert Browning while reading a biography of his relationship with E.Barrett. It was called "Dared and Done." What a sweet, sweet man was Robert.
ReplyDeleteA sweet man indeed Susan - and innocent enough, as you note Dearieme, to employ the word 'twat' under the impression it was an item of religious clothing ('Owls and bats, Cowls and twats...' - in Pippa Passes, I think).
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