ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING After the chalk drawing from life by Field Talfourd, Rome, 1859, now in the National Portrait Gallery, London PREFACE While the poetry of Tennyson is considered suitable for study in our schools and colleges, the poetry of the Brownings has not hitherto been placed on a similar footing. And yet, if we allow that part of the educational value of poetry resides in the fact that it reflects the spirit of the age in which it was composed, the Brownings have surely as important a message to deliver as Tennyson has. Their verse reflects as clearly as his the phases of human life and thought prominent during the years 1832-1890. It has long been my practice in studying modern poetry with my own pupils, when they have attained to a fair acquaintance with Tennyson's work, to read with them some of the poems of Mrs. Browning included in this volume. Lady Geraldine's Courtship, for instance, is a sort of reverse to Locksley Hall, and complements, contrasts, and parallels may be found elsewhere in the works of the two poets. Aurora Leigh and The Princess offer several. And I believe that a study of the poetry of Browning on similar lines would be equally useful and pleasurable to the student. Some may object that Mrs. Browning, though a great poet, is not a great artist, and that her work does not, therefore, offer a fit subject for scholastic study. But, as |