This thesis attempts to characterize the musicality of Robert Browning's poetry. There has been much debate about whether or not Browning may be said to be a musical poet, but neither side has effectively characterized the musicality or lack thereof in his poetry. This study does not concentrate on Browning's "philosophy" of music, nor on the musical allusions in his poetry. Instead it attempts to identify aspects of Browning's art that share an affinity with music. / First, the state of music in nineteenth-century England is briefly discussed, followed by a discussion of Browning's musical background and an attempt to identify some general characteristics of musical poetry. The balance of the study is devoted to a discussion of the musicality of ten poems, among them "A Toccata of Galuppi's" and "Master Hugues of Saxe-Gotha". Emphasis is placed on these last two poems' ability to approximate a musical form: the toccata and fugue in the first, and the fugue in the second. The study concludes with a more general discussion of music in Browning's poetry.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Michigan.

No description available.

No description available.

Proceeding from the general judgment that The Ring and the Book is, indeed, Browning's greatest achievement, and that it, more than any other of his works, was responsible for establishing him in an extraordinary position of public acceptance and esteem, I propose, in this study, to examine the four features of The Ring and the Book which have most frequently attracted critical attention and to which the greater portion of analysis and review of The Ring and the Book have been devoted.

No description available.

This thesis is concerned with the establishment of an underlying philosophy for Robert Browning's many themes. It asserts that a notion found in II Corinthians 3:6, "the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life," is basic to ideas such as Browning's belief in the superiority of life over art, of the wisdom of the heart over the intellect, and of honest skepticism over unexamined belief. The sources used to establish this premise are mainly the poems themselves, grouped in categories by subject matter of art, love, and religion. Some of his correspondence is also examined to ascertain how relevant the philosophy was to his own life. The conclusion is that the concept is, indeed, pervasive throughout Browning's poetry and extremely important to the man himself.

No description available.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Dept. of English Language and Literature, June 1999. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Proefschrift--Amsterdam. / Published also without thesis note. "Stellingen": 2 leaves laid in. "List of books consulted": p. [194]-202.