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.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.26304 |
| Date | January 1994 |
| Creators | Plamondon, Marc |
| Contributors | McSweeney, Kerry (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Arts (Department of English.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001431211, proquestno: MM99920, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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