Ruskin, Browning, and Carlyle all have something in common: a vast message to deliver, a striking way of delivering it, and an over-mastering spirituality. In none of them is there mere smooth, smuck surface: all are filled with the fine wrinkles of thought wreaking itself on expression with many a Delphic writhing. A priest with a message cares little for the vocal vehicle; and yet the utterances of all three men are beautifully melodious. Chiefest of them all in his special poetic sphere appears to be Browning, and to him Professor Corson thinks our special studies should be directed. This book is a valuable contribution to Browning lore, and will doubtless be welcomed by the Browning clubs of this country and England. It is easy to see that Professor Corson is more than an annotator: he is a poet himself, and on this account he is able to interpret Browning so sympathetically. _From +The Unitarian Review+, Boston, March, 1887_:-- More than almost any other poet, Browning-- at least, his reader-- needs the help of a believing, cheery, and enthusiastic guide, to beguile the weary pilgrimage. There is, as we have intimated, a fast-growing esoteric literature of exposition and comment,-- part of it simply the expression of the disciple’s loyal homage, part of it designed to win and educate the reluctant Philistine intellect to the comforts of a true faith. In the latter class we reckon the excellent work of Professor Corson, of Cornell University. More than half of it is, as it should be, made up of a selection from the shorter poems, giving each complete; while these include what is perhaps the most readable and one of the most characteristic of the narrative pieces, “The Flight of the Duchess,” with which a beginner may well make his first attempt. _From +The Christian Union+, New York_:-- Browning, like every other great original artist, has been compelled to wait upon the slow processes by which his own public has been educated. It is doubtful if any other single work on Browning deserves to rank with this, with the exception of Professor Dowden’s striking comparative study of Browning and Tennyson. Professor Corson’s elucidation of the idea of personality in art as embodied in Mr. Browning’s poetry is the most luminous, the most adequate, and the most thoroughly helpful article that has ever been written on Browning’s poetry. Those who study it carefully will discern in it a rare insight into the workings of one of the most subtle of modern minds, and a singularly clear and complete statement of the philosophy of life at which that mind has arrived. The chapters on Browning’s obscurity and on his use of the dramatic monologue are also extremely suggestive and helpful; the selections from Browning’s poems are admirably chosen, and, with the notes, make the best of all possible introductions to the study of Browning.