I know not too well how I found my way home in the night. There were witnesses, cohorts about me, to left and to right, Angels, powers, the unuttered, unseen, the alive--the aware-- I repressed, I got through them as hardly, as strugglingly there, As a runner beset by the populace famished for news-- Life or death. The whole earth was awakened, hell loosed with her crews; And the stars of night beat with emotion, and tingled and shot Out in fire the strong pain of pent knowledge: but I fainted not. For the Hand still impelled me at once and supported--suppressed All the tumult, and quenched it with quiet, and holy behest, Till the rapture was shut in itself, and the earth sank to rest. Anon at the dawn, all that trouble had withered from earth-- Not so much, but I saw it die out in the day's tender birth; In the gathered intensity brought to the gray of the hills; In the shuddering forests' new awe; in the sudden wind-thrills; In the startled wild beasts that bore off, each with eye sidling still Tho' averted, in wonder and dread; and the birds stiff and chill That rose heavily, as I approached them, made stupid with awe. E'en the serpent that slid away silent,--he felt the new Law. The same stared in the white humid faces upturned by the flowers; The same worked in the heart of the cedar, and moved the vine-bowers. And the little brooks witnessing murmured, persistent and low, With their obstinate, all but hushed voices--"E'en so, it is so!" INDEX Titles of complete monologues are printed in _Italics_; authors of these in SMALL CAPITALS; subjects of lessons are printed in CAPITALS; ordinary topics in Roman. Abrupt beginning, cause of Browning's obscurity, 81 _Abt Vogler_, 290; theme in, 88-89 ACTION, 172-195 importance at opening, 172-173 precedence of, 173 significance of, in a monologue, 174 in Italian in England, 174 in Mrs. Caudle, 174 in Up at a Villa, 174-175 in A Tale, 175-176 caused by change in thinking and feeling, 175-176 by struggle for idea, 176 in quotations, 177-178 transitions and, 178 pivotal, shows attention and politeness, 181-186 locations of objects, 182-183 monologue must not be declaimed, 183 descriptive and manifestative, 187-189 in Old Boggs' Slarnt, Day, 188 in Vagabonds, Trowbridge, 190-193 dangers of, 194 attitude, importance of, 195 _Andrea del Sarto_, 265 _Appearances_, 265 ARGUMENT OF MONOLOGUE, 86-100 Illustrated by A Death in the Desert, 89 Illustrated by Bishop orders his Tomb, 91-94 (Poem, 285) Illustrated by _Memorabilia_, 160-162 Art, function of, 7 dramatic, important, 11 forms of, not invented, necessary, 11-12 Browning on, 40 indirect, 63 composed of few elements, 87-88 theme of, 110 social, 258 At the Mermaid, 73-74 extract from, 74