In Browning's early youth, while he was under the influence of Byron and Pope, he found, at a bookstall, a stray copy of Shelley's _Daemon of the World_. From this time on, Shelley's poetry was his ideal. The term "moulted feather" has peculiar significance from the fact that this was a poem which Shelley afterwards rejected. How is childlike wonder expressed in the first two stanzas? How is the difference between the speaker and his friend indicated? Why does the name of Shelley mean so much more to one than to the other? In the figure that follows, what do the moor and the eagle's feather stand for? WHY I AM A LIBERAL. (PAGE 92.) Note the essential elements of sonnet structure in metre, rhyme, and number of lines. See the Introduction to Sharp's _Sonnets of this Century_. Compare the idea of the poem with that of _The Lost Leader_. PROSPICE. (PAGE 93.) Written shortly after the death of Mrs. Browning. Note the vividness of the imagery, the swiftness of the movement, the rise to the climax, the change in spirit after the climax, and the note of courage and hope that informs this poem. Compare it with Tennyson's _Crossing the Bar_. What difference in spirit between the two? EPILOGUE TO ASOLANDO. (PAGE 94.) Sharp's _Life of Browning_ has the following passage: "Shortly before the great bell of San Marco struck ten, he turned and asked if any news had come concerning _Asolando_, published that day. His son read him a telegram from the publishers, telling how great the demand was, and how favorable were the advance articles in the leading papers. The dying poet turned and muttered, 'How gratifying!' When the last toll of St. Mark's had left a deeper stillness than before, those by the bedside saw a yet profounder silence on the face of him whom they loved." What claim does Browning make for himself? Do you find this spirit in any of his poetry which you have read? "DE GUSTIBUS--." (PAGE 96.) Image the scene in the first stanza. Why are the poppies known by their flutter, rather than their color? Note the rhyme effect and climax in lines 11-13. What qualities predominate in the first scene? How does the second scene differ from it? What are the characteristic objects in the second? Has it more or less of the romantic, or of grandeur? Compare the human element introduced in each scene. Note the effectiveness of the epithets _a-flutter_, _wind-grieved_, _baked_, _red-rusted_, _iron-spiked_. Show how the poem explains its title. THE ITALIAN IN ENGLAND. (PAGE 98.) The setting of the story is Italy's struggle against Austria for her liberty, known as the Revolution of 1848. 8. =Charles=. Carlo Alberto, Prince of Carignano, of the house of Savoy. 19. =Metternich= (1773-1859). The Austrian diplomatist, and the enemy of Italian liberty. 25. =Lombardy=. See the Atlas. 76. =Tenebrae= = darkness. A religious service in the Roman Catholic church, commemorating the crucifixion. MY LAST DUCHESS. (PAGE 105.)