Browning, in his series of _imaginative representations_ has covered a big field. _Artemis Prologuizer, Caliban on Setebos, The Bishop Orders his Tomb, Fra Lippo Lippi, A Death in the Desert, Cleon_, and many others cover an immense range, from Greek mythology through early and late Renaissance down to the modern life of Europe. "The poet can place us with ease and truth at Corinth, Athens or Rome, in Paris, Vienna or London, and wherever we go with him we are at home." Scenery, character, time, place, and action are all suitably and harmoniously blended, the characters are vividly alive. The qualifications which Browning brought to these poems were, first, a wide historical knowledge, not so much of separate events as of the main trend of thought in a given period; an intense imaginative power; a wide knowledge of human nature; and last, but not least, in his Italian poems, a familiar acquaintance with "a multitude of small intimate details of the customs, clothing, architecture, popular dress, talk and scenery of the towns and country of Italy from the thirteenth century to modern times." The poem under consideration gives us only a glimpse of the skill with which Browning handles this particular type; but I hope it will be sufficient to induce those who are not acquainted with Browning's other work to study it further. CHRISTMAS SHOPPING "O whither are you going, My friend, I'd fain be knowing, O whither are you going With that air of do-and-dare? O what the destination Of your grim determination, Of your bloody resolution And your fierce defiant stare?" "I am going Christmas shopping," Said the hero, freely mopping Beads of nervous perspiration From his broad and gallant brow, "I am going forth to-day In this bellicose array To do my Christmas shopping, Or to perish in the fray." * * * * * "O whence are you returning, My friend, I'd fain be learning, O whence are you returning With that bloodstained weary air? With that battered shirt and collar And without a single dollar, And with piles of useless lumber That would make a dustman stare?" "I have done my Christmas shopping," Said the hero, almost dropping, "You may send to fetch the doctor, Though I cannot pay his fee; My story is romantic, For the fight was fierce and frantic, And I bought a lot of articles I didn't even see; But I've done my Christmas shopping (For I take a lot of stopping), I have done my Christmas shopping, And that's enough for me." REALISM IN WORDSWORTH AND BROWNING _A paper read to the Faculty Club during the session_ 1911-12 What is Realism? Realism means what it says--truth to reality and fact. The realist expresses imaginative conceptions in terms of the actual world around him, in terms of the objects which he can see and describe accurately; the idealist gets away from fact, and creates an imaginative world which differs from the real.