Robert Browning - Delphi Poets Series

by Robert Browning

  Acceptance of as good as victory

  In whatsoever just escapes defeat.

  You must be generous, strain point, and call

  Victory, any the least flush of pink

  Made prize of, labelled scarlet for the nonce —

  Faintest pretension to be wrong and red

  And picturesque, that varies by a splotch

  The righteous flat of insipidity.

  Quick to the quest, then — forward, the firm foot!

  Onward, the quarry-overtaking eye!

  For, what is this, by way of march-tune, makes

  The musicalest buzzing at my ear

  By reassurance of that promise old

  Though sins are scarlet they shall be as wool?

  Whence — what fantastic hope do I deduce?

  I am no Liebig: when the dyer dyes

  A texture, can the red dye prime the white?

  And if we washed well, wrung the texture hard,

  Would we arrive, here, there and everywhere,

  At a fierce ground beneath the surface meek?

  I take the first chance, rub to threads what rag

  Shall flutter snowily in sight. For see!

  Already these few yards upon the rise,

  Our back to brave Saint-Rambert, how we reach

  The open, at a dozen steps or strides!

  Turn round and look about, a breathing-while!

  There lie, outspread at equidistance, thorpes

  And villages and towns along the coast,

  Distinguishable, each and all alike,

  By white persistent Night-cap, spire on spire.

  Take the left: yonder town is — what say you

  If I say “Londres”? Ay, the mother-mouse

  (Reversing fable, as truth can and will)

  Which gave our mountain of a London birth!

  This is the Conqueror’s country, bear in mind,

  And Londres-district blooms with London-pride.

  Turn round: La Roche, to right, where oysters thrive:

  Monlieu — the lighthouse is a telegraph;

  This, full in front, Saint-Rambert; then succeeds

  Villeneuve, and Pons the Young with Pons the Old,

  And — ere faith points to Joyeux, out of sight,

  A little nearer — oh, La Ravissante!

  There now is something like a Night-cap spire,

  Donned by no ordinary Notre-Dame

  For, one of the three safety-guards of France,

  You front now, lady! Nothing intercepts

  The privilege, by crow-flight, two miles far.

  She and her sisters Lourdes and La Salette

  Are at this moment hailed the cynosure

  Of poor dear France, such waves have buffeted

  Since she eschewed infallibility

  And chose to steer by the vague compass-box.

  This same midsummer month, a week ago,

  Was not the memorable day observed

  For reinstatement of the misused Three

  In old supremacy for evermore?

  Did not the faithful flock in pilgrimage

  By railway, diligence and steamer — nay

  On foot with staff and scrip, to see the sights

  Assured them? And I say best sight was here:

  And nothing justified the rival Two

  In their pretension to equality;

  Our folk laid out their ticket-money best,

  And wiseliest, if they walked, wore shoe away;

  Not who went farther only to fare worse.

  For, what was seen at Lourdes and La Salette

  Except a couple of the common cures

  Such as all three can boast of, any day?

  While here it was, here and by no means there,

  That the Pope’s self sent two great real gold crowns

  As thick with jewelry as thick could stick,

  His present to the Virgin and her Babe —

  Provided for — who knows not? — by that fund,

  Count Alessandro Sforza’s legacy,

  Which goes to crown some Virgin every year.

  But this year, poor Pope was in prison-house,

  And money had to go for something else;

  And therefore, though their present seemed the Pope’s,

  The faithful of our province raised the sum

  Preached and prayed out of — nowise purse alone.

  Gentle and simple paid in kind, not cash,

  The most part: the great lady gave her brooch,

  The peasant-girl her hair-pin; ‘t was the rough

  Bluff farmer mainly who, — admonished well

  By wife to care lest his new colewort-crop

  Stray sorrowfully sparse like last year’s seed, —

  Lugged from reluctant pouch the fifty-franc,

  And had the Curé’s hope that rain would cease.

  And so, the sum in evidence at length,

  Next step was to obtain the donative

  By the spontaneous bounty of the Pope —

  No easy matter, since his Holiness

  Had turned a deaf ear, long and long ago,

  To much entreaty on our Bishop’s part,

  Commendably we boast. “But no,” quoth he,

  “Image and image needs must take their turn:

  Here stand a dozen as importunate.”

  Well, we were patient; but the cup ran o’er

  When — who was it pressed in and took the prize

  But our own offset, set far off indeed

  To grow by help of our especial name,

  She of the Ravissante — in Martinique!

  “What?” cried our patience at the boiling-point,

  “The daughter crowned, the mother’s head goes bare?

  Bishop of Raimbaux!” — that’s our diocese —

  “Thou hast a summons to repair to Rome,

  Be efficacious at the Council there:

  Now is the time or never! Right our wrong!

  Hie thee away, thou valued Morillon,

  And have the promise, thou who hast the vote!”

  So said, so done, so followed in due course

  (To cut the story short) this festival,

  This famous Twenty-second, seven days since.

  Oh, but you heard at Joyeux! Pilgrimage,

  Concourse, procession with, to head the host,

  Cardinal Mirecourt, quenching lesser lights:

  The leafy street-length through, decked end to end

  With August-strippage, and adorned with flags

  That would have waved right well but that it rained

  Just this picked day, by some perversity.

  And so were placed, on Mother and on Babe,

  The pair of crowns: the Mother’s, you must see!

  Miranda, the great Paris goldsmith, made

  The marvel, — he’s a neighbour: that’s his park

  Before you, tree-topped wall we walk toward.

  His shop it was turned out the masterpiece,

  Probably at his own expenditure;

  Anyhow, his was the munificence

  Contributed the central and supreme

  Splendour that crowns the crown itself, The Stone.

  Not even Paris, ransacked, could supply

  That gem: he had to forage in New-York,

  This jeweller, and country-gentleman,

  And most undoubted devotee beside!

  Worthily wived, too: since his wife it was

  Bestowed “with friendly hand” — befitting phrase!

  The lace which trims the coronation-robe —

  Stiff wear — a mint of wealth on the brocade.

  Do go and see what I saw yesterday!

  And, for that matter, see in fancy still,

  Since . . .

  There now! Even for unthankful me,

  Who stuck to my devotions at high-tide

  That festal morning, never had a mind

  To trudge the little league and join the crowd —
r />   Even for me is miracle vouchsafed!

  How pointless proves the sneer at miracles!

  As if, contrariwise to all we want

  And reasonably look to find, they graced

  Merely those graced-before, grace helps no whit,

  Unless, made whole, they need physician still.

  I — sceptical in every inch of me —

  Did I deserve that, from the liquid name

  “Miranda,” — faceted as lovelily

  As his own gift, the gem, — a shaft should shine,

  Bear me along, another Abaris,

  Nor let me light till, lo, the Red is reached,

  And yonder lies in luminosity!

  Look, lady! where I bade you glance but now!

  Next habitation, though two miles away, —

  No tenement for man or beast between, —

  That, park and domicile, is country-seat

  Of this same good Miranda! I accept

  The augury. Or there, or nowhere else,

  Will I establish that a Night-cap gleams

  Of visionary Red, not White for once!

  “Heaven” saith the sage “is with us, here inside

  Each man:” “Hell also,” simpleness subjoins,

  By White and Red describing human flesh.

  And yet as we continue, quicken pace,

  Approach the object which determines me

  Victorious or defeated, more forlorn

  My chance seems, — that is certainty at least.

  Halt midway, reconnoitre! Either side

  The path we traverse (turn and see) stretch fields

  Without a hedge: one level, scallop-striped

  With bands of beet and turnip and luzern,

  Limited only by each colour’s end,

  Shelves down, — we stand upon an eminence, —

  To where the earth-shell scallops out the sea,

  A sweep of semicircle; and at edge —

  Just as the milk-white incrustations stud

  At intervals some shell-extremity,

  So do the little growths attract us here,

  Towns with each name I told you: say, they touch

  The sea, and the sea them, and all is said,

  So sleeps and sets to slumber that broad blue!

  The people are as peaceful as the place.

  This, that I call “the path” is road, highway;

  But has there passed us by a market-cart,

  Man, woman, child, or dog to wag a tail?

  True, I saw weeders stooping in a field;

  But — formidably white the Cap’s extent!

  Round again! Come, appearance promises!

  The boundary, the park-wall, ancient brick,

  Upholds a second wall of tree-heads high

  Which overlean its top, a solid green.

  That surely ought to shut in mysteries!

  A jeweller — no unsuggestive craft!

  Trade that admits of much romance, indeed.

  For, whom but goldsmiths used old monarchs pledge

  Regalia to, or seek a ransom from,

  Or pray to furnish dowry, at a pinch,

  According to authentic story-books?

  Why, such have revolutionized this land

  With diamond-necklace-dealing! not to speak

  Of families turned upside-down, because

  The gay wives went and pawned clandestinely

  Jewels, and figured, till found out, with paste,

  Or else redeemed them — how, is horrible!

  Then there are those enormous criminals

  That love their ware and cannot lose their love,

  And murder you to get your purchase back.

  Others go courting after such a stone,

  Make it their mistress, marry for their wife,

  And find out, some day, it was false the while,

  As ever wife or mistress, man too fond

  Has named his Pilgrim, Hermit, Ace of Hearts.

  Beside — what style of edifice begins

  To grow in sight at last and top the scene?

  That grey roof, with the range of lucarnes , four

  I count, and that erection in the midst —

  Clock-house, or chapel-spire, or what, above?

  Conventual, that, beyond manorial, sure!

  And reason good; for Clairvaux, such its name,

  Was built of old to be a Priory,

  Dependence on that Abbey-for-the-Males

  Our Conqueror founded in world-famous Caen,

  And where his body sought the sepulture

  It was not to retain: you know the tale.

  Such Priory was Clairvaux, prosperous

  Hundreds of years; but nothing lasts below,

  And when the Red Cap pushed the Crown aside,

  The Priory became, like all its peers,

  A National Domain: which, bought and sold

  And resold, needs must change, with ownership,

  Both outside show and inside use; at length

  The messuage, three-and-twenty years ago,

  Became the purchase of rewarded worth

  Impersonate in Father — I must stoop

  To French phrase for precision’s sake, I fear —

  Father Miranda, goldsmith of renown:

  By birth a Madrilene, by domicile

  And sojourning accepted French at last.

  His energy it was which, trade transferred

  To Paris, throve as with a golden thumb,

  Established in the Place Vendôme. He bought

  Not building only, but belongings far

  And wide, at Gonthier there, Monlieu, Villeneuve,

  A plentiful estate: which, twelve years since,

  Passed, at the good man’s natural demise,

  To Son and Heir Miranda — Clairvaux here,

  The Paris shop, the mansion — not to say

  Palatial residence on Quai Rousseau,

  With money, moveables, a mine of wealth —

  And young Léonce Miranda got it all.

  Ah, but — whose might the transformation be?

  Were you prepared for this, now? As we talked,

  We walked, we entered the half-privacy,

  The partly-guarded precinct: passed beside

  The little paled-off islet, trees and turf,

  Then found us in the main ash-avenue

  Under the blessing of its branchage-roof.

  Till, on emergence, what affronts our gaze?

  Priory — Conqueror — Abbey-for-the-Males —

  Hey, presto, pass, who conjured all away?

  Look through the railwork of the gate: a park

  — Yes, but à l’ Anglaise , as they compliment!

  Grass like green velvet, gravel-walks like gold,

  Bosses of shrubs, embosomings of flowers,

  Lead you — through sprinkled trees of tiny breed

  Disporting, within reach of coverture,

  By some habitual acquiescent oak

  Or elm, that thinks, and lets the youngsters laugh —

  Lead, lift at last your soul that walks the air,

  Up to the house-front, or its back perhaps —

  Whether facade or no, one coquetry

  Of coloured brick and carved stone! Stucco? Well,

  The daintiness is cheery, that I know,

  And all the sportive floral framework fits

  The lightsome purpose of the architect.

  Those lucarnes which I called conventual, late,

  Those are the outlets in the mansarde -roof;

  And, underneath, what long light elegance

  Of windows here suggests how brave inside

  Lurk eyeballed gems they play the eyelids to!

  Festive arrangements look through such, be sure!

  And now the tower a-top, I took for clock’s

  Or bell’s abode, turns out a quaint device,

  Pillared and temple-treated Belvedere —

  Pavilion safe within its rai
led-about

  Sublimity of area — whence what stretch

  Of sea and land, throughout the seasons’ change,

  Must greet the solitary! Or suppose

  — If what the husband likes, the wife likes too —

  The happy pair of students cloistered high,

  Alone in April kiss when Spring arrives!

  Or no, he mounts there by himself to meet

  Winds, welcome wafts of sea-smell, first white bird

  That flaps thus far to taste the land again,

  And all the promise of the youthful year;

  Then he descends, unbosoms straight his store

  Of blessings in the bud, and both embrace,

  Husband and wife, since earth is Paradise,

  And man at peace with God. You see it all?

  Let us complete our survey, go right round

  The place: for here, it may be, we surprise

  The Priory, — these solid walls, big barns,

  Grey orchard-grounds, huge four-square stores for stock,

  Betoken where the Church was busy once.

  Soon must we come upon the Chapel’s self.

  No doubt next turn will treat us to . . . Aha,

  Again our expectation proves at fault!

  Still the bright graceful modern — not to say

  Modish adornment, meets us: Parc Anglais ,

  Tree-sprinkle, shrub-embossment as before.

  See, the sun splits on yonder bauble world

  Of silvered glass concentring, every side,

  All the adjacent wonder, made minute

  And touched grotesque by ball-convexity!

  Just so, a sense that something is amiss,

  Something is out of sorts in the display,

  Affects us, past denial, everywhere.

  The right erection for the Fields, the Wood,

  (Fields — but Elysées , wood — but de Boulogne )

  Is peradventure wrong for wood and fields

  When Vire, not Paris, plays the Capital.

  So may a good man have deficient taste;

  Since Son and Heir Miranda, he it was

  Who, six years now elapsed, achieved the work

  And truly made a wilderness to smile.

  Here did their domesticity reside,

  A happy husband and as happy wife,

  Till . . . how can I in conscience longer keep

  My little secret that the man is dead

  I, for artistic purpose, talk about

  As if he lived still? No, these two years now,

  Has he been dead. You ought to sympathize,

  Not mock the sturdy effort to redeem

  My pledge, and wring you out some tragedy

  From even such a perfect commonplace!

  Suppose I boast the death of such desert

  My tragic bit of Red? Who contravenes

  Assertion that a tragedy exists

  In any stoppage of benevolence,

  Utility, devotion above all?