—Binding, ever as he bade,
Columns in the colonnade,
With arms wide open to embrace
The entry of the human race ...”
But even in this instance, Browning, before his description is finished, cannot content himself with mere abstract statements of beauty divorced from human life. He turns to the builders—the people, and to the purpose—service to humanity.
In the only poem of Browning which deals with an architect at all, (Old Pictures in Florence, in which Giotto is considered at some length), the discussion is from the standpoint of the architect’s aim, his partial achievement, and the relation his work, when it is finally finished, will have to the people of his city; not from the standpoint of any technical interest in the art.
V. Architecture and personality.
CHAPTER VI
Italian Painting in the Poems of Browning.