[[Return]]
Abraham Ben Meir Ben Ezra, into whose mouth Browning puts the reflections in this poem, was born in Toledo, Spain, in 1090, and died about 1168. He was distinguished as philosopher,[page 260] astronomer, physician, and poet. The ideas of the poem are drawn largely from the writings of Rabbi Ben Ezra. See Berdoe's Browning Cyclopædia.
[1]. [Grow] old along with me. Come, and let us talk of old age.
[7-15]. [Not] that. Connect "not that" of lines 7 and 10, and the "not for, etc.," of 13, with "Do I remonstrate" in line 15.
[29]. [hold] of. Are like, share the nature of.
[39-41]. [Compare] A Grammarian's Funeral.
[117]. be [named]. That is, known, or distinguished.
[124]. [Was] I (whom) the world arraigned. Browning frequently omits the relative.
[139-144]. [Compare] lines 36-41. Note here and elsewhere in this poem the frequent repetition, and variation of the same idea.
[151]. [Potter]'s wheel. The figure of the Potter's wheel is frequent in Oriental literature. See Isaiah lxiv. 8, and Jeremiah xviii, 2-6; see also Fitzgerald's Rubaiyat, stanzas xxxvii, xxxviii, lxxxii-xc.