And God forget the stranger!”
Robert Browning, though scarcely to be called a humorous poet, had a fine wit and a quick and agile sense of whimsey.
His Pied Piper of Hamelin, written to amuse a sick child of Macready’s, is a masterpiece of quiet humor. His satiric vein is shown in:
THE POPE AND THE NET
What, he on whom our voices unanimously ran,
Made Pope at our last Conclave? Full low his life began:
His father earned the daily bread as just a fisherman.
So much the more his boy minds book, gives proof of mother-wit,
Becomes first Deacon, and then Priest, then Bishop: see him sit
No less than Cardinal ere long, while no one cries “Unfit!”