All the sorrow and the longing
To these hearts of ours belonging?'
And there are touches of what we are wont to call dear, womanly feeling, as when the 'Forlorn,' out in the bitter cold,
'Hears a woman's voice within
Singing sweet words her childhood knew,
And years of misery and sin
Furl off and leave her heaven blue.'
The 'Changeling' alone would sustain a reputation. It seems always like the plaintive but sweet warble of some unknown bird rising from the midst of tall water-rushes in the day's dim dawning. A wonderful melody as of Mrs. Browning's best efforts pervades every verse, priceless and rare as some old intaglio. But when we come to his 'Odes to the Past and the Future,' the full power of poesy unfolds before us. Their images are not the impalpable spectres of a poet's dream, but symbols hardened into marble by his skill, and informed with the fire of life by his genius.
'Wondrous and awful are thy silent halls,
O kingdom of the past!