Audio
Robert Browning (1812-1889)
Home-Thoughts, from Abroad (title)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Oh, to be in England
Now that April's there,
And whoever wakes in England
Sees, some morning, unaware,
That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf
Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf,
While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough
In England--now!
9 And after April, when May follows,
10 And the whitethroat builds, and all the swallows!
11 Hark, where my blossomed pear-tree in the hedge
12 Leans to the field and scatters on the clover
13 Blossoms and dewdrops--at the bent spray's edge-14 That's the wise thrush; he sings each song twice over,
15 Lest you should think he never could recapture
16 The first fine careless rapture!
17 And though the fields look rough with hoary dew,
18 All will be gay when noontide wakes anew
19 The buttercups, the little children's dower
20 Far brighter than this gaudy melon-flower!
Bough
Elm tree
Sheaf
Unaware
Brushwood
England
Thrush
Chaffinch
Orchard
Melon-flower
Tiny leaf
Pear tree
Swallow
White throat
Buttercups
Dewdrops
Clover
wakes
Original text: Robert Browning, Dramatic Romances and Lyrics (1845).
First publication date: 1845
Form: irregular, couplets and quatrains
Summary
"Home-Thoughts, From Abroad" celebrates the everyday and the domestic, taking the form of a
short lyric. The poet is a homesick traveler, ...Browning had spent quite a bit of time in
Italy, .... The poem describes a typical springtime scene in the English countryside, with birds
singing and flowers blooming. ... it resembles an inverted sonnet ...The first, shorter stanza
establishes the emotional tenor of the poem-- the speaker longs for his home.
(This section contains two trimeter lines, followed by two tetrameter lines, three pentameter lines, and
a final trimeter line; it rhymes ABABCCDD.)
The metrical pattern and the rhyme scheme give it a sort of rising and falling sense that mirrors the
emotional rise and fall of the poem's central theme: the burst of joy at thinking of home, then
the resignation that home lies so far away.
The second section is longer, and consists almost entirely of pentameter lines, save the eighth line,
which is tetrameter. It rhymes AABCBCDDEEFF. ...a more contemplative feel...the poem suggests the
work of Emily Dickinson.
Commentary
This simple little poem reacts to Romanticism and the development of the British Empire. ....
illusion of "Rural England" that served as a crucial background for many philosophical ideas, and as a
powerful unifying principle for many Britons: as the British Empire grew, and more British citizens
began to live outside the home islands.... Thus in this period, sentimental thoughts of the English
countryside, such as the ones in this poem, hardly ever present a pure nostalgia; rather, they
carry a great deal of ideological weight.
Nevertheless this poem contains much sincerity. Browning had left Britain, although he lived in Italy
and not in a British colony. ...
Works :
Browning's career began with the publication of the anonymous poem
"Pauline"
The Ring and the Book
Men and Women
My Last Duchess
psychological poem Sordello
Paracelsus
Browning’s fame today rests mainly on his dramatic monologues
Robert Browning
Elisabeth Barrett (wife)
The Ring and the Book
Activity
Matching: match the items in English on the right to those on the left in Italian
1 ranuncoli
2 rondine
3 frutteto
4 inconsapevole
5 rametto
6 rugiada
7 olmo
8 covone
9 fringuello
A sheaf
B bough
C elm tree
D buttercups
E chaffinch
F unaware
G swallow
H orchard
I dewdrops
(ǝ ǝuıu ' ɐ ʇɥƃıǝ ' ɔ uǝʌǝs 'ı xıs ' q ǝʌıɟ ' ɟ ɹnoɟ ' ɥ ǝǝɹɥʇ 'ƃ oʍʇ 'p ǝuo :suoıʇnlos )
True false
True
1 The poet is in England
False
X
2 He speaks about
nature
3 The poet lived in 20th
century
4 Chaffinch is a fruit
5 Leaf is a part of a tree
6 In an orchard fruit
grows
7 Buttercups are pink
8 Clover is a bird
9 You wake after
sleeping
(
ǝnɹʇ ǝuıu 'ǝslɐɟ ʇɥƃıǝ 'ǝslɐɟ uǝʌǝs 'ǝnɹʇ xıs 'ǝnɹʇ ǝʌıɟ 'ǝslɐɟ ɹnoɟ 'ǝslɐɟ ǝǝɹɥʇ 'ǝnɹʇ
oʍʇ 'ǝslɐɟ ǝuo : suoıʇnlos)