BROWNING’S OPTIMISM
Robert Browning was an extra-ordinary, outstanding and eminent poet of Victorian era. He marveled in the form of dramatic monologue and won supremacy over his contemporaries. He is mostly regarded as an optimist. Though some critics object on his obscurity yet, his robust optimism may well be called a hallmark of his grand poetry. He preached God and immortality as the central and fundamental truth of his philosophy of life.
Generally, optimism implies broader and brighter outlook and positive views about life and the realities of life. Browning in almost all of his poems, harps on the same string in the sense that his ideas mainly and necessarily revolve around only one pivot i.e. optimism. Hence, his poetry is a severe and strong protest against pessimistic mood.
He does not go in line with the facile optimism of Pope and Bolingbroke who said; ‘Whatever is, is right.’ Rather he says;
“Whatever is, is wrong. We may put it right, and in this effort, we acquire new moral power.”
Browning’s optimism may well be understood through his frequently quoted couplet;
“God is in His heaven,
And all is right with the world.”
It does not mean that is right with the world and we have nothing to set right rather it implies that all is wrong and we are to set it right. He believes in struggle and effort in the face of oddities of life. Even, he considers that death is an encounter, it is the last opportunity to struggle.
In ‘Rabbi Ben Ezra’, he promotes his optimistic ideas and stirs the readers to take an active part in the war of survival and the encounter of existence.
“Then welcome each rebuff,
That turns earth’s smoothness rough,
Each sting that bids nor sit, nor stand but go.”
He is of the view that life is a probation in which strife and moral valour are the best equipment. Struggle never ceases because evil is as permanent as good, that is why failure does not bear Browning down. He says in ‘Life in a Love’;
“But what I fail of my purpose here?
It is but to keep the nerves at strain,
To dry one’s eyes and laugh at a fall’
And baffled, get up and begin again.”
Browning never opines that one can reach one’s destination or achieve one’s goal rather he is of the view that man’s ideals should be unattainable and this imperfection of human life should be regarded as a super-added charm to human life.
“Ah, man’s reach should exceed his grasp,
Or what’s a heaven for.”
‘My Last duchess’ and ‘Bishop Orders His Tomb Built’ are no less remarkable in this regard. They both express his optimistic attitude towards life. In ‘My Last Duchess’, Browning talks about the faithlessness of his beloved wife. In fact, he holds the opinion that the beloved becomes much more adorable after being faithless. It was his belief that made him decorate a wall with a wall size portrait of his wife. Browning has a firm and unshakeable belief in God. Therefore, he cried;
“God, Thou art love! I built my belief on that,
God is the sustaining and perfecting power.”
He says;
“O world, as God has made it! All is beauty,
And knowing this, is love and love is duty.”
The whole discussion enables us to safely conclude that Robert Browning was great poet who had an optimistic approach towards life. He tried to convey the same message to his readers through his poetry. He was a perpetual fountain of good sense.
No comments