Namangan davlat universiteti ingliz filologiyasi fakulteti amaliy ingliz tili kafedrasi

Elizabeth Barrett-Browning 
(1806-1861) 
After his wife’s death in 1861, Robert Browning returned to 
England with their son. It was only then, in his fifties, that Browning 
established his own reputation as a poet with the collections of 
dramatic monologues such as “Dramatis Personae” (1866), and “The 
Ring and the Book” (1869). Now Browning became famous and 
Tennyson’s equal among Victorian readers. But these two great poets 
were absolutely different in their manner of writing and behaviour. 
The biographers and critics write that Tennyson was introverted, 
withdrawn, and often melancholy. Browning was open, social, and 
optimistic. Tennyson’s poetry is melodic and beautifully polished; 
Browning’s is intentionally harsh and “unpoetic”, and reflects the 
language of lively conversation.
Browning has generally been called a difficult writer, so much that societies were formed to 
interpret his poetry. But sometimes he wrote simply, when he thought it consistent with his subject. 
One of his such not-too-difficult-to understand lyrical poems is “The Lost Mistress”.
The Lost Mistress 

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1 
All’s over, then – does truth sound bitter 
As one at first believes? 
Hark, ‘tis the sparrows’ good-night twitter 
About your cottage eaves!
2 
And the leaf-buds on the vine are woolly, 
I noticed that, to-day; 
One day more bursts them open fully 
-
You know the red turns gray. 
3 
Tomorrow we meet the same then, dearest? 
May I take your hand in mine? 
Mere friends are we, - well, friends the merest 
Keep much that I’ll resign: 
4 
For each glance of that eye so bright and black, 
Though I keep with heart’s endeavour, - 
Your voice, when you wish the snowdrops back, 
Though it stays in my soul for ever! – 
5 
- Yet I will but say what mere friends say 
Or only a thought stronger; 
I will hold your hand but as long as all may, 
Or so very little longer.
This poem belongs to the collection of short poems called “Dramatic Romances and Lyrics” 
(1845).
Browning’s best-known work is “The Ring and the Book” (1868-1869). He based the poem 
on an Italian murder case of 1698. Twelve characters discuss the case, and each does it from his or 
her own point of view. 
Browning strikes our contemporary readers as the more modern poet, because of his 
colloquial and quirky diction, and because of his interest in human psychology.