Dramatic Romances and Lyrics (1845) is a collection by Robert Browning, the seventh pamphlet of his Bells and Pomegranates series. It contains Home-Thoughts, from Abroad, How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix and The Bishop Orders His Tomb.
Variety
The pamphlet ranges from lyrics of homesickness to galloping narratives and dramatic monologues. How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix imitates the rhythm of horses racing through the night.
Home-Thoughts, from Abroad is the longing of an Englishman in Italy for an English spring, with its chaffinches and blossoming pear trees.
The Bishop Orders His Tomb
In this monologue, a dying Renaissance bishop in Rome instructs his sons, whom he calls nephews, how to build his tomb, betraying his vanity, greed and rivalry with a dead colleague.
The critic John Ruskin praised it for capturing the spirit of the Renaissance better than any history.
Elizabeth Barrett
The year it appeared, Browning began corresponding with the poet Elizabeth Barrett, whom he married secretly in 1846 before they left for Italy.
She read several of the poems in manuscript before publication and sent him detailed suggestions.
Anecdotes
A ride that never happened
Browning admitted that the ride from Ghent to Aix had no historical basis: he wrote the poem at sea, longing for a gallop, and invented the whole story.
Ruskin's praise
Ruskin wrote in Modern Painters that he knew of no other piece of modern English that told so much of the Renaissance spirit as The Bishop Orders His Tomb.
Frequently asked questions
Which famous poems are in Dramatic Romances and Lyrics?
Home-Thoughts, from Abroad, How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix and The Bishop Orders His Tomb.
Is the ride from Ghent to Aix historical?
No, Browning invented it.
When was the collection published?
In 1845.