The Norton Anthology of English literature. Volume 2

Sleep, crop and herd! sleep, darkling thorpe and croft, so Safe from the weather! He, whom we convoy to his grave aloft, Singing together,

1. The speaker is one of the students who are ing. bearing the body of their scholarly master to the 2. Small tracts of land farmed by peasants. mountaintop for burial. No specific model for the 3. Restricted to a narrow sphere like an animal grammarian has been identified. Browning seems tied to a stake. to have had in mind the kind of early Renaissance 4. Container in which incense is burned. scholar whose devotion to the Greek language 5. Flatlands at the base of the mountain that are made it possible for others to enjoy the more rec-populated by illiterate shepherds and peasants. ognizably significant aspects of the revival of learn-6. Let the beholders beware!

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A GRAMMARIAN'S FUNERAL / 128 7

He was a man born with thy face and throat, Lyric Apollo!7 35 Long he lived nameless: how should spring take note Winter would follow? Till lo, the little touch, and youth was gone! Cramped and diminished, Moaned he, "New measures, other feet anon! 40 My dance is finished?" No, that's the world's way: (keep the mountain-side, Make for the city!) He knew the signal, and stepped on with pride Over men's pity; 45 Left play for work, and grappled with the world Bent on escaping: "What's in the scroll," quoth he, "thou keepest furled? Show me their shaping, Theirs who most studied man, the bard and sage� 50 Give!"�So, he gowned him,8 Straight0 got by heart that book to its last page: immediately Learned, we found him. Yea, but we found him bald too, eyes like lead, Accents uncertain: 55 "Time to taste life," another would have said, "Up with the curtain!" This man said rather, "Actual life comes next? Patience a moment! Grant I have mastered learning's crabbed text, 60 Still there's the comment.9 Let me know all! Prate not of most or least, Painful or easy! Even to the crumbs I'd fain� eat up the feast, gladly Aye, nor feel queasy." 65 Oh, such a life as he resolved to live, When he had learned it, When he had gathered all books had to give! Sooner, he spurned it. Image the whole, then execute the parts� 70 Fancy the fabric Quite, ere you build, ere steel strike fire from quartz, Ere mortar dab brick! (Here's the town gate reached: there's the market place Gaping before us.) 75 Yea, this in him was the peculiar grace (Hearten our chorus!) That before living he'd learn how to live� No end to learning: Earn the means first�God surely will contrive so Use for our earning.

7. Classical god of music and poetry; the embod-8. Dressed in academic gown; became a scholar. iment of male beauty. 9. Commentaries or annotations on a text.

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128 8 / ROBERT BROWNING

Others mistrust and say, "But time escapes: Live now or never!" He said, "What's time? Leave Now for dogs and apes! Man has Forever." 85 Back to his book then: deeper drooped his head: Calculus' racked him: Leaden before, his eyes grew dross of lead: Tussis� attacked him. a cough "Now, master, take a little rest!"�not he! 90 (Caution redoubled, Step two abreast, the way winds narrowly!) Not a whit troubled Back to his studies, fresher than at first, Fierce as a dragon 95 He (soul-hydroptic2 with a sacred thirst) Sucked at the flagon. Oh, if we draw a circle premature, Heedless of far gain, Greedy for quick returns of profit, sure IOO Bad is our bargain! Was it not great? did not he throw on God (He loves the burthen)� God's task to make the heavenly period Perfect the earthen? 105 Did not he magnify the mind, show clear Just what it all meant? He would not discount life, as fools do here, Paid by installment. He ventured neck or nothing�heaven's success 110 Found, or earth's failure: "Wilt thou trust death or not?" He answered "Yes: Hence with life's pale lure!" That low man seeks a little thing to do, Sees it and does it: in This high man, with a great thing to pursue, Dies ere he knows it. That low man goes on adding one to one, His hundred's soon hit: This high man, aiming at a million, 120 Misses an unit.3 That, has the world here�should he need the next, Let the world mind him! This, throws himself on God, and unperplexed Seeking shall find him. 125 So, with the throttling hands of death at strife, Ground he at grammar; Still, through the rattle, parts of speech were rife: While he could stammer

1. A gallstone or other hard inorganic mass within 3. A small item, such as some trifling worldly plea- the body. sure. 2. Insatiably thirsty.

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KARSHISH, THE ARAB PHYSICIAN / 128 9