Abstract
Robert Browning's Christmas-Eve and Easter-Day has eluded generic identification. One possible solution to this critical problem is to view the poem as falling within the tradition of meditational verse. Evidence for such a reading may be drawn from a look at the origin of the poem as well as the literary relationship between Browning and John Donne. This essay offers a reading of the poem that focuses on identifying and illustrating its characteristics as a meditation.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Bross
Addison C.
“Easter-Day : Browning's Changing Concept of Faith.” Victorian Poetry 14 (1976 ): 11 –23 .
2.
Browning
Elizabeth Barrett
. The Letters of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning 1845–1846 . Ed.
Kintner
Elvan
. 2 vols . Cambridge : Belknap , 1969 .
3.
Browning
Robert
. Christmas-Eve and Easter-Day. The Works of Robert Browning . Ed.
Kenyon
Frederick G.
, Centenary Edition . 10 vols. London : Smith, Elder , 1912 .
4.
Cohen
J. M.
Robert Browning . London : Longmans , 1952 .
5.
DeVane
William Clyde
. A Browning Handbook . New York : Appleton-Century Crofts , 1955 .
6.
Duncan
Joseph E.
“The Intellectual Kinship of John Donne and Robert Browning.” Studies in Philology 50 (1953 ): 81 –100 .
7.
Gridley
Roy E.
Browning . Boston : Routledge & Kegan Paul , 1972 .
8.
Griffin
W. Hall
Minchin
Harry Christopher
. The Life of Robert Browning . London : Methuen , 1938 .
9.
Harrold
William E.
The Variance and the Unity: A Study of the Complementary Poems of Robert Browning . Athens : Ohio UP , 1973 .
10.
Hassett
Constance W.
The Elusive Self in the Poetry of Robert Browning . Athens : Ohio UP , 1982 .
11.
Kennedy
Richard S.
Hair
Donald S.
, The Dramatic Imagination of Robert Browning . Columbia : U of Missouri P , 2007 .
12.
Lawson
E. LeRoy
. Very Sure of God: Religious Language in the Poetry of Robert Browning . Nashville : Vanderbilt UP , 1974 .
13.
Martz
Louis
. English Seventeenth-Century Verse . New York : Norton , 1973 .
14.
Martz
Louis
. The Poetry of Meditation: A Study in English Religious Literature of the Seventeenth Century . New Haven : Yale UP , 1962 .
15.
Maynard
John
. “Browning's Evangelical Heritage.” Browning Institute Studies 3 (1975 ): 1 –16 .
16.
Mills
Kevin
. “The Brownings.” The Blackwell Companion to the Bible in English Literature . Chichester : Wiley-Blackwell , 2009 . 482 –95 .
17.
Orr
Sutherland
Mrs.
. Life and Letters of Robert Browning . Rev. ed. New York : Houghton Mifflin , 1908 .
18.
Peterson
Linda
. “Rereading Christmas-Eve , Rereading Browning.” Victorian Poetry 26 (1988 ): 363 –80 .
19.
Rigg
Patricia
. “The Reader's Conversion Through Romantic Irony in Christmas-Eve and Easter-Day.” Studies in Browning and His Circle 22 (1999 ): 67 –80 .
20.
de L. Ryals
Clyde
The Life of Robert Browning . Cambridge : Blackwell , 1993 .
21.
Ryerse
Barbara
. Browning's Christmas-Eve and Easter-Day : Formal Verse Satire and the Donnean Influence.” Victorian Review 29 (2003 ): 49 –69 .
22.
Tate
Andrew
. “He Himself with his Human Air: Browning Writes the Body of Christ.” Nineteenth-Century Contexts 25.1 (2003 ): 39 –53 .
