BROWNING S OBSCURITY: ITS CAUSES Browning is not really as obscure as he is made out to be.

But one can not absolve him of the charge of unintelligibility and difficulty. For instance, his sordellow is regarded the more obscure than any other poem in the English literature. No one can judge whether Sordellow is a man, or a city, or a book. After reading sordellow a critic comments on it: My God! I am an idiot. My health is restored, but my mind is gone. --- Dowson calls Browning the Carlyle of poetry Argumentative Reasons for the Obscurity of his Poetry 1. Intellectual Vanity Chresterton Points out: All the records of Browning s life show that he was at all vain. All his contemporaries agree that he never talked cleverly and clearly which is always the case with a man who is intellectually vain. 2. Browning is not unintelligible because of proud; his poetry is unintelligible due to his humbleness. Browning is humble enough to think that what he knows is quite commonplace and known to everyone. Browning himself once wrote to his friend: I never designedly tried to puzzle people as some of my critics have supposed . Other Reasons include:

SOUL DISSECTION Browning s dramatic monologues are soul studies; they study the shifting moods and changing thoughts of a developing soul. They are soul dissection and give interior landscap with no chronology or background. Obviously, then such poetry is bound to be difficult and obscure. SPECIAL INTEREST IN QUEEREST HUMAN SOUL Browning is interested in queerest human soul and abnormal human psychology. He seeks the sinner whom even the sinners have cast out. He compels his characters to reveal the inner most secret of their life through their own utterances. OBSCURITY IN STYLE RATHER THAN IN SUBJECT Disregard of Grammatical Rules and Syntax The foremost obstacle in comprehending his poetry is his disregard for grammatical rules. A critic says that in The Grammarian Funeral he not only buries the grammarians but also the grammar. Telegraphic Style and Use of Colloquialism Using telegraphic style, browning takes the reader s mental process for granted. He leaves out preposition, article, relative, and even pronoun which lead to confusion.

He coins unusual compound and expression which are too colloquial and jerky. Sometimes he uses two words where ten are required. Browning also admits this complexity in Rabbi Ben Ezra Thought hardly to be packed Into a narrow act Fancies that broke through language and escaped. CONCLUSION Browning s poetry is difficult, but it requires alert reader s mind. However, the obscurity of his poetry must not be exaggerated, especially of his short poems.