Confessions by Robert Browning
A dying speaker rejects a clergyman's suggestion that the world is a vale of tears. Medicine bottles beside the bed recall a suburban lane and secret meetings with a girl at a rose-wreathed gate, remembered as sweet despite their impropriety.
By Robert Browning · Genre: Dramatic Monologue, Love Poetry · 387 words
First lines
What is he buzzing in my ears? / "Now that I come to die, / Do I view the world as a vale of tears? " / Ah, reverend sir, not I!
What I viewed there once, what I view again / Where the physic bottles stand / On the table's edge, -- is a suburb lane, / With a wall to my bedside hand.
What this Textopian page supports
Confessions is listed on Textopian as a poem by Robert Browning, dated Date unknown.
This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.
- Work type: Poem
- Author: Robert Browning
- Date: Date unknown
- Language: English
- Genres: Dramatic Monologue, Love Poetry
- Length: 387 words
- Structure: 1 section, 9 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Easy (6th Grade)
Good citation fit
- Work identity for Confessions by Robert Browning
- Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
- Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
- Readability and classroom-planning context
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Genres
- Dramatic Monologue — A dying speaker addresses a clergyman, answers his question, and recounts concealed meetings while anticipating his disapproval.
- Love Poetry — The rhymed stanzas culminate in the speaker's recollection of mutual love and the sweetness of secret meetings.
Tags
secret love · memory · mortality · dramatic monologue