Flute-Music, with an Accompaniment
A man hears changing emotions of love in unseen flute-playing; a woman explains that a neighbor is practicing during a break from desk work and that distance masks his mistakes. The man compares this effect to the way absence can conceal a beloved's faults and asks to keep dreaming despite the possibility of deception.
By Robert Browning · Genre: Dramatic Poetry, Philosophical Poetry · 1,625 words
First lines
_He._ Ah, the bird-like fluting / Through the ash-tops yonder -- / Bullfinch-bubblings, soft sounds suiting / What sweet thoughts, I wonder? / Fine-pearled notes that surely / Gather, dewdrop-fashion, / Deep-down in some heart which purely / Secretes globuled passion -- / Passion insuppressive -- / Such is piped, for certain; / Love, no doubt, nay, love excessive / 'T is, your ash-tops curtain.
Genres
- Dramatic Poetry — Alternating male and female speakers debate an unseen flautist's playing in rhymed stanzas.
- Philosophical Poetry — The man's defense of musical and romantic illusion leads him to question whether outward appearance is as real as inward substance.
Tags
flute practice · musical perception · distance · romantic illusion · appearance and reality · dialogue
What this Textopian page supports
Flute-Music, with an Accompaniment is listed on Textopian as a poem by Robert Browning, dated Date unknown.
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- Work type: Poem
- Author: Robert Browning
- Date: Date unknown
- Language: English
- Genres: Dramatic Poetry, Philosophical Poetry
- Length: 1,625 words
- Structure: 1 section, 16 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Standard (8th-9th Grade)
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