Halbert and Hob by Robert Browning
On a snowy Christmas night in North England, Hob drags his father Halbert toward the door during a violent quarrel. Halbert recalls dragging his own father to the same stair and urges Hob to stop there too; Hob releases him, and they return upstairs. At dawn Halbert is dead, while Hob trembles, later tottering at the burial and continuing to mutter until his own death.
By Robert Browning · Genre: Narrative Poetry, Moral Tale · 1,162 words
First lines
Here is a thing that happened. Like wild beasts whelped, for den, / In a wild part of North England, there lived once two wild men / Inhabiting one homestead, neither a hovel nor hut, / Time out of mind their birthright: father and son, these -- but -- / Such a son, such a father! Most wildness by degrees / Softens away: yet, last of their line, the wildest and worst were / these.
Criminals, then? Why, no: they did not murder and rob; / But, give them a word, they returned a blow -- old Halbert as young / Hob: / Harsh and fierce of word, rough and savage of deed, / Hated or feared the more -- who knows? -- the genuine wild-beast breed.
Genres
- Narrative Poetry — Rhymed verse recounts a father and son's quarrel, the father's recollection, and the deaths that follow.
- Moral Tale — The father's warning interrupts repeated violence across three generations, and the narrator closes by questioning how hardened hearts become soft.
Tags
fathers and sons · family violence · intergenerational violence · Christmas · divine warning · burial
What this Textopian page supports
Halbert and Hob 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: Narrative Poetry, Moral Tale
- Length: 1,162 words
- Structure: 1 section, 16 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Easy (6th Grade)
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