Prospice by Robert Browning
The speaker imagines death as a final battle and insists on facing its pain, darkness and cold without being spared the ordeal. Beyond that struggle, the speaker anticipates peace, light and reunion with a beloved soul, leaving the rest to God.
By Robert Browning · Genre: Lyric Poetry, Spiritual Poetry · 333 words
First lines
Fear death? -- to feel the fog in my throat, / The mist in my face, / When the snows begin, and the blasts denote / I am nearing the place, / The power of the night, the press of the storm, / The post of the foe; / Where he stands, the Arch Fear in a visible form, / Yet the strong man must go: / For the journey is done and the summit attained, / And the barriers fall, / Though a battle's to fight ere the guerdon be gained, / The reward of it all. / I was ever a fighter, so -- one fight more, / The best and the last! / I would hate that death bandaged my eyes, and forbore, / And bade me creep past. / No! let me taste the whole of it, fare like my peers / The heroes of old, / Bear the brunt, in a minute pay glad life's arrears / Of pain, darkness and cold. / For sudden the worst turns the best to the brave, / The black minute's at end, / And the elements' rage, the fiend-voices that rave, / Shall dwindle, shall blend, / Shall change, shall become first a peace out of pain, / Then a light, then thy breast, / O thou soul of my soul! I shall clasp thee again, / And with God be the rest!
Genres
- Lyric Poetry — A single speaker voices a personal resolve to confront death in rhymed lines alternating longer and shorter measures.
- Spiritual Poetry — The speaker anticipates that death's suffering will yield to peace, light and reunion with a beloved soul, ending with trust in God.
Tags
death · courage · fear · afterlife · reunion
What this Textopian page supports
Prospice 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: Lyric Poetry, Spiritual Poetry
- Length: 333 words
- Structure: 1 section, 1 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)
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