The Inn Album by Robert Browning
After a night’s gambling at an English inn, a wealthy young man and an older lord discover that they once loved the same woman, now married to an elderly parish priest. An accidental reunion leads the lord to threaten disclosure of her past unless she submits to a sexual arrangement cancelling his debt, while the young man offers protection, service and, if she is free, marriage. After she reads out the lord’s written threat, the young man kills him; the woman dies by suicide after writing a statement defending her protector.
By Robert Browning · Genre: Dramatic Poetry, Narrative Poetry, Tragedy · 8 chapters · 39,320 words
First lines
"That oblong book 's the Album; hand it here! / Exactly! page on page of gratitude / For breakfast, dinner, supper, and the view! / I praise these poets, they leave margin-space; / Each stanza seems to gather skirts around, / And primly, trimly, keep the foot's confine, / Modest and maidlike; lubber prose o'ersprawls / And straddling stops the path from left to right. / Since I want space to do my cipher-work, / Which poem spares a corner? What comes first? / '_Hail, calm acclivity, salubrious spot! _' / (Open the window, we burn daylight, boy! ) / Or see -- succincter beauty, brief and bold -- ' / _If a fellow can dine On rump-steaks and port wine,_ / _He needs not despair Of dining well here_' -- / '_Here! _' I myself could find a better rhyme! / That bard 's a Browning; he neglects the form: / But ah, the sense, ye gods, the weighty sense! / Still, I prefer this classic. Ay, throw wide! / I 'll quench the bits of candle yet unburnt. / A minute's fresh air, then to cipher-work! / Three little columns hold the whole account: / _Ecarté_, after which Blind Hookey, then / Cutting-the-Pack, five hundred pounds the cut. / 'T is easy reckoning: I have lost, I think."
Genres
- Dramatic Poetry — Extended conversations in verse enact confrontations among the lord, the young man and the married woman, with narration marking their movements and reactions.
- Narrative Poetry — The verse follows a gambling loss, revelations about a shared past, an accidental reunion and a fatal confrontation at the inn.
- Tragedy — The lord’s attempt to coerce the woman through a threat to her husband culminates in his violent death and her suicide.
Tags
gambling · blackmail · betrayal · sexual coercion · suicide · murder
What this Textopian page supports
The Inn Album 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 Poetry, Narrative Poetry, Tragedy
- Length: 39,320 words
- Structure: 8 chapters, 164 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)
Good citation fit
- Work identity for The Inn Album by Robert Browning
- Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
- Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
- Readability and classroom-planning context
- Passage-specific claims should cite the exact /read/ URL for the relevant chapter or paragraph