The Pied Piper of Hamelin by Robert Browning
A piper draws Hamelin’s rats into the Weser with his music, but the Mayor and Corporation refuse to pay the agreed thousand guilders. He then leads the children through a portal in Koppelberg Hill, which closes behind them; one boy with a lame foot cannot keep up and remains outside. The town fails to recover the children, and the narrator urges Willy to keep his promises.
By Robert Browning · Genre: Narrative Poetry, Children's Poetry, Cautionary Tale · 3,461 words
First lines
A Child's Story
(_Written for, and inscribed to, W. M. the Younger_)
Genres
- Narrative Poetry — Rhymed stanzas tell the sequence of the rat infestation, the Piper’s bargain, the refused payment and the children’s disappearance.
- Children's Poetry — The source calls itself a child’s story and ends by addressing Willy with advice drawn from the tale of enchanted music.
- Cautionary Tale — The rulers’ refusal to honor their bargain leads to the loss of the children, followed by an explicit injunction to keep promises.
Tags
rats · enchanted music · broken promises · revenge · missing children
What this Textopian page supports
The Pied Piper of Hamelin 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: Narrative Poetry, Children's Poetry, Cautionary Tale
- Length: 3,461 words
- Structure: 1 section, 32 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Standard (8th-9th Grade)
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- Work identity for The Pied Piper of Hamelin by Robert Browning
- Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
- Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
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