The Statue and the Bust by Robert Browning
In Florence, Duke Ferdinand and Riccardi's bride fall in love, but repeatedly postpone acting on their desire while her husband confines her to the palace. As their youth and passion fade, she commissions a clay likeness for her window and the duke commissions an equestrian statue for the square. The narrator condemns their failure to pursue their chosen goal, while acknowledging that its fulfillment would have been a vice.
By Robert Browning · Genre: Narrative Poetry, Didactic Poetry · 2,810 words
First lines
There's a palace in Florence, the world knows well, / And a statue watches it from the square, / And this story of both do our townsmen tell.
Ages ago, a lady there, / At the farthest window facing the East / Asked, "Who rides by with the royal air?"
Genres
- Narrative Poetry — Rhymed three-line stanzas recount the lovers' first encounter, repeated delays, aging, and commissions for sculpted likenesses.
- Didactic Poetry — The narrator turns the lovers' inaction into an argument about pursuing a chosen goal and ends by challenging the reader's own effort.
Tags
Florence · unfulfilled love · procrastination · confinement · sculpture · moral judgment
What this Textopian page supports
The Statue and the Bust 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, Didactic Poetry
- Length: 2,810 words
- Structure: 1 section, 84 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)
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