Touch him Ne'Er so Lightly by Robert Browning
The speaker contrasts poetry that springs up at every touch with rarer growth that becomes a nation's heritage. He recalls writing these lines in London about dead poets and being accused of boasting by critics; opening a new friend's book in Venice then prompts grateful fancies he compares to weeds nearly becoming flowers.
By Robert Browning · Genre: Lyric Poetry, Metapoetry · 278 words
First lines
"Touch him ne'er so lightly, into song he broke: / Soil so quick-receptive, -- not one feather-seed, / Not one flower-dust fell but straight its fall awoke / Vitalizing virtue: song would song succeed / Sudden as spontaneous -- prove a poet-soul! " / Indeed? / Rock's the song-soil rather, surface hard and bare: / Sun and dew their mildness, storm and frost their rage / Vainly both expend, -- few flowers awaken there: / Quiet in its cleft broods -- what the after-age / Knows and names a pine, a nation's heritage.
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Genres
- Lyric Poetry — Rhymed stanzas convey the speaker's resistance to criticism and gratitude toward a new friend.
- Metapoetry — The speaker compares poetic creation to growth in different soils and recounts how critics interpreted his own verses.
Tags
poetic inspiration · literary criticism · gratitude · friendship
What this Textopian page supports
Touch him Ne'Er so Lightly 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, Metapoetry
- Length: 278 words
- Structure: 1 section, 3 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Standard (8th-9th Grade)
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