Conclusion

A few words must still be said upon that purport and tendency of Robert
Browning's work, which has been defined by a few persons, and felt by
very many as his 'message'.

The definition has been disputed on the ground of Art. We are told by
Mr. Sharp, though in somewhat different words, that the poet, qua poet,
cannot deliver a 'message' such as directly addresses itself to the
intellectual or moral sense; since his special appeal to us lies not
through the substance, but through the form, or presentment, of what he
has had to say; since, therefore (by implication), in claiming for it
an intellectual--as distinct from an aesthetic--character, we ignore its
function as poetry.

It is difficult to argue justly, where the question at issue turns
practically on the meaning of a word. Mr. Sharp would, I think, be the
first to admit this; and it appears to me that, in the present case, he
so formulates his theory as to satisfy his artistic conscience, and yet
leave room for the recognition of that intellectual quality so peculiar
to Mr. Browning's verse. But what one member of the aesthetic school may
express with a certain reserve is proclaimed unreservedly by many more;
and Mr. Sharp must forgive me, if for the moment I regard him as one of
these; and if I oppose his arguments in the words of another poet
and critic of poetry, whose claim to the double title is I believe
undisputed--Mr. Roden Noel. I quote from an unpublished fragment of a
published article on Mr. Sharp's 'Life of Browning'.

'Browning's message is an integral part of himself as writer; (whether
as poet, since we agree that he is a poet, were surely a too curious
and vain discussion;) but some of his finest things assuredly are the
outcome of certain very definite personal convictions. "The question,"
Mr. Sharp says, "is not one of weighty message, but of artistic
presentation." There seems to be no true contrast here. "The primary
concern of the artist must be with his vehicle of expression"--no--not
the primary concern. Since the critic adds--(for a poet) "this vehicle
is language emotioned to the white heat of rhythmic music by impassioned
thought or sensation." Exactly--"thought" it may be. Now part of this
same "thought" in Browning is the message. And therefore it is part of
his "primary concern". "It is with presentment," says Mr. Sharp, "that
the artist has fundamentally to concern himself." Granted: but it must
surely be presentment of _something_. . . . I do not understand how
to separate the substance from the form in true poetry. . . . If the
message be not well delivered, it does not constitute literature. But
if it be well delivered, the