The Art Of Robert Browning's Poetry From The Perspective Of New Criticism

When Browning died in 1889, the whole machinery of his canonization, mainly abroad, was already in shape. No miracles were necessary since the testimony of those who had met him and read his work confirmed his good influence. It is fair to say that Browning was the first poet to acquire such a highly organized literary culture.In this thesis, the author mainly explores the art of Browning's poetry. In the work there is range, depth, intensity, irony, paradox, wit, whimsy and humor. Such a catalogue of traits defines not only Browning's value but the conditions deemed necessary for an aesthetic response to any poem.The first chapter includes the literature review, assumptions and methodologies which contain the New Criticism and psychological analyses, and contributions of this work. In this thesis, the author is to analyze four of Browning's poems from the angle of matter, structure, and meaning by using the method of New criticism and psycho analyses.The second chapter mainly analyzes the matter of his poems. The matter which he chooses is of very wide range, religion, art and science, mainly discussing depressive spirit and tortuous mind. The poetry of Robert Browning is the poetry of situations. In his dramatic monologue, no matter how uninteresting the. character is. Browning would like to place the character in some situation where his/her vital essence may become apparent. We can also get in that the character's vision embodies Browning's own vision towards art, religion and love. The third chapter mainly analyzes the configuration of his poems. The devices are active, inseparable part of meaning itself. Juxtaposition, irony, and paradox are at once structural and material; diction, sentence structure, rhythm and imagery both produce and are produced by meaning. In the four of Browning's poems analyzed in this thesis, we find that Browning refuses to use words for words' sake. His style and diction serve for the proper expression of some particular character. Browning adopted lots of rhetorical devices which stimulate aesthetic response to develop his poems. All this help to create a unified poem.The fourth chapter mainly analyzes the meaning of his poetry. The tension and conflict produced by the devices and the language can stimulate the aesthetic response. Meaning is produced by matter and structure at the end, and sentence structure is closely correlated with meaning. In the poems analyzed in this thesis, the conflict is sometimes within the character, like Andrea's; sometimes between the character and the external world, like Lippo and Bishop's; and sometimes between the character and forces perhaps neither of the character's nor of his world's making, like Bishop Blougram's.The fifth chapter is conclusion which includes the summary, limitations and questions to be further researched. Browning's choice of subject matter helps explain the quality and texture of his work: his interest in situation and character in which there are conflicts, incongruities, and paradox. As the ultimate form of expression, structure is implicit in matter, taking its shape from those characteristics.Simultaneously, his structure and diction are precise expressions of clearly formulated ideas and emotions. And at last, the meaning can be achieved and we can get the conclusion that the poet uses matter and structure to express a comprehensive mode of seeing; he succeeds in reconciling opposing forces so as to create unity, intensity, and vividness so as to realize the artistic value of his poetry.