reflective poems. Religious belief forms the undercurrent of many of the
emotional poems. And it was natural therefore, that religious feeling
should not often lay hold of him in a more exclusive form. It does so
only in three cases; those of

"Saul." ("Dramatic Lyrics." Published in part in "Dramatic
Romances and Lyrics," 1845; wholly, in "Men and Women,"
1855.)

"Epilogue." ("Dramatis Personæ." 1864.)

"Fears and Scruples." ("Pacchiarotto and other Poems." 1876.)

The religious sentiment in "SAUL" anticipates Christianity. It begins
with the expression of an exalted human tenderness, and ends in a
prophetic vision of Divine Love, as manifested in Christ. The speaker is
David. He has been sent into the presence of Saul to sing and play to
him; for Saul is in the agony of that recurring spiritual conflict from
which only David's song can deliver him; and when the boy-shepherd has
crept his way into the darkness of the tent, he sees the monarch with
arms outstretched against its poles, dumb, sightless, and stark, like
the serpent in the solitude of the forest awaiting its transformation.

David tells his story, re-enacting the scene which it describes, in
strong, simple, picturesque words which rise naturally into the language
of prophecy. He tells how first he tried the influence of pastoral
tunes: those which call the sheep back to the pen, and stir the sense of
insect and bird; how he passed to the song of the reapers--their
challenge to mutual help and fellowship; to the warrior's march; the
burial and marriage chants; the chorus of the Levites advancing towards