already struck by the shuddering chill of annihilation. This sense is
created by the sounds, as Mr. Browning describes them: and their
directly expressive power must stand for what it is worth. Still, the
supposed effect is mainly that of association; and the listener's fancy
the medium through which it acts.


"A FACE" describes a beautiful head and throat in its pictorial
details--those which painting might reproduce.


"THE GUARDIAN-ANGEL" and "EURYDICE TO ORPHEUS" describe each an actual
picture in the emotions it expresses or conveys.

The former represents an angel, standing with outstretched wings by a
little child. The child is half kneeling on a kind of pedestal, while
the angel joins its hands in prayer: its gaze directed upward towards
the sky, from which cherubs are looking down. The picture was painted by
Guercino, and is now in the church of St. Augustine, at Fano, on the
Italian coast. Mr. Browning relates to an absent friend (who appears in
the "Dramatic Romances" as Waring) how he saw it in the company of his
own "angel;" and how it occurred to him to develop into a poem one of
the thoughts which the picture had "struck out." The thought resolves
itself into a feeling: the yearning for guidance and protection. The
poet dreams himself in the place of that praying child. The angel wings
cover his head: the angel hands upon his eyes press back the excess of
thought which has made his brain too big. He feels how thankfully those
eyes would rest on the "gracious face" instead of looking to the opening
sky beyond it; and how purely beautiful the world would seem when that
healing touch had been upon them.