The first of these has been taken by some intelligent critics to be a
moralizing allegory; the second, a moralizing fairy-tale. They are,
therefore, a useful type both of Mr. Browning's poetic genius, and of
the misunderstanding, to which its constantly intellectual employment
has exposed him.


"CHILDE ROLAND TO THE DARK TOWER CAME," describes a brave knight
performing a pilgrimage, in which hitherto all who attempted it have
failed. The way through which he struggles is unknown to him; its
features are hideous; a deadly sense of difficulty and danger hangs over
every step; and though Childe Roland's courage is pledged to the
undertaking, the thought of failure at last comes to him as a relief. He
reaches the goal just as failure appears inevitable. The plain has
suddenly closed in; weird and unsightly eminences encompass him on every
side. In one flash he perceives that he is in a trap; in another, that
the tower stands before him; while round it, against the hill-sides, are
ranged the "lost adventurers" who have preceded him--their names and
story clanging loudly and more loudly in his ears--their forms revealed
with ghastly clearness in the last fires of the setting sun.

So far the picture is consistent; but if we look below its surface
discrepancies appear. The Tower is much nearer and more accessible than
Childe Roland has thought; a sinister-looking man, of whom he asked the
way, and who, as he believed, was deceiving him, has really put him on
the right track; and as he describes the country through which he
passes, it becomes clear that half its horrors are created by his own
heated imagination, or by some undefined influence in the place itself.
We are left in doubt whether those who have found failure in this quest,
have not done so through the very act of attainment in it; and when,