
How can you compare “Fra Lippo Lippi” with “I love thee to the level of everyday’s / Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight” (from Sonnets from the Portuguese, No. 43) I wondered. The third line of “Fra Lippo Lippi” is a good example of Browning’s unconventional style: “Zooks, what’s to blame? you think you see a monk!” Every day in my British literature class, I asked myself what this lamb-chop bearded man was talking about. He must have been insane. I couldn’t even get through one poem without cringing.

With my eyes riveted to the computer lab screen on the fourth floor of the library, I sat there rolling Browning’s fun yet poignant lines through my mind and reliving the story that I loved so many years ago. It’s hard to say exactly why this story has always captivated me. The plot is rather unsettling when you think about it—a gypsy leading a slew of children away from their homes. As I reread Browning’s poem, I was again swept away by these alluring lines that describe where the Piper leads the children:

Joining the town and just at hand,
Where waters gushed and fruit-trees grew,
And flowers put forth a fairer hue,
And everything was strange and new;
The sparrows were brighter than peacocks here,
And their dogs outran our fallow deer,
And honey-bees had lost their stings,
And horses were born with eagles' wings. (stanza XIII)
Browning’s, the piper’s, perfect place intrigued me so much—a wonderful dream of peace and joy and no more troubles.
Once I found out that Robert Browning penned the verse version of “The
Most scholars skip over “The Pied Piper of Hamelin” because it is, as Browning himself subtitles it, “A Child’s Story.” However, based on research and my own experience with this work, I have come to believe that Robert Browning’s nursery tale, “The Pied Piper of Hamelin,” has more merit than most of academia gives it.

Since Browning wrote the poem originally just for Willie and with no intention of publishing it, most people dismiss the poem as something just for children. According to the critics, “The Pied Piper of Hamelin” is a work that has all the principle appeals for children: an animal story, an escape from everyday life, and a satire that makes grown-ups look foolish—in short, an unmistakably acclaimed children’s classic (Jack 83, Small xi). While I agree with critics in terms of Browning’s overall literary genius, amusing rhyme schemes, and humorous imagery, all of which form a wonderful work of literature for children, the quality of the poem I find most pivotal is that this was a beloved story from Browning’s childhood that he gave as a gift to another child. Five months after Browning wrote the poem, it was published as the final piece in his book of poems Bells and Pomegranates in November, 1842 (Erickson 81, Brooke 5). At the time of publication, I think Browning must have thought about the thousands of other children who would read this tale and love it just like he did—just like I have.
‘The Pied Piper’ shows more experienced readers how sadly skeptical age has made them and reminds them of their lost childhood and its simple morals … [It is] in some sense a nursery tale for adults. (Erickson 92)
Yes, this poem exemplifies Browning’s genius of variety, free medium, metrical device, etc. (see Note 3), but the crowning feature of this work is its capacity to touch the hearts of all people. Young or old, in comfort or loneliness, amidst success or failure, we need literature, folktales, stories, and poems to take us away to that childlike dream of fairyland where everything is all at once peaceful but exciting, comfortable but brand-new, challenging but happy. “The Pied Piper of Hamelin” opens a glimpse of Wonderland, Xanadu, Bali-Ha’i, Toyland, Pixieland, Over the Rainbow, Neverland, Utopia, and Innisfree.

I still don’t know why Browning chose to write poems about the psychologically unstable, and I’m still not sure how he and Elizabeth could have possibly been a perfect match, but as a result of my journey with “The Pied Piper of Hamelin,” from Google to a child’s Paradise, I’ve found a way to connect with Robert Browning in a way that I never thought was possible. Apart from the miracle this realization has worked in my own life, the application of Browning’s “Child Story” on an adult level is valid, even imperative.

Notes
1. The origin of the “Pied Piper” story is unknown, a detail lost during the Middle Ages, but a German manuscript from 1430-1450 records the “Exodus Hamelensis,” an occurrence in 1284 when 130 children strangely disappeared from Hameln, Hanover (Small ix). Literary and historical accounts of this folktale have been traced all the way to von Goethe. The story is included in Richard Vestegen Rowland’s Resitution of Decayed Intelligence Antiquities Concerning the English Nation, first printed in 1605. Browning’s specific source for the story was Nathaniel Wanley’s The Wonders of the Little World, or A General History of Man, printed in 1678 (Harrington).
2. The volume that Mr. Browning the elder read from was Nathaniel Wanley’s The Wonders of the Little World, or A General History of Man. When asked about retelling a story that has been around for centuries, Browning willingly attributed the original tale to other earlier accounts of it; he said, “I give mine Author’s very words: he penned, I reindite” (DeVane 535).
3. … exciting narrative, various audience, chaos of language, spirit, Hubibrastic invective, animal imagery, keen insight, clever verse, speaking voice, and exemplified narrative--I wasn’t kidding when I said everyone has something to say about Browning! These phrases of Browning’s writing in “The Pied Piper of Hamelin” are found in the following sources: Cohen 26; Erickson 82, 91, 93; Small xi; Jack 83, 84, 96.
4. Ian Jack stated in his book Browning’s Major Poetry that “The Pied Piper of Hamelin” is an ingenious work in which “the narrator appears to be indistinguishable from the poet himself,” a vast contrast from most of his other works (Jack 79).
References
Abrams, M.H. Norton Anthology of English Literature, Volume 2, 7th ed. W.W. Norton: 2003.
Brooke, Stepford A. The Poetry of Robert Browning. Crowell: New York, 1902.
Cohen, J.M. Robert Browning. Longmans, Green: London, 1952.
DeVane, William Clyde. A Browning Handbook. Appleton-Century-Crafts: New York, 1935.
Erickson, Lee. Robert Browning: His Poetry and His Audiences. Cornell: Ithaca, 1984.
Harrington, Vernon C. Browning Studies. Badger: Boston, MCMXV.
Jack, Ian. Browning’s Major Poetry. Oxford: Clarendon, 1973.
Small, Terry. The Pied Piper of Hamelin. Gulliver Books: San Diego, 1988.
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