The Poetry Corner

Verse-Making Was Least Of My Virtues

By Robert Browning

Verse-making was least of my virtues: I viewed with despair Wealth that never yet was but might be, all that verse-making were If the life would but lengthen to wish, let the mind be laid bare. So I said, "To do little is bad, to do nothing is worse", And made verse. Love-making, how simple a matter! No depths to explore, No heights in a life to ascend! No disheartening Before, No affrighting Hereafter, love now will be love ever more. So I felt "To keep silence were folly:" all language above, I made love.