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User Rating:
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5.9
/10
(88 votes)
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Take the cloak from his face, and at first
Let the corpse do its worst!
How he lies in his rights of a man!
Death has done all death can.
And, absorbed in the new life he leads,
He recks not, he heeds
Nor his wrong nor my vengeance; both strike
On his senses alike,
And are lost in the solemn and strange
Surprise of the change.
Ha, what avails death to erase
His offence, my disgrace?
I would we were boys as of old
In the field, by the fold:
His outrage, God's patience, man's scorn
Were so easily borne!
I stand here now, he lies in his place:
Cover the face!
Robert Browning
| Submitted Date |
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Sunday, May 13, 2001 |
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Read poems about / on: death, change, lost, god, life
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Comments about this poem (After
by
Robert Browning
) |
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Marilyn Hochfield (7/10/2011 7:32:00 PM)
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An awfully good poem: the dramatic voice of the poem so skillfully rendered!
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Hans VR (7/10/2011 7:46:00 AM)
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I interpret this poem as Browning seeing the corpse (not too fresh a corpse) of one of his childhood friends with whom he had many differences of opinion. Now in death, none of these still seem to matter, nor for the deceased, not for Browning there standing by his side. Death brings us to another dimension where other things matter than here on earth. That was what Browning could feel while looking at the face of the dead man.
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Manonton Dalan (7/10/2010 3:07:00 PM)
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the author fancied himself to be a detective who is pursuing this
man and called upon to identify the body... of course what good
does corpse do... he express his frustration 'his offense my disgrace'
; death erase everything... hmmm... book 'em dano... oops! cover
'em up dano.
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Ben Harper (7/10/2010 8:37:00 AM)
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wicked imagry, i felt like the poem was written careful not to offend. i dont get the bit about vengeance. is he trying to portray that he once hated this man and in death all these feelings fade?
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Ramesh T A (7/10/2010 7:55:00 AM)
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Browning's style of poetry reflects even in this piece!
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Elijah Amores (7/10/2009 11:53:00 PM)
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nice...please check out my poems guys..thanks!
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Michael Pruchnicki (7/10/2009 4:43:00 PM)
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Sometimes I take a great notion to jump in the river and drown after reading the off-the-wall comments posted on this site! Robert Browning's 'After' is one of his signature poems written in a form he made famous. As usual, the speaker addresses the reader directly in a dramatic monologue. The speaker is viewing the corpse recently slain (as I read it) of someone he once knew as a boy in the fields and among the animals they tended, and what strikes him is the indifference of the dead man to any more abuse in this life. The dead man has already embarked on another voyage, albeit suddenly - 'the sudden surprise of the change' from life to death. A violent and sudden death at the speaker's hands? Perhaps. But the transition is not 'exquisite' by any means! The final couplet is a direct address to someone in the room to 'cover the face'!
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JOSEPH POEWHIT (7/10/2009 5:24:00 AM)
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How a face reflects the burdens of life. A last testimonial of man's mask of remembrance, against the forces of good and evil.
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Dimitris(Jimmy) Psachos (7/10/2007 10:56:00 AM)
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Exquisite transport of a plain human life to the otherworld. Could've been a little spicier though...!
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Katie Berry (7/10/2006 4:15:00 PM)
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I found this poem a bit creepy, but a morbid fascination drew me to it.
Best wishes,
Katie
~*~
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