And  my  soul  only  sees  thy  soul  its  own?
O  love,  my  love!  if  I  no  more  should  see
Thyself,  nor  on  the  earth  the  shadow  of  thee.
Nor  image  of  thine  eyes  in  any  spring,  —

How  then  should  sound  upon  Life's  darkening  slope.
The  ground-whirl  of  the  perish'd  leaves  of  Hope,

The  wind  of  Death's  imperishable  wing?"


ART  SHIBBOLETHS  271

Browning's  criticism  of  painting  was  evi-
dently much  influenced  by  the  pre-Ilaphaehtes.
Their  admiration  for  the  painters  who  pre-
ceded Raphael,  revealing  as  it  did  to  them  an
art  not  satisfied  with  itself,  but  reaching
after  higher  things,  and  earnestly  seeking  to
interpret  nature  and  human  life,  is  echoed
in  his  "Old  Pictures  in  Florence,"  which
was  written  but  six  years  after  Hunt,  Millais,
and  Rossetti  formed  their  brotherhood.  In
poetry,  they  did  not  eschew  classical  subjects,
as  Browning  did  for  the  most  part,  but  they
treated  these  subjects  in  a  romantic  spirit,
and  so  removed  them  from  the  sort  of  stric-
tures that  Browning  made  upon  the  perfection
of  Greek  art.
