Nature in Robert Browning’s Poems

Abstract

Different from Romantic understanding of nature, in Browning’s poems, when nature is mentioned, there are two kinds of depictions. One type is to describe nature itself only, and there is nothing symbolic one can infer from the descriptions of nature or the descriptions have little relationship with its subject, that is, nature for nature’s sake. Though some depictions are related to the subject, they present the negative aspects of nature. As illustrated in “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came”, the natural settings are forlorn and bleak, like in a wasteland.