The likeness of Sordello to Shelley [Footnote: Browning himself pointed
out a similarity between them, in the opening of Book 1.] is marked in
the ravages of his genius upon his flesh, so that at the climax of the
poem he, though still a young man, is gray and haggard and fragile.
Though ill-health is a handicap to him, the poet's subjection to
themutability that governs the mundane sphere is less important, some
persons would declare, in the matter of beauty and health than in the
matter of sex. Can a poetic spirit overcome the calamity of being cast
by Fate into the body of a woman?
As the battle of feminism dragged its bloody way through all fields of
endeavor in the last century, of their complaint must be significant. A
jumping toothache would hardly be an advantage to a sufferer in turning
his thoughts to poesy. Since verse writers recoil from the suggestion
that dyspepsia is the name of their complaint, let us ask them to
explain its real character to us. To take one of our earliest examples,
what is the malady of William Lisles Bowles' poet, of whom we learn,
Too long had sickness left her pining trace
With slow still touch on each decaying grace;
Untimely sorrow marked his thoughtful mien;
Despair upon his languid smile was seen.
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