'O lyric love half-angel and half-bird'

Non-fiction - article
Published in The Spectator, 3rd November 1928
945 words
(First read 30/04/2014)

This was the first of two articles EFB wrote for The Spectator on the subject of the poet Browning (1812-89).  The tone of both is fairly gossipy, particularly so for this one in which Benson talks about the poet's relationship with his wife, which is mildly amusing in parts, and of his feud with another dead poet Fitzgerald* who apparently didn't reckon much to Mrs B.  I'm afraid I'm a hopeless philistine when it comes to poetry: I entirely see why it appeals to people ... but it doesn't appeal to me.
Anyway, the article is available online here.  For the follow-up article see here.



*He wasn't dead at the time, obviously.