Dramatic Romances

In Browning's bicentenary year, Shearsman publishes several volumes devoted to his work, starting with a collection of his shorter "long" poems, organised as the poet himself wished. 'The Pied Piper of Hamelin' is here, alongside 'My Last Duchess' and a number of other acknowledged classics, as well as poems that will be less familiar to modern readers. Browning divided his shorter long poems into groups: Dramatic Lyrics, Dramatic Romances, and Men and Women (also the title of one of his verse collections). Master of the dramatic monologue, spoken by a bewildering number of different figures, as well as by slippery, unreliable narrators, Browning often appears a far more modern figure than he is given credit for.