AboutTed Nesbitt Expertise I am a reference librarian and a former advanced placement English
teacher. I can help identify poems, and I can define literary
terms. In the area of literary criticism or analyses of specific
poems, my experience and interests are these: Shakespeare,
18th- and 19th-century English literature, and American literature.
I prefer short, specific questions on particular authors, poems,
terms, or literary movements. I will not edit lengthy submissions
or write students` assignments.
Experience Masters degree in English.
Highly rated volunteer at the grammar and writing section of Allexperts.com for more than two years.
Question Robert Browning was once quoted as saying something to the effect...Last night I wrote a poem that only God and I knew the meaning of. Upon re-reading the poem this morning, now, only God knows.
Can you tell me what the exact quote is?
I don't believe it was in one of his poems that he said this, but rather in one of his journals or to friends or contemporaries.
Answer Carolyn:
My eyes are blurred. I have spent the last two+ hours looking through quotation books -- about 30 -- and some biographies of Browning. I cannot find the SOURCE of the remark. In other words, I cannot find any expert who has been able to identify when and where he said or wrote the statement.
To further confuse this issue, Browning's words have been reported in at least three different versions -- all of them essentially the same, but with slight variations.
And, if that wasn't enough, OTHER people have made similar remarks. Robert Frost made a remark that he didn't understand a lot of his poetry . . . that only God did!
Anyway, I'm typing below three of the versions of the remark that I did find. I cannot, however, verify which -- if any -- was actually uttered by Browning. The remark was probably made orally and NOT written in a journal.
"Only God and I knew what it meant when I wrote it, now only God knows."
"Robert Browning was once asked the meaning of one of his more difficult poems. ‘Madam,' he replied, ‘When I wrote that only God and I knew what it meant. Now only God knows.'"
"At the time I put it down, only God and I knew what it meant. Now God only knows."
I would be very surprised if ANYONE can identify EXACTLY where or when he made the statement. You can check all the Browning entries in the quotation books at this site:
<http://www.bartleby.com>
From the reference collection, look for the quotation books -- Bartlett's, Simpson's, Columbia, etc.
Ted Nesbitt
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