Hello and welcome to Frank Skinner's poetry podcast. Now previously in this series I discussed

the poetry of Elizabeth Barrett Browning and pointed out that in her day she was a more

celebrated poet than I think what has now become her more famous husband, Robert Browning.

However, don't get me wrong as Chrissy Hind once said, I love Robert Browning and think he

is brilliant and therefore that's who I want to talk about today. One other thing that they've

got in common apart from their love for each other which I spoke of on the Elizabeth Barrett Browning

podcast is that they both decided they wanted to be poets when they were small children. The kids

still do that. I find that hard to imagine. Anyway Robert Browning was born in 1812 and died in

Venice in 1889 and I personally discovered him at school when we were encouraged to read the

Pied Piper of Hamlin which was a Robert Browning poem particularly designed for children although

it is certainly dark in parts but it's one of those poems that feel so good on the lips, the

rhyming and the rhythm of it. It's just a joy to read. It's not the poem I want to focus on today

because I think to do Robert Browning and not do a dramatic monologue would be just

crazy but I just want to give you a bit of the Pied Piper of Hamlin because it just sounds so

lively and exciting and as I say the rhyme is sparkling like a firework display so this is

sounds a two of that poem rats but bear in mind that Hamlin by the way that the the town of

Hamlin was overrun with rats so this is Browning's description of what that was like rats they thought

the dogs and killed the cats and bit the babies in the cradles and ate the cheese out of the vats

and lit the soup from the cook's own ladles split open the kegs of salted sprouts made nests

inside men's Sunday hats and even spoiled the women's chats by drowning their speaking with

shrieking and squeaking in 50 different sharps and flats oh man it's like a workout it's

exhilarating to read the poem I want to focus on however is my last duchess and if you know

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