1868. After mentioning the circumstances under which the revival of the
poem was forced on him, Browning says:

"The thing was my earliest attempt at 'poetry always dramatic
in principle, and so many utterances of so many imaginary
persons, not mine,' which I have since written according to a
scheme less extravagant and scale less impracticable than
were ventured upon in this crude preliminary sketch--a sketch
that, on reviewal, appears not altogether wide of some hint
of the characteristic features of that particular _dramatis
persona_ it would fain have reproduced: good draughtsmanship,
however, and right handling were far beyond the artist at
that time."

In a note to the collected edition of 1889, Browning adds:

"Twenty years' endurance of an eyesore seems more than
sufficient; my faults remain duly recorded against me, and I
claim permission to somewhat diminish these, so far as style
is concerned, in the present and final edition."

A revised text follows, in which, while many "faults" are indeed
"diminished," it is difficult not to feel at times as if the foot-notes
had got into the text.

_Pauline_ is the confession of an unnamed poet to the woman whom he
loves, and whose name is given in the title. It is a sort of spiritual
autobiography; a record of sensations and ideas, rather than of deeds.
"The scenery is in the chambers of thought; the agencies are powers and
passions; the events are transitions from one state of spiritual