ceremony and pride have driven the blood, leaving him but a fumigated
and embalmed self". The scene of the poem is a "rough north land",
subject to a Kaiser of Germany. The story is so plainly told
that no prose summary of it could make it plainer. Its deeper meaning
centres in the incantation of the old gypsy woman, in which
is mystically shadowed forth the long and painful discipline
through which the soul must pass before being fully admitted
to the divine arcanum, "how love is the only good in the world".

The poem is one which readily lends itself to an allegorical
interpretation. For such an interpretation, the reader is referred to
Mrs. Owen's paper, read before the Browning Society of London,
and contained in the Society's Papers, Part IV., pp. 49* et seq.
It is too long to be given here.




The Last Ride Together.



"The speaker is a man who has to give up the woman he loves;
but his love is probably reciprocated, however inadequately,
for his appeal for `a last ride together' is granted.
The poem reflects his changing moods and thoughts as
`here we are riding, she and I'. `Fail I alone in words and deeds?
Why, all men strive, and who succeeds?' Careers, even careers
called `successful', pass in review -- statesmen, poets, sculptors,
musicians -- each fails in his ideal, for ideals are not attainable