"Why?" Because all I haply can and do,

All that I am now, all I hope to be,--

Whence comes it save from fortune setting free

Body and soul the purpose to pursue,

God traced for both? If fetters, not a few,

Of prejudice, convention, fall from me,

These shall I bid men--each in his degree

Also God-guided--bear, and gayly too?

But little do or can the best of us:

That little is achieved thro' Liberty. 10

Who then dares hold, emancipated thus,

His fellow shall continue bound? not I,

Who live, love, labour freely, nor discuss

A brother's right to freedom. That is "Why."

Robert Browning's Poems - Complete Text

Robert Browning's Poems E-Text contains the full text of Robert Browning's Poems

• Chronological List of Browning's Works
• Introduction: Life Of Browning
• Introduction: Browning As Poet
• Introduction: Appreciations
• Introduction: Bibliography
• The Pied Piper Of Hamelin
• Tray
• Incident Of The French Camp
• How They Brought The Good News From Ghent To AIX
• Herve Riel
• Pheidippides
• My Star
• Evelyn Hope
• Love Among The Ruins
• Misconceptions
• Natural Magic
• Apparitions
• A Wall
• Confessions
• A Women's Last Word
• A Pretty Woman
• Youth And Art
• A Tale
• Cavalier Tunes: Marching Along
• Cavalier Tunes: Give A Rouse
• Cavalier Tunes: Boot And Saddle
• Home-Thoughts, From The Sea
• Summum Bonum
• A Face
• Songs From Pippa Passes
• The Lost Leader
• Apparent Failure
• Fears And Scruples
• Instans Tyrannus
• The Patriot
• The Boy And The Angel
• Memorabilia
• Why I Am A Liberal
• Prospice
• Epilogue To "Asolando"
• "De Gustibus - -"
• The Italian In England
• My Last Duchess
• The Bishop Orders His Tomb At Saint Praxed's Church
• The Laboratory
• Home Thoughts, From Abroad
• Up At A Villa - - Down In The City
• A Toccata Of Galuppi's
• Abt Vogler
• Rabbi Ben Ezra
• A Grammarian's Funeral
• Andrea Del Sarto
• Caliban Upon Setebos Or, Natural Theology In The Island
• "Childe Roland To The Dark Tower Came"
• An Epistle
• Saul
• One Word More
• Notes
• Sources