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Summary Home Thoughts from Abroad
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English Edexcel GCSE Poetry Time and Place Notes
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Aleena IslamHOME THOUGHTS FROM ABROAD – Robert Browning
Themes
Fertility, abundance, veneration, home-sickness, beauty, idyll, pastoral nature
Contextual overview
Browning wrote this poem in 1845, and on the surface, it seems like a
straightforward ode – living in Italy with his family, Browning is home-sick and
nostalgic for an English spring. Spring carries with it connotations of renewal and
rebirth after the hiatus of winter – and the promise of new life. In this, Browning
owes a lot to the tradition of English romanticism and its veneration of nature.
This poem was written during the Romantic era, when most poets would praise
the countryside and highlight the perfection in nature. A pastoral sense would be
created to symbolise God’s perfect provision and depict how the English
countryside held a garden of Eden-esque atmosphere. This short lyric celebrates
the everyday and the domestic. The poet casts himself in the role of the
homesick traveller, longing for every detail of his beloved home. At this point in
his career, Browning had spent quite a bit of time in Italy, so perhaps the longing
for England has a bit of biographical urgency attached to it. The poem describes
a typical springtime scene in the English countryside, with birds singing and
flowers blooming. Browning tries to make the ordinary magical, as he describes
the thrush’s ability to recreate his transcendental song over and over again.
Key features of language, form and structure
- The exclamation, ‘oh’ which starts off the poem emphasises how much
Browning loves and admires England as well as representing his emotional
sense of longing to be back in his homeland. The fact that he makes a
physical noise (almost a sigh or exhale) to display the extent of his own
desperation to be in England compels the reader to think why the poet is
in such an emotional state. This then causes the reader to conclude that
England must be such a flawless and idyllic place, thus making the reader
want to travel to England to see its apparent beauty.
- In the first stanza, Browning emphasises that England is the place that he
desperately wants to be; ‘England … England … England.’ This repetition
is what gives the obvious impression that he is yearning to be back in his
homeland and that he has a certain love and admiration for the English
countryside. The repetition of this location could also be an imitation of
him chanting, which further depicts how much he misses his country.
- When Robert Browning goes on to illustrate the beauty of nature in
England, he builds up a sense of anticipation; ‘[whoever] sees, some
morning, unaware…’ The broken syntax (initiated by two caesuras) is
what creates a strong sense of enthusiasm and excitement for the reader
while waiting for the poet to depict the splendour of nature in the following
lines, thus expressing how spiritually and emotionally important England’s
rurality is to him.
- Browning continues to illustrate the beautiful elements of nature present
in the rural countryside of England, ‘boughs … the brushwood sheaf … tiny
leaf.’ The inclusion of natural elements in this paean demonstrates the
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