<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=116382" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>House</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">I</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Shall I sonnet-sing you about myself?<br> Do I live in a house you would like to see?<br>Is it scant of gear, has it store of pelf?<br> "Unlock my heart with a sonnet-key?"</div><div style="margin:10px 0">II</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Invite the world, as my betters have done?<br> "Take notice: this building remains on view,<br>Its suites of reception every one,<br> Its private apartment and bedroom too;</div><div style="margin:10px 0">III</div><div style="margin:10px 0">"For a ticket, apply to the Publisher."<br> No: thanking the public I must decline.<br>A peep through my window, if folk prefer;<br> But, please you, no foot over threshold of mine!</div><div style="margin:10px 0">IV</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I have mixed with a crowd and heard free talk<br> In a foreign land where an earthquake chanced;<br>And a house stood gaping, nought to balk<br> Man's eye wherever he gazed or glanced.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">V</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The whole of the frontage shaven sheer,<br> The inside gaped: exposed to day,<br>Right and wrong and common and queer,<br> Bare, as the palm of your hand, it lay.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">VI</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The owner? Oh, he had been crushed, no doubt!<br> "Odd tables and chairs for a man of wealth!<br>What a parcel of musty old books about!<br> He smoked,—no wonder he lost his health!</div><div style="margin:10px 0">VII</div><div style="margin:10px 0">"I doubt he bathed before he dressed.<br> A brasier?—the pagan, he burned perfumes!<br>You see it is proved, what the neighbours guessed:<br> His wife and himself had separate rooms."</div><div style="margin:10px 0">VIII</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Friends, the goodman of the house at least<br> Kept house to himself till an earthquake came:<br>'Tis the fall of its frontage permits you feast<br> On the inside arrangement you praise or blame.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">IX</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Outside should suffice for evidence:<br> And whoso desires to penetrate<br>Deeper, must dive by the spirit sense—<br> No optics like yours, at any rate!</div><div style="margin:10px 0">X</div><div style="margin:10px 0">"Hoity toity! A street to explore,<br> Your house the exception! 'With this same key<br>Shakespeare unlocked his heart,' once more!"<br> Did Shakespeare? If so, the less Shakespeare he!</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Robert+Browning">Robert Browning</a> from <i>Pacchiarotto</i><div class=q> <img src="https://www.citatepedia.ro/g/32share.png" style="float:left" alt="Share"> <script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=116382" data-title="House de Robert Browning" data-description="I/Shall I sonnet-sing you about myself?/ Do I live in a house you would like to see?/Is it scant of gear, has it store of pelf?/ "Unlock my heart with a sonnet-key?"/II/Invite the world, as my betters have done?/ "Take notice: this building remain..."></div> </div> </div>

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