"Youth" by Robert Browning

Today, I have another poem by Robert Browning for you. This one is richly laced with beautiful imagery, much like the last one by Browning I posted about here (click here to read “Meeting at Night,” and my analysis of it).

Here is the poem:

Youth

by Robert Browning

Oh, the wild joy of living; the leaping from rock to rock,
The strong rending of boughs from the fir-trees, the cool
silver shock
Of the plunge in the pool’s living water, the hunt of the bear,
And the sultriness showing the lion is couch’d in his lair.
And the meal, the rich dates yellow’d over with the gold-dust divine,
And the locust fresh steeped in the pitcher, the full draught of wine,
And the sleep in the dried riviera-channel where bulrushes tell
That the water was wont to go warbling so softly and well.
How good is man’s life, the mere living! how fit to employ
All the heart and the soul and the senses for ever in joy!

Earthly bliss. Adventurous youth. Fun. These are the things that spring to my mind when I read Browning’s “Youth.”

Let’s have some fun unpacking this one. Here is the paraphrase my 5th graders and I came up with this week:

Living is fun! You can jump on rocks, swing through trees, land in cold water, [see a bear hunting/hunt fish in the water like a bear], and [see the lion resting in his lair on a hot day/be like a lion resting in his lair on a hot day]. You can eat great-tasting food, like golden dates. You can drink fresh tea, a full cup of wine, and sleep in a dried riverbed surrounded by water plants, which remind us that the water used to run here. How wonderful it is to just live! How perfect life is to make every part of us happy.

Once you see the words of the poem in plain prose, it is easy to derive the synthesized, total meaning of the poem. Here, Browning writes about joie de vivre—the exuberant joy of just living. And, once again, here we see Browning’s talent for using images almost exclusively in order to convey his main idea. He chooses the most joyful (and some very primal) images, which I hope you have tried to conjure in your imagination: leaping from rock to rock in a river, swinging from trees and landing in cold water, the hunt of a bear, a lion lounging in his lair, gorging oneself on luxurious foods, and sleeping it off in a dried riverbed.

Sigh. What fun.

I chose to teach this poem to my 5th grade class alongside Anne of Green Gables. I know few people other than Anne Shirley who can convey a sense of joie de vivre as well! After finishing our analysis of the poem, the students recalled quotes from Anne Shirley which made them think Robert Browning might be her “kindred spirit.” And, they also made insightful connections to the utter joy of Pollyanna Whittier, who they haven’t read about since they were in 3rd grade!

Does this poem bring anyone to mind for you? Tell me about them, fictional or not, in the comments!