WorkRobert Browning

Bells and Pomegranates

Bells and Pomegranates series including Dramatic Romances and Lyrics (1845), Inferred

ExcerptedAnalyzedQuotedReadMentioned

Documented 1845–1849

Letters • Books • Essays

Selected engagements, in chronological order.

Totals count documented engagements, once at the earliest witness. How we count →

Reprints, Memoirs passages, and repeat notes within a single manuscript are shown but never counted twice. Evidence for this work is selective, not exhaustive. Methodology →

DemonstratedConfirmed readingEvidence ↓

Confirmed reading

Passages where the evidence goes beyond allusion to indicate that Fuller had this work in hand — an explicit statement of reading, sustained excerpting or translation, or a specific reading episode recorded by those who knew her.

undatedBells and Pomegranates (explanatory note)Demonstrated
“Here ends my first series of Bells and Pomegranates,' and I take the opportunity of explaining, in reply to inquiries, that I only meant by that title to indicate an endeavour...”
Papers on Literature and Art
Substantial ~13-line verbatim quotation of Browning's explanatory note on Bells and Pomegranates.

When Fuller engaged with this work

I. Childhood

II. Adolescence

III. Self-Directed

IV. Transcendentalist

V. New York

VI. Europe9records

✦. Memoirs (1852)

1810

1820

1832

1836

1844

1846

1850

1845—

Papers on Literature and Art

p26

read

“Or from Browning some "Pomegranate," which, if cut deep down the middle, / Shows a heart within, blood-tinctured, of a veined humanity.”

Fuller, Margaret. Papers on Literature and Art. New York: Wiley and Putnam, 1846.

Inferred Named in Barrett's poem as 'from Browning some Pomegranate' — refers to the Bells and Pomegranates series. Named in Barrett's 'Lady Geraldine's Courtship' (quoted by Fuller). 'A Pomegranate' is Barrett's affectionate shorthand for a number of Browning's Bells and Pomegranates pamphlets (Nos.

1846—

Letter to Evert A. Duyckinck

p211

analyzed · read

“Please thank Mr Mathews for the loan of Brownings 'Luria' is new and I hope a pleasure from reading it.”

Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. IV. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1987.

1846—

Papers on Literature and Art

p31

excerpted · analyzed · quoted · read

“we are desirous to diffuse the knowledge that there is such a person, thinking and writing [...] we would turn rather to the consideration of a series of sketches, dramatic and lyric, which he has been publishing for several years, under the title of "Bells and Pomegranates.”

Also reprinted in New-York Daily Tribune. Counted once, at its first appearance.

Fuller, Margaret. Papers on Literature and Art. New York: Wiley and Putnam, 1846.

1846—

Browning’s Poems.

“Browning’s Poems.”

mentioned

“we wish that the “Bells and Pomegranates,” at least, may be brought within the reach of those American readers who have time and soul to wait and listen for such.”

Fuller, Margaret. "Browning’s Poems." New-York Daily Tribune, 1 April 1846. · 1 April 1846

1846—

Browning's Poems

“Browning's Poems”

analyzed · read

“But believing that our poet has not reached that epoch of mastery, when he can do himself full justice in a great work, we would turn rather to the consideration of a series of sketches, dramatic and lyric, which he has been publishing for several years, under the title of " Bells and Pomegranates.”

Fuller, Margaret. Papers on Literature and Art. New York: Wiley and Putnam, 1846. · p211

Also printed in Art, Literature, and the Drama (1869), p211; page given is to the 1869 reprint.

1847—

Letter to Evert A. Duyckinck

analyzed · read

“Admirable as Browning's sketches of Italian scenery and character seemed before, they seem far finer now that I am close to the objects.”

Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. IV. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1987.

Inferred Fuller states that Robert Browning's "sketches of Italian scenery and character" are "far finer now that I am close to the objects" and calls them "the best representation of the spirit of Italy which our day affords." She had read Browning's Italian poems from the Bells and Pomegranates series (1841–46) before coming to Italy and is re-evaluating them in situ; her claim represents a considered critical judgment of works like "My Last Duchess" and "The Englishman in Italy."

1849—

Letter to Richard F. Fuller

p181

read

“Brownings "Bells and Pomegranates" at least those whose scene is laid in Italy”

Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. V. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1988.

Hudspeth's notes confirm Fuller had reviewed this series for the New-York Daily Tribune.

1849—

Letter to Emelyn Story

p188–189

mentioned

“think you, not they be so candid as to lend me a copy of Bells and Pomegranates. I want so much to read again the poems about Italy and can't get them.”

Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. V. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1988.

1849—

Letter to Elizabeth De Windt Cranch

p203

read

“It is a shame I cannot have the "Bells" &c. It is here I want to read the Italian things again; half memories of them keep tormenting me.”

Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. V. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1988.