Victorian Verse - The Best Thing in the World - Elizabeth Barrett Browning

This poem reminds me of the song from "The Sound of Music", a hugely popular musical, filmed in 1965, with lyrics and music by Rogers and Hammerstein.  It shot Julie Andrews to stardom and the opening scene, with her twirling around on a mountainside singing "The Hills are Alive..." has passed into legend.  "Favorite Things" starts:

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens

Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens
Brown paper packages tied up with string
These are a few of my favorite things

and goes on to list a number of other "favorite things".  You can listen to and read the song sung by Andrews here.

The poem was published posthumously in 1862 in the two volume "Last Works", as was the next in the selection, "Died". It is, therefore, difficult to fit it into the chronology of her life.  However, as there is a clear reference to Robert in the poem, we can assume it was written either during the period of her courtship or after her marriage.

The poem is deceptively simple and tightly controlled, being enclosed by the repeated lines "What's the best thing in the world?".  This gives the last line an added element of surprise.   It is written in iambic tetrameter which gives it a light-hearted, bouncy rhythm.  The rhyme-scheme is largely irregular, although a very limited variety of rhymes is used.   The poem may sound simple, but it is built on literary and classical allusions. EBB was versed in a number of languages, including the Classics and Hebrew, and had read a vast amount of literature.  She also had a religious upbringing and seems to have retained her faith throughout her life.   The seriousness of her message is supported by the scholarly references and a possible interpretation of the final line.  However, it is not a sonnet – usually used for “serious” love poetry – so it may indeed be a playful “diversion” or “divertimento” poem.  The line on Love, discussed below, certainly suggests a tone of whimsy.

What's the best thing in the world?

The poem starts with a rhetorical question, the direct address reminiscent of the opening of “Grief”.  She then continues with two images, drawn from nature:

June-rose, by May-dew impearled;

Sweet south-wind, that means no rain;

This is “Raindrops on roses”, with the drops of dew likened to pearls.  “Impearled” as a word goes back to Middle English, but is usually only found in poetry.  Browning’s language is usually vernacular rather than literary, so this may be a deliberate echo of John Milton in Book V of “Paradise Lost”:

Dewdrops which the sun

Impearls on every leaf and every flower

The link between “dewdrops” and “pearls” can also be found in Shakespeare, when Puck says:

I must go seek some dewdrops here,

And hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear.                     A Midsummer Night’s Dream

The south wind, or sirocco, is usually drier than others, as it travels overland from Africa.

Truth, not cruel to a friend;
Pleasure, not in haste to end;
Beauty, not self-decked and curled
Till its pride is over-plain;

Light, that never makes you wink;

Memory, that gives no pain;

EBB now personifies ideas from Greek mythology - Truth or Aletheia, which means not just “telling the Truth” but also being open and sincere, and two Graces or Charites.  The Charites were the daughters of Zeus and Euronyme, a ocean goddess.  They are often referred to as “The Three Graces” – Beauty, Charm and Joy (Pleasure).  The actual number, and their attributes, varies.  Memory or Greek Mnemosyne, was mother of the Muses, the inspirational personifications of the arts and sciences.  

EBB recognises that virtues can masquerade as vices, so she qualifies each by a descriptor of what she means - Truth without hurtful bluntness; Pleasure which is not self-serving; Beauty which is natural and not adorned with make-up and elaborate hairstyles so that it becomes a form of pride; Light that is never so blinding as to make you shut your eyes; Memory that does not recall negative experiences.  

The last attribute is Love – not one of the Greek charites, but a Christian virtue (as in Faith, Hope, Charity – usually modernised to Love).  However, this Love is more secular:

Love, when, so, you're loved again.

Elizabeth is being playful.  She means Love that is reciprocated – returned.  And to demonstrate this, she breaks off - “so” - to kiss Robert.  The “so” means “like this”.  Notice it is italicised in the anthology – I have boldened it here to show her deliberate choice of typography, which is presumably reproduced from her manuscript.  (I cannot find the manuscript online to check).  Even so, the punctuation – with the “so” separated by commas – suggests she is breaking her train of thought, as otherwise the line would have the same syntax as those preceding:

Love, when you’re loved again.

She ends as she began with a rhetorical question – and gives a somewhat ambiguous answer.

What's the best thing in the world?
--Something out of it, I think.

This last line can be variously interpreted.  It could mean “something out of the above list” or “something that can be taken out of the world”, as in “found in the world.”  However, a better interpretation is that she is acknowledging that all of the items in her list are given by God – something literally “out of it (the world)”.  The wonders of nature and Virtues, as those listed, can only be enjoyed by the grace of God.  This is the same affirmation as at the end of “Sonnet XXIV”:  “God only, who made us rich, can make us poor.”