Ah, you have it, American Mother. Well, I hope you are in a position to teach!!
Lots of people don't like Browning but he has some awfully good things. This is one of them.
II. At the meal we sit together:
Salve tibi! I must hear
Wise talk of the kind of weather,
Sort of season, time of year:
Not a plenteous cork-crop: scarcely
Dare we hope oak-galls, I doubt:
What's the Latin name for ``parsley''?
What's the Greek name for Swine's Snout?
It's great.
I teach occasionally -- used to be an adjunct professor in the local law school, I still sub in to my daughter's school to teach Ancient Greek, beekeeping, points of the horse, and similar arcane matters. (g) I was a history major undergraduate and that's still my first love, but law is pretty neat too. (Not all lawyers are bad. When I had to get an arthrogram on my knee -- this was before MRIs -- the doc asked me what I did for a living. I said, "I don't know if this is the time or place to reveal this, but I'm a lawyer." He yelled to the nursing assistant . . . "Hey, Charlie! Get the BIG needle! The RUSTY one!" I said, "Hey wait a minute, I don't sue doctors, I defend them!" (true). He replied, "Oh, they ALL say that when they get here." ) ;-D
Browning is a little uneven but his best work is wonderful. Bunch of nice ones here, this one's a good one:
Selected Poems of Robert Browning