Robert Browning

1882 caricature of Robert Browning
from Punch Magazine, 22nd July 1882, page 34
author: Edward Linley Sambourne
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Robert_browning_cartoon-1-.png)
no copyright infringement intended

It's a fancy dream that I'm indulging in right now: I am in Notting Hill on Portobello Road, in the shop of an antiquarian, browsing a volume by this guy Robert Browning,  looking for a word he used in one of his poems (I'm not remembering which one, it's not that simple): a word that was mentioned in a discussion I attended not long ago - a discussion about poets and about words. Actually the discussion took place just today, on a web forum, and it was precisely about that word, encountered at Browning, at Keats, and at Poe. I will let you know which word it was, of course, only not now, just let me enjoy my dream of being in Notting Hill.

Is this the dream I have? Or rather am I browsing old issues of the Punch, looking for funny cartoons of the Victorian age?

• Porphyria's Lover

(A Life in Books)