Vulgar words in An Introduction to the Study of Robert Browning's Poetry (Page 1)

This book at a glance

ass x 1
damn x 1
            

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Wherever a fresco peels and drops, Wherever an outline weakens and wanes Till the latest life in the painting stops, Stands One whom each fainter pulse-tick pains: One, wishful each scrap should clutch the brick, Each tinge not wholly escape the plaster, --A lion who dies of an ass's kick, The wronged great soul of an ancient Master.

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: The speaker imputes this remark to some one; the meaning is, if you really knew these old Christian painters, you would deal them your mite of praise, damn them, perhaps, with faint praise, and no more.

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