Few poets of comparable stature have so needed a new critic. Browning's mode is ironic, his characters frequently both hero and villian, his techniques those of John Donne. But he was early captured by enthusiasts who misread his poetry to support the cause of virtue — optimism, spirituality, and faith. In this modern critical reading his poetry stands forth once again, freed from fifty years of adoration and abuse. Behind the formidable aura of mid-Victorian moralism Dr. Roma King finds a new poet. To him Browning is the earliest of moderns. No poet has insisted more strenuously on the complexity of human motives, the illusion of appearances, on ambiguity. Mr. King carefully analyzes selected poems in terms of structure, point of view, dramatis personae, imagery, wit, irony, and rhythm. Within this framework of modern criticism, Browning takes his rightful place as a forerunner of Ezra Pound. Mr. King shows the way to a fresh, sensitive appreciation of the nineteenth century poet who has been loved and hated, but only rarely understood.