Lyric Poem · Peace
Prospice
1Fear death? to feel the fog in my throat,
2 The mist in my face,
3When the snows begin, and the blasts denote
4 I am nearing the place,
5The power of the night, the press of the storm,
6 The post of the foe;
7Where he stands, the Arch Fear in a visible form,
8 Yet the strong man must go:
9For the journey is done and the summit attained,
10 And the barriers fall,
11Though a battle's to fight ere the guerdon be gained,
12 The reward of it all.
13I was ever a fighter, so — one fight more,
14 The best and the last!
15I would hate that death bandaged my eyes, and forbore,
16 And bade me creep past,
17No! let me taste the whole of it, fare like my peers
18 The heroes of old,
19Bear the brunt, in a minute pay glad life's arrears
20 Of pain, darkness, and cold.
21For sudden the worst turns the best to the brave,
22 The black minute's at end,
23And the elements' rage, the fiend-voices that rave,
24 Shall dwindle, shall blend,
25Shall change, shall become first a peace out of pain,
26 Then a light, then thy breast,
27O thou soul of my soul! I shall clasp thee again,
28 And with God be the rest!
Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.
“Prospice” by Robert Browning — quilloak.com/poems/prospice
Quick facts
- Poem
- Prospice
- Poet
- Robert Browning
- Length
- 28 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem
- Themes
- Peace, Death & Loss, Nature
Craft notes
How this poem works
Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.
- Shape
- 28 lines · 2 stanzas of 14 lines
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Text, source & rights
A traceable edition
Full-text display is based on the committed source record and a United States term-expiry review.
- Author record
- Robert Browning1812–1889
- Source record
- PoetryDBProspice by robert-browning, PoetryDB transcription
- Display decision
- Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
- Publication record
- Not recorded in the imported source
- Text fingerprint
- SHA-256 6299e36fc6925799…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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