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Dost sometimes counsel take—and sometimes tea.

Dr. Furnivall (1825-1910), an eminent philologist, was the founder of the society, the first society ever formed to study the works of a living poet. From the context he may have specially admired, as he certainly threw special light upon, Browning’s Pippa Passes.

Scout at Oxford is a (male) college servant.

One fine frosty day,

My stomach being empty as your hat.

R. Browning (Fra Lippo Lippi).

The “cheekiest” line I know.

TO THE MOON

The wind is shrill on the hills, and the plover

Wheels up and down with a windy scream;

The birch has loosen’d her bright locks over

The nut-brown pools of the mountain stream:

Yet here I linger in London City,

Thinking of meadows where I was born—

And over the roofs, like a face of pity,

Up comes the Moon, with her dripping horn.

O Moon, pale Spirit, with dim eyes drinking

The sheen of the Sun as he sweepeth by,

I am looking long in those eyes, and thinking

Of one who hath loved thee longer than I;

I am asking my heart if ye Spirits cherish