Robert Browning

The Ring and the Book

• Bk 1 ln. 84-90: (422)

Here it is, this I toss and take again:
Small quarto-size, part print part manuscript:
A book in shape but, really, pure crude fact
Secreted from man's life when heart beats hard,
And brains, high-blooded, ticked two centuries since. 
Give it me back! The thing's restorative 
I' the touch and sight.