[lbo-talk] Pippa Passes was EU gets serious

Carrol Cox cbcox at ilstu.edu
Tue May 11 06:41:15 PDT 2010


Wendy Lyon wrote:
>
>
> But still, I'm impressed by your unfailing ability to put a positive
> spin on everything the EU leaders do.

Not very many people read Browning's _Pippa Passes_, though the song from that play is printed in innumerable anthologies and widely known.

Pippa works in a millll, and has one day off a year. And unnfailingly cheerful youg lady, she spends that day skipping merrily about the town taking in the glory of God's creation and singing her little ditty.

That merely ties together the various episodes of the play. We find out what is passing withn the homes and businesses that Pippa passes on her merry way. Unmitigated disaster and evil. It's been a decade or so since I read it and I can't remember any of the details, but Pippa's song of hope and cheer floating through the windows of these locations of horror merely underlines that horror.

Carrol



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