Playwright and British poet Robert Browning was a master of dramatic monologues and verse, making him one of the prominent Victorian authors. His most famous work is the 303 lines of the narrative poem The Pied Piper of Hamelin, a Child’s Story. It is a classic tale of Hamelin, a town desperate to remove the rats overwhelming it. The mysterious pied piper lures the rats away, but the townsfolk won’t pay him, so he entices all the children away using the same method.
All the little boys and girls,
With rosy cheeks and flaxen curls,
And sparkling eyes and teeth like pearls,
Tripping and skipping, ran merrily after
The wonderful music with shouting and laughter.
The Mayor was dumb, and the Council stood
As if they were changed into blocks of wood,
Unable to move a step, or cry
To the children merrily skipping by—
And could only follow with the eye
That joyous crowd at the Piper’s back.
