out-staggering

Updated: August 11, 2026

We have a grander expression of the idea from Robert Browning, who relates how the vision of Sordello arises to consciousness: Upthrust, out-staggering on the world, Subsiding into shape, a darkness rears Its outline, kindles at the core . Is this to say that the poet's intuitions, apparently so sudden, have really been long germinating in the obscure depths of his mind?

Elizabeth Atkins - The Poet's Poet : essays on the character and mission of the poet as interpreted in English verse of the last one hundred and fifty years