The Lost Leader (poem)

Robert Browning
Robert Browning
Robert Browning, the poet. Photograph by Julia Margaret Cameron, 1865.

"The Lost Leader" is an 1845 poem by Robert Browning first published in his book Dramatic Romances and Lyrics. It berates William Wordsworth for what Browning considered his desertion of the liberal cause,[1] and his lapse from his high idealism.[2] More generally, it is an attack on any liberal leader who has deserted his cause. It is one of Browning's "best known, if not actually best, poems".[3]

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  3. ^ Baker, J. H (1997), "Wordsworth's 'The Warning': A New Source for Browning's 'The Lost Leader'?", Notes and Queries, 242 (3): 340–41, doi:10.1093/nq/44.3.340.