Source identified
Read & copy the quotation
“Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, Or what's a heaven for?”
- Source
- Andrea del Sarto
- Date
- 1855
Meaning of “Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his…”
Browning’s dramatic speaker contrasts flawless technical execution with aspiration beyond present achievement, suggesting that striving toward a higher ideal can matter even when complete attainment is impossible.
Where does it come from?
“Andrea del Sarto,” first published in Men and Women (1855), represented by Poetry Foundation. The line is spoken by Browning’s fictionalized Renaissance painter Andrea del Sarto while reflecting on artistic perfection, ambition and limitation; it is dramatic monologue rather than Browning speaking autobiographically.