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Read & copy
“Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, Or what's a heaven for?”
Meaning & context
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.
Source details
“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.