“‘although she has some other name’: il nome di Balaustion in Robert Browning”

The speaker in Balaustion’s Adventure, a character created by Browning, is a Rhodian woman whose name means “wild pomegranate flower”. This essay examines Browning’s choice of the name and analyses its possible meanings. The pomegranate, celebrated in Greek mythology, in the Bible, in ancient and modern poetry and art, has many symbolic implications. In this sense, it is particularly appropriate to Balaustion who blends within herself all the metaphorical dimensions inherent in the pomegranate and is imbued with additional meaning through the identification with poetry. It is only poetry, in fact, that is able to grant salvation and immortality.