The substance of thought in it and its intellectual force are just as strong as in _Sordello_ or _Paracelsus_, and are concerned, especially in the first two pieces, with serious and weighty matters of human life.

Beyond the pleasure the poem gives, its indirect teaching is full of truth and beauty; and the things treated of belong to many phases of human life, and touch their problems with poetic light and love.

Pippa herself, in her affectionate, natural goodness, illuminates the greater difficulties of life in a single day more than Sordello or Paracelsus could in the whole course of their lives.
It may be that there are persons who think lightly of _Pippa Passes_ in comparison with _Fifine at the Fair_, persons who judge poetry by the difficulties they find in its perusal.

But _Pippa Passes_ fulfils the demands of the art of poetry, and produces in the world the high results of lovely and noble poetry.

The other only does these things in part; and when _Fifine at the Fair_ and even _Sordello_ are in the future only the study of pedants, _Pippa Passes_ will be an enduring strength and pleasure to all who love tenderly and think widely.