Elizabeth Barrett Browning, oil on canvas by Michele Gordigiani, 1858.
The Granger Collection, New York
A
Quick Overview
She was born
born on March 6, 1806,
near Durham, Durham, England and died in her husband's (Robert
Browning's) arms on
June 29, 1861, Florence, Italy. She is remembered
as an English poet whose
reputation rests chiefly upon her love poems,
Sonnets from the Portuguese and Aurora Leigh, now considered an
early feminist text. During
their lifetimes, she was certainly more famous than her husband and, for many,
was considered the superior poet.
Her works address a wide range of issues and ideas, including slavery in
America, Greek and Italian nationalism, women's rights, and the role of art in
society. She was learned and thoughtful, influencing many of her contemporaries,
including Robert Browning.
Comments: Another Victorian whom I
admire.
Her
Life
Links
Her
Works (Some!)
Links
Elizabeth
was the eldest child of Edward Barrett Moulton (later Edward Moulton Barrett).
Most of her girlhood was spent at a country house within sight of the Malvern
Hills, in Worcestershire, where she was extraordinarily happy. At the age of 15,
however, she fell seriously ill, probably as the result of a spinal injury, and
her health was permanently affected. In 1832 the family moved to Sidmouth,
Devon, and in 1836 they moved to London, where, in 1838, they took up residence
at 50 Wimpole Street.
In London she contributed to several periodicals, and her first collection,
The Seraphim and Other Poems, appeared in 1838. For reasons of health, she
spent the next three years in Torquay, Devon, but after the death by drowning of
her brother, Edward, she developed an almost morbid terror of meeting anyone
apart from a small circle of intimates.
Her name, however, was well known in literary circles, and in 1844 her second
volume of poetry, Poems, by E. Barrett Barrett, was enthusiastically received.
In January 1845 she received from the poet Robert Browning a telegram: “I love
your verses with all my heart, dear Miss Barrett. I do, as I say, love these
books with all my heart—and I love you too.” In early summer the two met. Their
courtship (whose daily progress is recorded in their letters) was kept a close
secret from Elizabeth's despotic father, of whom she stood in some fear. Sonnets
from the Portuguese (1850) records her reluctance to marry, but their wedding
had taken place on September 12, 1846. Her father knew nothing of it, and
Elizabeth continued to live at home for a week.
The Brownings then left for Pisa. (When Barrett died in 1856, Elizabeth was
still unforgiven.) While in Pisa she wrote The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim's Point
(Boston, 1848; London, 1849), a protest against slavery in the United States.
The couple then settled in Florence, where their only child, Robert Wiedemann
Barrett, was born in 1849. In 1851 and in 1855 the couple visited London; during
the second visit, Elizabeth completed her most ambitious work, Aurora Leigh
(1857), a long blank-verse poem telling the complicated and melodramatic love
story of a young girl and a misguided philanthropist. This work did not impress
most critics, though it was a huge popular success.
During the last years of her life, Mrs. Browning developed an interest in
spiritualism and the occult, but her energy and attention were chiefly taken up
by an obsession, to a degree that alarmed her closest friends, with Italian
politics. Casa Guidi Windows (1851) had been a deliberate attempt to win
sympathy for the Florentines, and she continued to believe in the integrity of
Napoleon III. In Poems Before Congress (1860), the poem "A Curse for a Nation"
was mistaken for a denunciation of England, whereas it was aimed at U.S.
slavery.
In the summer of 1861 Mrs. Browning suffered a severe chill and died.
"Browning,
Elizabeth
Barrett." Encyclopędia
Britannica.
2008.
Encyclopędia Britannica Online.
20 June 2008
<http://search.eb.com/eb/article-9016722>.
