"Yes," I answered you last night;
"No," this morning, sir, I say:
Colours seen by candlelight
Will not look the same by day.
(from The Lady's "Yes", 1844)
English poet, the wife of Robert Browning, the most respected and
successful woman poet of the Victorian period, considered seriously
for the laureateship that eventually was awarded to Tennyson in
1850. Elizabeth Browning's greatest work, SONNETS FROM THE PORTUGUESE
(1850), is a sequence of love sonnets addresses to her husband.
Her vivid intelligence and ethereal physical appearance made a lifelong
impression to all of the friends of the Browning's, among them Ruskin,
Carlyle, Thackeray, Rossetti, Hawthorne, and many others.
Elizabeth Browning was born in Coxhoe Hall, Durham. Her father
was Edward Moulton Barrett, whose wealth was derived from Jamaican
plantations. She grew up in the west of England and was largely
educated at home by a tutor, quickly learning Latin and Greek and
to read and write avidly. At the age of 14 she wrote her first collection
of verse, THE BATTLE OF MARATHON. It was followed by AN ESSAY ON
MIND (1826), privately printed at her father's expense, and a translation
of PROMETHEUS BOUND (1833) with other poems, which appeared anonymously.
Her first work to gain critical attention was THE SERAPHIM, AND
OTHER POEMS (1838).
In the early 1820s she injured her spine in a riding accident,
and was long an invalid, using morphine for the pains for the rest
of her life. In 1832 the Barrett family moved to Sidmouth and in
1835 to London, where she began to contribute to several periodicals.
In 1838, seriously ill as a result of a broken blood-vessel, she
was sent to Torquay. After the death of her brother, who drowned
in Torqauy, she developed an almost morbid fear of meeting anyone,
and devoted herself entirely to literature. When her POEMS (1844)
appeared, it gained a huge popularity and was praised among others
by the American writer Edgar Allan Poe. Elizabeth Browning's name
was mentioned six years later in speculations about the successor
of Wordsworth as the poet laureate.
At the age of 39 she started a correspondence with the poet Robert
Browning, who knew well her work. Their courtship was kept a close
secret from her father, who had forbidden all 12 of his sons and
daughters to marry. Next year she ran away from her tyrannical father.
In September 1846 she married Robert Browning and they settled a
week later in Florence. Casa Guide became their base for the rest
of Elizabeth's life, although they visited Rome, Siena, Bagni di
Lucca, Paris, and London. Their only child, Robert Wiedemann (known
as Penini), was born in 1849.
In her late years Elisabeth Browning developed an interest in spiritualism
and the Italian independence movement. She became a supporter of
Italian unity, which she advocated in CASA GUIDI WINDOWS (1851).
She also opposed slavery in her books THE RUNAWAY SLAVE AT PILGRIM'S
POINT (1849) and in the political POEMS BEFORE CONGRESS (1860).
Her magnum opus, AURORA LEIGHT (1857), was a novel in blank verse
about a woman writer, her childhood and pursuit of a literary career.
It also dealt such themes as the poet's mission, social responsibilities,
and the position of women. LAST POEMS (1862), issued posthumously,
contained some of her best-known lyrics.
Elizabeth Browning died on June 29, 1861 in Florence. Among her
best-known lyrics is Sonnets from the Portuguese - the 'Portugese'
being her husband's petname for dark-haired Elizabeth, but it could
refer to the series of sonnets of the 16th-century Portuguese poet
Luiz de Camões. It first appeared in a collected edition in 1850.
The work includes the sonnet which begins with the well-known line,
'How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.'
Nay, if there's room for poets in this world
A little overgrown (I think there is),
Their sole work is to represent the age,
Their age, not Charlemagne's.
For further reading: The Life of Elizabeth Barrett Browning
by G. Taplin (1957); Mrs Browning: A Poet's Work and its Setting
by A. Hayter (1962); Brownings by Osbert Burdett (1971); Elizabeth
Barrett Browning by Virginia L. Radley (1972); Elizabeth Barrett
Browing by Irene Willis (1972); Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning:
An Annotated Bibliography, 1951-1970 by William S. Peterson (1974);
Elizabeth Barrett Browning: The Origins of a New Poetry by Dorothy
Mermin (1989); Elizabeth Barrett Browning: An Annotated Bibliography
of the Commentary and Criticism, 1826-1990 by Sandra Donaldson
(1993); Dared and Done: The Marriage of Elizabeth Barrett and
Robert Browning by Julia Markus (1995); Elizabeth Barrett Browning
by Marjorie Stone (1995); Elizabeth Barrett Browning by Barbara
Dennis (1996) - Note: Rainer Maria Rilke translated into German
some of Elisabeth Browning's sonnets. - Note: Stonecutter Harriet
Hosmer was one of the models for Aurora Leigh - See also: Emily
Dickinson ; Hans Christian Andersen
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