The runaway slave at Pilgrim's Point,

by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (March 6, 1806 – June 29, 1861) was one of the most respected poets of the Victorian era. In 1826, she published her first collection of poems, An Essay on Mind and Other Poems. Its publication drew the attention of a blind scholar of the Greek language, Hugh Stuart Boyd, and that of another Greek scholar, Uvedale Price; with both men she maintained a scholarly correspondence. Elizabeth continued to write, contributing to various periodicals "The Romaunt of Margaret", "The Romaunt of the Page", "The Poet's Vow", and other pieces, and she corresponded with literary figures of the time, including Mary Russell Mitford. In 1838, The Seraphim and Other Poems appeared, the first volume of Elizabeth's mature poetry to appear under her own name. The publication in 1843 of The Cry of the Children gave the former publication a great impulse, and about the same time she contributed some critical papers in prose to Richard Henry Horne's A New Spirit of the Age. In 1844, she published two volumes of Poems, which included "A Drama of Exile", "A Vision of Poets", and "Lady Geraldine's Courtship". The verse-novel Aurora Leigh, her most ambitious and perhaps most popular of her longer poems, appeared in 1856. It is the story of a woman writer making her way in life, balancing work and love. Among Barrett Browning's best known lyrics is Sonnets from the Portuguese (1850) - "the Portuguese" being her husband's pet name for her – to disguise the work as translations, as a means to depersonalise the work. - Wikipedia

Genres: Poetry, Classics, 19th Century, School

Unknown Binding

First published May 19, 2009

About the author

Elizabeth Barrett Browning was one of the most respected poets of the Victorian era.

Born in County Durham, the eldest of 12 children, Browning was educated at home. She wrote poetry from around the age of six and this was compiled by her mother, comprising what is now one of the largest collections extant of juvenilia by any English writer. At 15 Browning became ill, suffering from intense head and spinal pain for the rest of her life, rendering her frail. She took laudanum for the pain, which may have led to a lifelong addiction and contributed to her weak health.

In the 1830s Barrett's cousin John Kenyon introduced her to prominent literary figures of the day such as William Wordsworth, Mary Russell Mitford, Samuel Taylor Coleridge; Alfred, Lord Tennyson, and Thomas Carlyle. Browning's first adult collection The Seraphim and Other Poems was published in 1838. During this time she contracted a disease, possibly tuberculosis, which weakened her further. Living at Wimpole Street, in London, Browning wrote prolifically between 1841 and 1844, producing poetry, translation and prose. She campaigned for the abolition of slavery and her work helped influence reform in child labour legislation. Her prolific output made her a rival to Tennyson as a candidate for poet laureate on the death of Wordsworth.

Browning's volume Poems (1844) brought her great success. During this time she met and corresponded with the writer Robert Browning, who admired her work. The courtship and marriage between the two were carried out in secret, for fear of her father's disapproval. Following the wedding she was disinherited by her father and rejected by her brothers. The couple moved to Italy in 1846, where she would live for the rest of her life. They had one son, Robert Barrett Browning, whom they called Pen. Towards the end of her life, her lung function worsened, and she died in Florence in 1861. A collection of her last poems was published by her husband shortly after her death.

Browning was brought up in a strongly religious household, and much of her work carries a Christian theme. Her work had a major influence on prominent writers of the day, including the American poets Edgar Allan Poe and Emily Dickinson. She is remembered for such poems as "How Do I Love Thee?" (Sonnet 43, 1845) and Aurora Leigh (1856).

Reviews

[Chrystal 💫 · Rating 1 out of 5]

I found this poem heartbreaking and deeply moving. Browning highlights and does not shy away from the atrocities committed to the mother while adding to the grueling nature of the poem as she describes the killing of the child. But it is not lost on me that a privileged white woman who’s family owned a slave plantation wrote this poem from the pov of a slave. The fact at hand is Browning not only exploited and benefited from a black woman’s pain but for that reason alone I don’t think she should be praised for her “activism” since to my knowledge she had not done anything of potency to be named one except profit from the pain her family and others had committed against slaves.

[🫶Ali🫶 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read for class. Normally not a poetry person but this was phenomenal

[Daisy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This poem is so moving and explores the slave's pain, both physical and emotional, so deeply.
However, it is problematic that this poem was written by a white woman. Whereas this woman had the platform to promote her abolitionist leaning, and did so effectively, it is true that Browning could not possibly have understood what she was writing about in this poem. Any reading of this poem must be done with that in mind.

[Momo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Had to read this for a Victorian literature class and then critically analyze it through other literary critiques, and it really just highlighted the sheer hypocrisy of this author. A white woman whose family used to own a plantation writing a fictitious story about the "lived" horrors that black female slaves go through, instead of just using real examples, because her main audience was white men who she couldn't make feel too bad, otherwise they wouldn't pay attention to her works. This sort of critique really just highlights little parts of the story, like how the main character was never named, and the fact that Browning never even states that black women deserve rights. The story's main goal is to show the hypocrisy of the oppressors, while the author was an oppressor in the past and actively pushed the real experience of black women aside. I know the intention was probably to sway the hearts of those who could, at the time, make changes, but it just wasn't a great way to approach this kind of topic that led to the very real death of millions of individuals.

I don't think the story is badly written itself, but just with knowing all of this, it really makes certain story choices feel really disgusting. I know the collection this piece was published in at least financially supported antislavery programs, so that is at least good. I also try to remember that the times were obviously different when this was written, but I don't think that should make me read this with tinted glasses.

[Stewart Lindstrom]

Notably imperfect, but probing and effective.

[Eden]

This poem moved me despite its clear problems; intrigued how we'll tackle this in lecture.

[Angie Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this poem. It is a deeply moving depiction of a white person's interpretation of a black runaway slave's narrative voice comparing herself to the pilgrims who knelt down on the shores of Massachusetts praying and thanking God that they had reached a land of liberty and freedom. The irony in the comparison is punctuated by the realities of the black slave burying her too white child along her runaway path. Browning's descriptions and imagery are haunting and nuanced with double meanings. I loved this.

[Emilie Nygård Berg · Rating 3 out of 5]

ENG2305: The Victorian Period.