The Poetry of Elizabeth Barrett Browning

by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

The Poetry of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Elizabeth Barrett Moulton Barrett was born on 6 March 1806, in Coxhoe Hall, County Durham, the eldest of twelve children. Family wealth was derived from sugar plantations manned by slaves in Jamaica and enabling them to also purchase a 500 acre estate in Herefordshire. This wealth allowed her to publish poems from an early age. However by age 20 the family’s fortunes were to decline, but never below comfortable, after losing a lawsuit over their plantations . Shortly thereafter Elizabeth became afflicted with an unknown disease and became addicted to morphine. Despite this she continued to write and became increasingly popular both in England and in the United States. Her poems against slavery chronicled her abhorrence of the basis of the family wealth. In 1844 she was introduced to the younger Robert Browning who was a great admirer of her work and began a secret courtship and thence to marriage. To him she wrote and dedicated one of her greatest works; Sonnets from the Portuguese and they went to live in Italy in 1846. Although by now an invalid she seemed insecure of the love of the vigorous Robert but continued to write and publish poetry as diverse as love sonnets and political pieces before succumbing to death in 1861. Many of these poems are also available on our audiobook version at iTunes, Amazon and other digital stores.

Genres: Poetry

46 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 24, 2013

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

[Micah Cummins · Rating 5 out of 5]

I only recently was introduced to Elizabeth Barret Browning, and I am already swept away. This is a beautiful collection of some of her work.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice collection but I feel like Sullivan was a little bit too enthusiastic on pushing the 'aww she thought NO ONE would EVER love her because she was an INVALID and she DIED YOUNG and she was TRAGIC' narrative, it kept picking all the ones about death and grief and illness, and a lot of the 'extracts from...' were very short so kinda lacked on giving the impression of the longer poems they were from. Still, Elizabeth ur my no.1 romantic poet 🙏🏻💯

[Sterling Wesson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Any of the long poems or ones with a lot of overt religious references aren’t worth reading in my opinion unless you want to understand Browning’s upbringing but the rest is quite good.

[Karen L.]

What a gifted poet.

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful. As usual when reading poetry, I didn't understand every poem in this anthology, but Barrett Browning's use of language is beautiful. I especially enjoyed "The Sleep" and "Little Mattie."

[Summers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed reading the poetry. I'll read through more in the future.