Elizabeth Barrett Browning (March 6, 1806 – June 29, 1861) was one of the most prominent poets A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary greatly in different cultures and time periods of the Victorian era The Victorian era of the United Kingdom was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from June 1837 until her death on the 22nd of January 1901. The reign was a long period of prosperity for the British people, as profits gained from the overseas British Empire, as well as from industrial improvements at home, allowed an educated middle class to. Her poetry was widely popular in both England The area now called England has been settled by people of various cultures for about 35,000 years, but it takes its name from the Angles, one of the Germanic tribes who settled during the 5th and 6th centuries. England became a unified state in AD 927, and since the Age of Discovery, which began during the 15th century, has had a significant and the United States ^ b. English is the de facto language of American government and the sole language spoken at home by 80% of Americans age five and older. Spanish is the second most commonly spoken language during her lifetime.^[1] A collection of her last poems was published by her husband, Robert Browning Robert Browning was an English poet and playwright whose mastery of dramatic verse, especially dramatic monologues, made him one of the foremost Victorian poets, shortly after her death.

Early life

Elizabeth Barrett Moulton-Barrett was born on March 6, 1806, in Coxhoe Hall, between the villages of Coxhoe and Kelloe in County Durham The ceremonial county borders Tyne and Wear, North Yorkshire, Cumbria and Northumberland and forms part of the North East England region, England. Her parents were Edward Barrett Moulton Barrett and Mary Graham-Clarke; Elizabeth was the eldest of their 12 children (eight boys and four girls). All the children lived to adulthood except for one girl, who died at the age of four when Elizabeth was eight. The children in her family all had nicknames: Elizabeth's was "Ba". The Barrett family, some of whom were part Creole, had lived for centuries in Jamaica, where they owned sugar plantations and relied on slave Slavery is a system in which people are the property of others. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand wages. In some societies it was legal for an owner to kill a slave; in others it was a crime to kill a slave labour. Elizabeth's father chose to raise his family in England while his fortune grew in Jamaica. The Graham-Clarke family wealth was as great as the Barrett family wealth.

Elizabeth was baptized in 1809 at Kelloe Parish Church, though she had already been baptized by a family friend in the first week after she was born.

Later that year, after the fifth child, Henrietta, was born, Edward bought Hope End, a 500-acre (2.0 km²) estate near the Malvern Hills in Ledbury, Herefordshire The county is one of the most rural and sparsely populated in England, with a population density of 82/km² . The land use is predominantly agricultural and the county is well known for its fruit and cider production, and the Hereford cattle breed. Elizabeth had "a large room to herself, with stained glass in the window, and she loved the garden where she tended white roses in a special arbour by the south wall"^[2] Her time at Hope End would inspire her in later life to write Aurora Leigh.

Elizabeth was educated at home and attended lessons with her brother's tutor. This gave her a good education for a girl of that time, and she is said to have read passages from Paradise Lost Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton. It was originally published in 1667 in ten books, with a total of over ten thousand individual lines of verse. A second edition followed in 1674, redivided into twelve books with minor revisions throughout and a note on the versification; the majority of the and a number of Shakespearean William Shakespeare [a] was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon".[b] His surviving works, including some collaborations, consist of 38 plays,[c] 154 sonnets, two long narrative plays, among other works, before the age of ten. During the Hope End period, she was "a shy, intensely studious, precocious child, yet cheerful, affectionate and lovable".^[3] Her intellectual fascination with the classics and metaphysics was balanced by a religious obsession which she later described as "not the deep persuasion of the mild Christian but the wild visions of an enthusiast."^[4][1]

The Barretts attended services at the nearest Dissenting chapel, and Edward was active in Bible and Missionary societies. Elizabeth was very close to her siblings while playing the maternal role. She had great respect for her father: she claimed that life was no fun without him, and her mother agreed, probably because they did not fully understand what the business really was that kept him when his trips got longer and longer.

Her first known poem was written at the age of six or eight. The manuscript is currently in the Berg Collection of the New York Public Library The New York Public Library is one of the leading public libraries of the world and is one of the United States's most significant research libraries. It is composed of a very large circulating public library system combined with a very large non-lending research library system. It is simultaneously one of the largest public library systems in the; the exact date is controversial because the "2" in the date 1812 is written over something else that is scratched out. By the age of twelve she had written an "epic" poem consisting of four books of rhyming couplets. When she was 14, her father paid for the publication of a long Homeric poem entitled The Battle of Marathon. Barrett later referred to this as "Pope Alexander Pope was an eighteenth-century English poet, best known for his satirical verse and for his translation of Homer. He is the third most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, after Shakespeare and Tennyson. Pope is famous for his use of the heroic couplet's Homer Homer is a legendary ancient Greek epic poet, traditionally said to be the author of the epic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey. The ancient Greeks generally believed that Homer was an historical individual, but most scholars are skeptical: no reliable biographical information has been handed down from classical antiquity, and the poems themselves done over again, or rather undone." By the age of twenty, she had read the principal Greek and Latin authors and Dante Dante Alighieri , commonly known as Dante, was an Italian poet of the Middle Ages. He was born in Florence; he died and is buried in Ravenna. The name Dante is, according to the words of Jacopo Alighieri, a hypocorism for Durante. In contemporary documents it is followed by the patronymic Alagherii or de Alagheriis; it was Boccaccio who's Inferno in their original languages. She learnt Hebrew Extinct as a regularly spoken language by the 4th century CE, but survived as a liturgical and literary language; revived in the 1880s and read the Old Testament The Old Testament is the collection of books that forms the first of the two-part Christian Biblical canon. The contents of the Old Testament canon vary from church to church, with the Orthodox communion having 51 books: the shared books are those of the shortest canon, that of the major Protestant communions, with 39 books from beginning to end. Her first collection of poems, An Essay on Mind, with Other Poems, was published in 1826.^[5]

It was then (at age 20) that Elizabeth began to battle with a lifelong illness, which the medical science of the time was unable to diagnose. She began to take morphine for the pain and eventually became addicted to the drug. This illness caused her to be frail and weak.^[2] Her illness meant that Browning composed her poems primarily in her home.

Mary Russell Mitford described the young Elizabeth as having "a slight, delicate figure, with a shower of dark curls falling on each side of a most expressive face; large, tender eyes, richly fringed by dark eyelashes, and a smile like a sunbeam." Anne Thackeray Ritchie described her as being "very small and brown" with big, exotic eyes and an overgenerous mouth.[12]

Residences and publications

Sidmouth, Devonshire, and London

On June 30, 1824, one of the leading newspapers in London, the Globe and Traveler, printed her Stanzas on the Death of Lord Byron.^[6] In the same year a lawsuit about her father's property estate in Jamaica had been decided in favor of their cousin, causing the start of their financial reversal.

In 1826 she published her first collection of poems, An Essay on Mind and Other Poems. This is a didactic poem with Homer; Latin and Greek are manifested within these 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. She maintained a scholarly correspondence with both men until her death. Among other neighbors was Mrs. James Martin from Colwall, with whom she kept up a correspondence throughout her life.

At Boyd's suggestion, she translated Aeschylus Aeschylus was an ancient Greek playwright. His name derives from the Greek word αισχος (aischos), meaning "shame".[citation needed] He is often recognized as the father of tragedy, and is the earliest of the three Greek tragedians whose plays survive, the others being Sophocles and Euripides. According to Aristotle, he expanded the' Prometheus Bound Prometheus Bound is an Ancient Greek tragedy. In Antiquity, this drama was attributed to Aeschylus, but is now considered by some scholars to be the work of another hand, perhaps one as late as ca. 415 BC. Despite these doubts of authorship, the play's designation as Aeschylean has remained conventional. The tragedy is based on the myth of (published in 1833; retranslated in 1850). During their friendship Barrett absorbed a lot of Greek literature, including Homer Homer is a legendary ancient Greek epic poet, traditionally said to be the author of the epic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey. The ancient Greeks generally believed that Homer was an historical individual, but most scholars are skeptical: no reliable biographical information has been handed down from classical antiquity, and the poems themselves, Pindar Pindar (ca. 522–443 BC), was an Ancient Greek lyric poet. Of the canonical nine lyric poets of ancient Greece, Pindar is the one whose work is best preserved. Quintilian described him as "by far the greatest of the nine lyric poets, in virtue of his inspired magnificence, the beauty of his thoughts and figures, the rich exuberance of his and Aristophanes Aristophanes , son of Philippus, of the deme Cydathenaus, was a prolific and much acclaimed comic playwright of ancient Athens. Eleven of his forty plays survive virtually complete. These, together with fragments of some of his other plays, provide the only real examples of a genre of comic drama known as Old Comedy, and they are in fact used to. From 1822 onwards, Elizabeth's interests tended more and more to the scholarly and literary. In 1825 she published The Rose and Zephyr, her first published work.

In 1828, Elizabeth’s mother died. She is buried at the Parish Church of St Michael and All Angels in Ledbury, next to her daughter Mary. The death of her mother hit her hard, which, Boyd says in his letters, for a time took away from her the power of thinking. The abolition of slavery in the early 1830s reduced Mr. Barrett's finances. His financial losses in the early 1830s forced him to sell Hope End, and although the family were never poor, the place was seized and put up for sale to satisfy creditors. The investment that had given them revenue in Jamaica also ended with the abolition of slavery. In 1831 Elizabeth received news that her beloved grandmother, Elizabeth Moulton, died.

The family moved three times between 1832 and 1837, first to a white Georgian building in Sidmouth Sidmouth is a small town on the English Channel coast in Devon, South West England. The town lies at the mouth of the River Sid in the East Devon district, 15 miles (24 km) south east of Exeter. It has a population of about 15,000, of whom 40% are over 65. The town is a tourist resort and a gateway town on the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site. A, Devonshire, where they remained for three years. Later they moved on to Gloucester Place London London is a leading global city being the world's largest financial centre alongside New York City, and has the largest city GDP in Europe. Central London is home to the headquarters of most of the UK's top 100 listed companies and more than 100 of Europe's 500 largest. London's influence in politics, finance, education, entertainment, media,. While living there she wrote for several magazines, and in 1825 her first published work, The Rose and Zephyr, was published in the Literary Gazette.

Wimpole Street

They finally settled at 50 Wimpole Street, a place she had visited as a child. John Kenyon, a distant cousin, introduced her to celebrities of the literary world, including William Wordsworth Wordsworth's magnum opus is generally considered to be The Prelude, a semiautobiographical poem of his early years which he revised and expanded a number of times. It was posthumously titled and published, prior to which it was generally known as the poem "to Coleridge." Wordsworth was Britain's Poet Laureate from 1843 until his death in, Mary Russell Mitford, Samuel Taylor Coleridge Samuel Taylor Coleridge was an English poet, Romantic, literary critic and philosopher who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poets. He is probably best known for his poems The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan, as well as for his major prose work Biographia, Alfred Lord Tennyson Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson, FRS , much better known as "Alfred, Lord Tennyson," was Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom during much of Queen Victoria's reign and remains one of the most popular poets in the English language and Thomas Carlyle Thomas Carlyle was a Scottish satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher during the Victorian era. He called economics "the dismal science", wrote articles for the Edinburgh Encyclopedia, and became a controversial social commentator.

Elizabeth continued to write, contributing The Romaunt of Margaret, The Romaunt of the Page, The Poet's Vow, and other pieces to various periodicals. She corresponded with literary figures of the time, including Mary Russell Mitford. She and Mary became close friends, Mary helping her to further her literary ambition. In 1838 The Seraphim and Other Poems appeared as the first volume of Elizabeth's mature poetry to appear under her own name.

Torquay

In 1838, at her physician's insistence, Elizabeth moved from London to Torquay Torquay is a town in the unitary authority area of Torbay and ceremonial county of Devon, England. It lies 16 miles (26 km) miles south of Exeter along the A380 on the north of Torbay, 38 miles (61 km) north-east of Plymouth and adjoins the neighbouring town of Paignton on the west of the bay. Torquay’s population of 63,998 during the 2001 UK, on the Devonshire coast. Her brother Edward, one of her closest relatives, went along with her. Her father, Mr. Barrett, disapproved of Edward's going to Torquay but did not hinder his visit. The subsequent drowning of her brother Edward, in a sailing accident at Torquay in 1840, had a serious effect on her already fragile health; when they found his body after a couple of days, she had no strength for tears or words. They returned to Wimpole Street.

Return to Wimpole Street

By the time of her return to Wimpole Street, she had become an invalid and a recluse, spending most of the next five years in her bedroom, seeing few people other than her immediate family. One of those she did see was her friend John Kenyon, a wealthy and convivial friend of the arts. She felt responsible for her brother's death because it was she who wanted him to be there with her. During this time she allegedly developed an addiction to opium. She got comfort from her golden-haired cocker spaniel named “Flush”, which had been given to Elizabeth as a gift.

She continued to write poetry, including The Cry of the Children, published in 1842. This poem condemned child labour Child labour refers to the employment of children at regular and sustained labour. This practice is considered exploitative by many international organizations and is illegal in many countries. Child labour was utilized to varying extents through most of history, but entered public dispute with the advent of universal schooling, with changes in and helped bring about child labour reforms. At about the same time, she contributed some critical prose pieces to Richard Henry Horne's A New Spirit of the Age. She also wrote The First Day’s Exile from Eden. In 1844 she published two volumes of Poems, which included A Drama of Exile, A Vision of Poets, and Lady Geraldine's Courtship. “Since she was not burdened with any domestic duties expected of her sisters, Elizabeth could now devote herself entirely to the life of the mind, cultivating an enormous correspondence, reading widely”.^[7]

Meeting Robert Browning and works of this time

Her 1844 Poems made her one of the most popular writers in the land at the time and inspired Robert Browning to write to her, telling her how much he loved her poems. Kenyon arranged for Browning to meet Elizabeth in May 1845, and so began one of the most famous courtships in literature.

Elizabeth had produced a large amount of work and had been writing long before Robert Browning had ever published a word. However, he had a great influence on her writing, as did she on his; it is observable that Elizabeth’s poetry matured after meeting Robert. Two of Barrett’s most famous pieces were produced after she met Browning: Sonnets from the Portuguese Sonnets from the Portuguese, written ca. 1845–1846 and first published in 1850, is a collection of forty-four love sonnets written by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. The poems largely chronicle the period leading up to her 1846 marriage to Robert Browning. The collection was acclaimed and popular even in the poet's lifetime and it remains so today and Aurora Leigh.

Some critics, however, point to him as an undermining influence: "Until her relationship with Robert Browning Robert Browning was an English poet and playwright whose mastery of dramatic verse, especially dramatic monologues, made him one of the foremost Victorian poets began in 1845, Barrett’s willingness to engage in public discourse about social issues and about aesthetic issues in poetry, which had been so strong in her youth, gradually diminished, as did her physical health. As an intellectual presence and a physical being, she was becoming a shadow of herself".^[8]

Among Elizabeth's best known lyrics are Sonnets from the Portuguese Sonnets from the Portuguese, written ca. 1845–1846 and first published in 1850, is a collection of forty-four love sonnets written by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. The poems largely chronicle the period leading up to her 1846 marriage to Robert Browning. The collection was acclaimed and popular even in the poet's lifetime and it remains so today (1850)— the "Portuguese" being her husband's pet name for her. The title also refers to the series of sonnets of the 16th-century Portuguese poet Luís de Camões Luís Vaz de Camões (c. 1524–June 10, 1580) is considered Portugal's and the Portuguese language's greatest poet. His mastery of verse has been compared to that of Shakespeare, Homer, Virgil, and Dante. He wrote a considerable amount of lyrical poetry (in Portuguese and in Spanish) and drama but is best remembered for his epic work Os Lusíadas; in all these poems she used rhyme schemes typical of the Portuguese sonnets.

The verse-novel Aurora Leigh, her most ambitious and perhaps the 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. The writings depicted in this novel are all based on similar, personal experiences that Elizabeth suffered through herself. The North American Review The North American Review was the first literary magazine in the United States. Founded in Boston in 1815 by journalist Nathan Hale and others, it was published continuously until 1940, when publication was suspended due to J. H. Smyth, who had purchased the magazine, being unmasked as a Japanese spy. Publication subsequently resumed in 1964 at praised Elizabeth’s poem in these words: “ Mrs. Browning’s poems are, in all respects, the utterance of a woman—of a woman of great learning, rich experience, and powerful genius, uniting to her woman’s nature the strength which is sometimes thought peculiar to a man.”^[9]

Robert Browning

The courtship and marriage between Robert Browning Robert Browning was an English poet and playwright whose mastery of dramatic verse, especially dramatic monologues, made him one of the foremost Victorian poets and Elizabeth were carried out secretly. Six years his elder and an invalid, she could not believe that the vigorous and worldly Browning really loved her as much as he professed to, and her doubts are expressed in the Sonnets from the Portuguese Sonnets from the Portuguese, written ca. 1845–1846 and first published in 1850, is a collection of forty-four love sonnets written by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. The poems largely chronicle the period leading up to her 1846 marriage to Robert Browning. The collection was acclaimed and popular even in the poet's lifetime and it remains so today, which she wrote over the next two years. Love conquered all, however, and after a private marriage at St. Marylebone Parish Church, Browning imitated his hero Shelley Percy Bysshe Shelley was one of the major English Romantic poets and is critically regarded among the finest lyric poets in the English language. Shelley was famous for his association with John Keats and Lord Byron. The novelist Mary Shelley was his second wife by spiriting his beloved off to Italy in August 1846, which became her home almost continuously until her death. Elizabeth's loyal nurse, Wilson, who witnessed the marriage at the church, accompanied the couple to Italy.

Mr. Barrett disinherited Elizabeth, as he did each of his children who married: “The Mrs. Browning of popular imagination was a sweet, innocent young woman who suffered endless cruelties at the hands of a tyrannical papa but who nonetheless had the good fortune to fall in love with a dashing and handsome poet named Robert Browning. She finally escaped the dungeon of Wimpole Street, eloped to Italy, and lived happily ever after.”^[10]

As Elizabeth had some money of her own, the couple were reasonably comfortable in Italy, and their relationship together was harmonious. The Brownings were well respected in Italy, and even famous, for they would be asked for autographs or stopped by people because of their celebrity. Elizabeth grew stronger and in 1849, at the age of 43, she gave birth to a son, Robert Wiedemann Barrett Browning, whom they called Pen. Their son later married but had no legitimate children, so there are apparently no direct descendants of the two famous poets. However, it is rumoured that the city of Florence and its surrounding areas are peopled by his descendants.

“Several Browning critics have suggested that the poet decided that he was an “objective poet” and then sought out a “subjective poet” in the hope that dialogue with her would enable him to be more successful.”^[7]

At her husband's insistence, the second edition of Elizabeth’s Poems included her love sonnets; as a result, her popularity shot up (as well as her critical regard), and her position as Victorian poetess du jour was cemented. In 1850, upon the occasion of the death of William Wordsworth Wordsworth's magnum opus is generally considered to be The Prelude, a semiautobiographical poem of his early years which he revised and expanded a number of times. It was posthumously titled and published, prior to which it was generally known as the poem "to Coleridge." Wordsworth was Britain's Poet Laureate from 1843 until his death in, she was thought to be a serious contender for Poet Laureate In the United Kingdom the term has for centuries been the title of the official poet of the monarch, since the time of Charles II. Poets laureate are appointed by many countries. In Britain there is also a Children's Laureate, but the position went to Tennyson Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson, FRS , much better known as "Alfred, Lord Tennyson," was Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom during much of Queen Victoria's reign and remains one of the most popular poets in the English language.

Decline

At the death of an old friend, G.B. Hunter, and then of her father, her health faded again, centering around deteriorating lung function. She was moved from Florence Florence (Italian: Firenze listen , pronounced [fiˈrɛntse]; alternative obsolete spelling: Fiorenza, Latin: Florentia) is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with 367,569 inhabitants (1,500,000 in the metropolitan area) to Siena Siena listen (Italian pronunciation: [ˈsjɛ(ː)na]; also widely spelled Sienna in English) is a city in Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the province of Siena and to their summer home, The Villa Alberti.

In 1860 she issued a small volume of political poems titled Poems before Congress. These poems related to political issues for the Italians, “most of which were written to express her sympathy with the Italian cause after the outbreak of fighting in 1859”^[6]. She dedicated this book to her husband.

Her last piece of work was A Musical Instrument, published in July 1862. She had also reprinted Last Poem, which became one of her best-known works.

In 1860 they returned to Rome, only to find that Elizabeth’s sister Henrietta had died, news which made Elizabeth weak and depressed. She became gradually weaker and died on June 29, 1861. She was buried in the English Cemetery of Florence. “On Monday July 1 the shops in the section of the city around Casa Guidi were closed, while Elizabeth was mourned with unusual demonstrations.”^[11]

The nature of her illnesses is still unclear, although medical and literary scholars have speculated that longstanding pulmonary problems, combined with palliatives opiates In medicine, the term opiate describes any of the narcotic opioid alkaloids found as natural products in the opium poppy plant, as well as many semisynthetic chemical derivatives of such alkaloids, contributed to her decline.

Spiritual influence

Much of Elizabeth’s work has religious themes recurring throughout her literature. She had read and studied such famous literary works as Milton's Paradise Lost and Dante's Inferno. Elizabeth says in her writing, "We want the sense of the saturation of Christ's blood upon the souls of our poets, that it may cry through them in answer to the ceaseless wail of the Sphinx of our humanity, expounding agony into renovation. Something of this has been perceived in art when its glory was at the fullest. Something of a yearning after this may be seen among the Greek Christian poets, something which would have been much with a stronger faculty"[2]

She also believed that "Christ's religion is essentially poetry—poetry glorified.” She explores the religious aspect in many of her poems, especially in her early work, such as the Sonnets. She was interested in theological debate,^[12] had learned Hebrew and read the Hebrew Bible. We find in the poem Aurora Leigh, for example, much religious imagery and allusion to images of the apocalypse.

Critical reception

American poet Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective-fiction genre. He is further credited with was inspired by Barrett Browning's poem Lady Geraldine's Courtship and specifically borrowed the poem's meter for his poem The Raven "The Raven" is a narrative poem by the American writer Edgar Allan Poe, first published in January 1845. It is often noted for its musicality, stylized language, and supernatural atmosphere. It tells of a talking raven's mysterious visit to a distraught lover, tracing the man's slow descent into madness. The lover, often identified as.^[13] Poe had reviewed Barrett's work in the January 1845 issue of the Broadway Journal and said that "her poetic inspiration is the highest—we can conceive of nothing more august. Her sense of Art is pure in itself."^[14] In return, she praised The Raven "The Raven" is a narrative poem by the American writer Edgar Allan Poe, first published in January 1845. It is often noted for its musicality, stylized language, and supernatural atmosphere. It tells of a talking raven's mysterious visit to a distraught lover, tracing the man's slow descent into madness. The lover, often identified as and Poe dedicated his 1845 collection The Raven and Other Poems to her, referring to her as "the noblest of her sex".^[15]

Her poetry greatly influenced Emily Dickinson Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was an American poet. Born in Amherst, Massachusetts, to a successful family with strong community ties, she lived a mostly introverted and reclusive life. After she studied at the Amherst Academy for seven years in her youth, she spent a short time at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary before returning to her family's house, who admired her as a woman of achievement. Her popularity in the United States and Britain was further advanced by her stands against social injustice, including slavery in the United States, anti-government subversive movements in Italy, and child labour.

In 1899 Lilian Whiting wrote a biography of Elizabeth entitled A study of Elizabeth Barrett Browning which describes her as "the most philosophical poet" and depicts her life as "a Gospel of applied Christianity". To Whiting, the term "art for art's sake" did not apply to Barrett Browning's work for the reason that each poem, distinctively purposeful, was borne of a more "honest vision". In this critical analysis, Whiting portrays Browning as a poet who uses knowledge of Classical literature with an "intuitive gift of spiritual divination".^[16] In Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Angela Leighton suggests that the portrayal of Barrett Browning as the "pious iconography of womanhood" has distracted us from her poetic achievements. Leighton cites the 1931 play by Even Besier titled The Barretts of Wimpole Street The Barretts of Wimpole Street is a 1934 American film depicting the real-life romance between poets Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning (Fredric March), despite the opposition of her father Edward Moulton-Barrett (Charles Laughton). The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. It was written by Ernest Vajda, Claudine West and as evidence that 20th century literary criticism of Barrett Browning's work has suffered more as a result of her popularity than poetic ineptitude.^[17] The play was discovered and popularized by actress Katharine Cornell, for whom it became a signature role, and which she revived many times in her career. It's enormous success made Elizabeth's and Robert Browning's poetry popular. The play was adapted twice into movies.

Throughout the majority of the 20th Century, literary criticism of Barrett Browning's poetry remained sparse until her poems were discovered by the Feminist Feminism refers to political, cultural, and economic movements aimed at establishing greater rights, legal protection for women, and/or women's liberation. Feminism includes some of the sociological theories and philosophies concerned with issues of gender difference. It is also a movement that campaigns for women's rights and interests. Nancy movement. She described herself as being inclined to reject several women's rights principles, suggesting in letters to Mary Russell Mitford and her husband that she believed that there was an inferiority of intellect in women.^[17] However, feminist critics have used Deconstructionist theories of Jaques Derrida and others to explain the importance of Barrett Browning's voice to the feminist movement. Leighton writes that because she participates in the literary world, where voice and diction are dominated by popular accession to perceived masculine superiority, she "is defined only in mysterious opposition to everything that distinguishes the male subject who writes..."^[17]

Works, First Publication

Other Information

The University of Worcester has acknowledged Browning's local connection by naming a new building after her.

Browning is mentioned during the animated Peanuts television special Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown. In one scene, Sally receives a heart-shaped piece of candy with Sonnet Number 43 of Sonnets from the Portuguese ("How do I love thee? Let me count the ways...") written on it. Later, a heart-broken Linus Van Pelt yells "This one is for Elizabeth Barrett Browning!" in frustration, as he throws away the box of chocolates he bought for a teacher on whom he had an unrequited crush.

She was brought to popular accord in the play The Barretts of Wimpole Street, in a production by famed actress Katharine Cornell.

References

1. ^ Burr, David Stanford. "Introduction".Sonnets from the Portuguese: a celebration of loveMacmillan (1986)
2. ^ ^{a b} Mander,Rosalie.Mrs Browning: The Story of Elizabeth Barrett.London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson,1980
3. ^ Taplin, Gardner B. The Life of Elizabeth BrowningNew Haven: Yale University Press, 1957
4. ^ Everett, Glenn,Life of Elizabeth Browning(2002)
5. ^ Donaldson, Sandra, ed., The Works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning.London: Pickering and Chatto,2010
6. ^ ^{a b} Taplin, Gardner B. The Life of Elizabeth Browning New Haven: Yale University Press, 1957
7. ^ ^{a b} Pollock, Mary Sanders. Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning: A Creative Partnership. England: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2003.
8. ^ Pollock, Mary Sanders. Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning: A Creative Partnership. England: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2003.
9. ^ Kaplan, Cora. Aurora Leigh And Other Poems. London: The Women’s Press Lmited, 1978
10. ^ Peterson, William S. Sonnets From The Portuguese. Massachusetts: Barre Publishing, 1977.
11. ^ Taplin, Gardner B. The Life of Elizabeth Browning New Haven: Yale University Press, 1957
12. ^ Lewis,Linda.Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Spiritual Progress. Missouri: Missouri University Press. 1997
13. ^ Sova, Dawn B. Edgar Allan Poe: A to Z. New York City: Checkmark Books, 2001: 208. ISBN 081604161X
14. ^ Meyers, Jeffrey. Edgar Allan Poe: His Life and Legacy. New York City: Cooper Square Press, 1992: 160. ISBN 0815410387
15. ^ Thomas, Dwight and David K. Jackson. The Poe Log: A Documentary Life of Edgar Allan Poe, 1809-1849. New York: G. K. Hall & Co., 1987: 591. ISBN 0783814011
16. ^ Whiting, Lilian. A study of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Little, Brown and Company (1899)
17. ^ ^{a b c} Leighton, Angela, Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Indiana University Press (1986) pp.8-18

Bibliography

• Barrett, R.A., The Barretts of Jamaica Wedgestone Press, 2000.

• Donaldson, Sandra, ed. The Works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. 5 vols. London: Pickering & Chatto, 2010.

• Everett, Glenn,Life of Elizabeth Browning(2002)

• Markus, Julia. Dared and Done: Marriage of Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning, Ohio University Press, 1995.

• Kaplan, Cora. Aurora Leigh And Other Poems. London: The Women’s Press Limited, 1978.

• Lewis,Linda.Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Spiritual Progress. Missouri: Missouri University Press. 1997

• Mander,Rosalie.Mrs Browning: The Story of Elizabeth Barrett.London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson,1980

• Meyers, Jeffrey. Edgar Allan Poe: His Life and Legacy. New York City: Cooper Square Press, 1992: 160.

• Peterson, William S. Sonnets From The Portuguese. Massachusetts: Barre Publishing, 1977

• Pollock, Mary Sanders. Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning: A Creative Partnership. England: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2003

• Sova, Dawn B. Edgar Allan Poe: A to Z. New York City: Checkmark Books, 2001: 208.

• Taplin, Gardner B. The Life of Elizabeth BrowningNew Haven: Yale University Press, 1957

• Thomas, Dwight and David K. Jackson. The Poe Log: A Documentary Life of Edgar Allan Poe, 1809-1849. New York: G. K. Hall & Co., 1987: 591.

External links

• Works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning at Archive.org
• [3] The Life of Elizabeth Barrett Browning by Glenn Everett

• Poems by Elizabeth Barrett Browning at PoetryFoundation.org
• The Brownings: A Research Guide (Baylor University)
• The Barretts of Wimpole Street at the Internet Movie Database
• Project Gutenberg e-text of Sonnets from the Portuguese
• Works by Elizabeth Barrett Browning at Project Gutenberg
• Poems by Elizabeth Barrett Browning An extensive collection of Browning's poetry.
• Elizabeth Barrett Browning Website, includes readings of Lady Geraldine's Courtship, Sonnets from the Portuguese, Runaway Slave at Pilgrim's Point, "Hiram Powers' Greek Slave", Casa Guidi Windows, and Aurora Leigh
• Reely's Poetry Pages Hear Sonnets 43 and 33
• Archival material relating to Elizabeth Barrett Browning listed at the UK National Register of Archives
• Elizabeth Barrett Browning at Find a Grave
• Browning Family Collection at the Harry Ransom Center at The University of Texas at Austin

Categories: 1806 births | 1861 deaths | English poets | People from County Durham | Women of the Victorian era | Sonneteers | English women writers | Victorian poets | Women poets | Greek–English translators

See Also:

What Links Here:

Recently Viewed Pages:

• Home
• Shopping Search
• Directory Sites
• Blog Search
• Web Search
• Scratchboard: Shopping
• Pond and Pond: Blogs
• Kinhal Craft: Encyclopedia
• Custom Search
• Mountain Lakes: Blogs

Most Popular Pages:

• Scratchboard: Shopping
• Pond and Pond: Blogs
• Elizabeth Barrett Browning: Shopping Search
• Henry Chapman Mercer: Images
• Directory Sites
• Dirk Van Erp: Images
• Carnegie Library: Blogs
• Mountain Lakes: Blogs
• Lath Art: Auctions
• Kinhal Craft: Encyclopedia

Related 'Elizabeth Barrett Browning' Searches: