Elizabeth Browning

6 March 1806 (Kelloe) - 29 June 1861 (Florence). Elizabeth Barrett Browning was a major English poet in the Victorian era.

Her Life

Elizabeth Barrett Browning was the daughter of Edward Moulton-Barret, a prosperous merchant who earned his money from sugar plantations in Jamaica, and Mary Graham-Clarke. The couple had eleven children, of whom Elizabeth was the eldest. She was self-educated in many respects, for instance, she taught herself Latin and French. She was incredibly well-read. She developed a great interest in literature from very early on and began writing poetry at an early age.

When Elizabeth Barrett was at the age of fifteen, she suffered a serious injury to her spinal column in a riding accident. When her brother Edward suddenly died, she furthermore fell into a severe depression and also developed tuberculosis. She was a seriously ill woman, who was categorised as doomed to die by the doctors treating her.

Her life changed, however, when she got to know Robert Browning. In January 1845, Robert Browning, who was himself a well-known poet, wrote a letter to Elizabeth Barrett, in which he expressed his admiration for her works. For months, they wrote letters to each other again and again. In May 1845, Robert Browning visited Elizabeth Barrett for the first time. Despite this meeting, the two continued to write letters to each other, which increasingly contained affectionate salutations and compliments alongside advice on poetry. During this time, they wrote almost 600 letters to each other. When these letters were published after 1899, they were regarded as one of the most poignant exchanges of love letters ever written in the English language (Danzer 85). For this reason, Elizabeth Browning´s name has long been associated with her romantic life and not with her great poetic works (87).

On 12 September 1846, Elizabeth and Robert Browning married, and one week later, they left England for Italy. These two events took place in secret, since Elizabeth Browning´s father was strictly against her marriage to Robert. The couple initially lived in Pisa until April 1847 and then moved to Florence, where they stayed until Elizabeth Browning´s death in 1861. While they were living in Florence, their only child Robert Wiedeman Barret Browning (called Pen) was born on 9 March 1849. In Pisa, Elizabeth Browning writes to an English friend that she feels like a newborn and has never been so carefree and happy before (Danzer 85-86). Robert Browning was a turning point in Elizabeth Browning´s life, because their love played a decisive role in her fight against her sickness and death (88).

Her Poems

Elizabeth Browning´s poems exhibit an autobiographical character in many passages. They tell about the poet´s chronic illness, her recovery as well as her cheerful life in Italy. In some of her poems, she emphasises the important role that her husband´s love and his belief in her recovery played in the course of her illness (Danzer 87). In addition, many of her poems contain critical texts on contemporary issues such as child labour or slavery, which demonstrates “her passionate concern for human rights” (Flood).

When Elizabeth Browning was just eleven years old, she composed "The Battle of Marathon". Since her father was very proud of her intelligence and made every effort to support her, he had fifty copies of the poem printed and privately distributed in 1820. As Elizabeth Barrett grew older, she began sending her poems for publication to contemporary magazines. In May 1821, her poem "Stanzas Excited by Reflections on the Present State of Greece" appeared in The New Monthly Magazine. This was her first officially published work. Elizabeth Browning´s name gradually became well-known in literary circles.

She became the first female poet ever to be considered for Poet Laureate (Flood), an honorary position at court. However, Alfred Tennyson was chosen instead of her in 1850 (Flood).

Elizabeth Browning is particularly well-known for her Sonnets from the Portuguese and Aurora Leigh. Sonnets of the Portuguese (1850) is a collection of 44 love sonnets. They deal with the beginnings of Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning´s romance. The title was chosen in order to give the impression that the sonnets have no biographical significance, but that they are merely translations, because Elizabeth Browning thought it might be too private (Flood). The most famous poem of this collection is "How Do I Love Thee". Aurora Leigh (1857) is a long narrative poem and encompasses nine books. It deals with the heroine Aurora and her childhood, her youth in England and Italy, her self-education as well as her literary career. Besides, the poem tells the complicated love story between Aurora and the philanthropist Romney Leigh. Elizabeth Browning wrote several other works like "Stanzas on the Death of Lord Byron" (1824), An Essay on Mind, with Other Poems (1826), The Seraphim, and Other Poems (1838), Poems in two volumes (1844; new editions in 1850, 1853 and 1856), The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim’s Point (1850), Casa Guidi Windows (1851) or Poems Before Congress (1860).

Bibliography

Danzer, Gerhard. Europa, deine Frau: Beiträge zu einer weiblichen Kulturgeschichte. Springer, 2015.

Flood, Alison. “Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Five Best Poems.” The Guardian, 6 March 2014, www.theguardian.com/books/2014/mar/06/elizabeth-browning-five-best-poems. Accessed 9 December 2023.

“Sonnets from the Portuguese: Poetry by Browning.” Britannica, 25 October 2023, www.britannica.com/topic/Sonnets-from-the-Portuguese. Accessed 12 December 2023.