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Elizabeth Barrett Browning [1806-1861] ENG
Ranked #33 in the top 380 poets
Votes 76%: 1572 up, 509 down

Religious themes.

Elizabeth Barrett was born 6 March 1806, eldest daughter of Edward and Mary Moulton-Barrett. She grew up in a secluded little place called Hope End with her ten brothers and sisters. She was a fairly precocious child, reading voraciously, writing odes at age nine, and learning Greek along with Bro, her favorite brother.  At 15, Elizabeth, along with her sisters Henrietta and Arabel, contracted some sort of disease. Elizabeth was much slower to recover for some reason, and it was around then that she started talking about her chronic ill health and a myriad of strange symptoms. She went to a spa in Gloucester, becoming addicted to laudanum (prescribed to help her sleep) and staying a little over a year, long past the point when her doctor was telling her to go home. 

But she never let anything stop her from reading and writing. In 1826, she had a poetic "Essay on Mind" published, at family expense, along with 14 shorter poems. By this time, she had firmly decided that marriage was awful and not for her; her life would be completely devoted to poetry. 

Her mother died suddenly in 1828, which really shook Elizabeth. She pulled even further away from society. In 1832, when the family finances sank too low, Hope End had to be sold and the family moved to Sidmouth, Devonshire. This house was along the seashore, which tempted Elizabeth into walking, which improved her health noticeably. 

She also published (again at family expense, which couldn`t have been easy to manage) a translation of Aeschylus` Prometheus plus 19 more short poems of her own. When, in 1835, the Barretts moved to London, Elizabeth saw her chance. She began meeting (with great nervousness) several of the literary giants of the day, such as Wordsworth and Mary Russell Mitford. A year later, Elizabeth read Paracelsus by the distinctly un-famous Robert Browning. She loved it, but was too shy to even think of meeting him. 

The Seraphim and Other Poems was printed in 1838, the first volume to have Elizabeth`s name on it, and it was generally well received. Elizabeth`s health had taken a turn for the worse, and she was ordered to winter someplace warm. Bro and Henrietta went with her to Torquay that same year. In 1840, brother Sam died of fever in Jamaica, followed a few months later by Bro`s death in a boating accident. Elizabeth was devastated. It took about a year, but it was eventually the prospect of writing that pulled her out of her depression. She returned to London in 1841 and took up literary criticism. 

In August 1844, the two-volume Poems was published, containing a work in which Elizabeth paid homage to those she considered the great poets of her time: Wordsworth, Tennyson, and Robert Browning. He was in Naples when the book was published, but as soon as he could, he wrote to Elizabeth to thank her. . Robert eventually got her to agree to a visit, which was soon followed by another, which was soon followed by a proposal of marriage, which Elizabeth turned down cold. Robert soon figured out that the surest way to Elizabeth`s heart was through her work, so that was the way he went. They were married, secretly, on 12 September 1846, and acted like nothing had happened until they set off for Italy a week later. 

Six months later, Elizabeth had decided she was an Italian at heart and was writing poems on Italian politics. On 9 March 1849, Robert Wiedmann Browning was born, a very healthy child, which surprised Elizabeth a great deal, since she was still taking laudanum and had already had two miscarriages. Robert`s mother, whose maiden name had become Pen`s middle name, died without knowing about her grandson, and in order to cheer Robert up, Elizabeth presented him with the "Sonnets from the Portuguese" that she had written during their courtship. 

Her health was continually fluctuating during these years, but she still managed to write Aurora Leigh , the epic poem that made her reputation then and has just recently been discovered to be on women`s rights. Elizabeth started dabbling in spiritualism about now, possibly because she sensed her health failing, or maybe just because Italy sometimes got a little boring during the off-season. This dabbling increased somewhat after Mr. Barrett died in 1857, never having forgiven his daughter. Elizabeth became convinced that she`d actually seen spirits, in spite of Robert`s efforts to talk her out of the whole thing. 

It was becoming more and more difficult to pretend that the warm weather of Italy was helping Elizabeth`s health anymore. Writing was the only thing that really made her feel any better, though the publication of Poems Before Congress in 1860 got her into a little trouble back home with what the reviewers called her anti-British sentiment. In November of that year, Henrietta, who had actually run off and married her beloved Surtees back in 1850, died of cancer. Elizabeth herself now felt so ill that she was taking far too much morphine and eating almost nothing. She fretted constantly that she was holding Robert and Pen back, though neither one seemed to mind. 

In June of 1861 Robert finally called in a doctor, somewhat against Elizabeth`s wishes. The doctor diagnosed an abcess on the lung as the cause of her respiratory distress and increased her dose of morphine. On 29 June 1861, Elizabeth died in Robert`s arms, probably from paralysis of the breathing caused by the excessive morphine. Robert took it very well at first, handling most of the necessary details calmly and more capably than usual, but he broke down a week or so later. Like his wife, he got through the sadness by working. Elizabeth`s Last Poems , edited by Robert, were published in 1862.

Christian, Romanticism, Sonnet, Spasmodic, Victorian

YearsCountryPoetInteraction
-800--700
GRC
Homer
→ influenced Elizabeth Barrett Browning
1802-1838
ENG
Letitia Elizabeth Landon
→ influenced Elizabeth Barrett Browning
1812-1889
ENG
Robert Browning
→ married to Elizabeth Barrett Browning
1819-1891
USA
James Russell Lowell
→ friend of Elizabeth Barrett Browning
-525--431
GRC
Aeschylus
← translated by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
1793-1835
ENG
Felicia Dorothea Hemans
← disliked by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
1809-1849
USA
Edgar Allan Poe
← influenced by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
1830-1886
USA
Emily Dickinson
← influenced by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
1837-1894
ENG
Augusta Davies Webster
← successor by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
1911-1979
USA
Elizabeth Bishop
← influenced by Elizabeth Barrett Browning


WorkLangRating
Sonnet XLIII: How Do I Love Thee?
eng
66
A Man`s Requirements
eng
30
Sonnet XIV: If Thou Must Love Me
eng
22
Sonnet XXXVIII: First Time He Kissed Me
eng
20
A Dead Rose
eng
16
A Thought For A Lonely Death-Bed
eng
14
A Curse For A Nation
eng
13
Sonnet XVIII: I Never Gave a Lock of Hair
eng
13
Sonnet XXII: When Our Two Souls Stand Up
eng
11
A Year`s Spinning
eng
10
The Best Thing in the World
eng
9
A Sea-Side Walk
eng
8
Sonnet X: Yet Love, Mere Love
eng
7
The Autumn
eng
6
The House Of Clouds
eng
5
A Woman`s Shortcomings
eng
4
The Deserted Garden
eng
4
Sonnet XIII: And Wilt Thou Have Me
eng
3
A Child Asleep
eng
2
Aurora Leigh: Book Fourth
eng
2
Lord Walter`s Wife
eng
2
The Romaunt of Margret (excerpts)
eng
2
Aurora Leigh: Book Fifth
eng
1
Aurora Leigh: Book Niinth
eng
1
Aurora Leigh: Book One
eng
1
Aurora Leigh: Book Sixth
eng
1
Aurora Leigh: Book Three
eng
1
Aurora Leigh: Book Two
eng
1
Cheerfulness Taught By Reason
eng
1
Comfort
eng
1
Discontent
eng
1
Exaggeration
eng
1
Human Life’s Mystery
eng
1
Pain In Pleasure
eng
1
Sonnet I: I Thought Once How Theocritus
eng
1
Sonnet II: But Only Three in All God`s Universe
eng
1
Sonnet IV: Thou Hast Thy Calling
eng
1
Sonnet V: I Lift My Heavy Heart Up
eng
1
Sonnet VII: The Face of All the World
eng
1
Sonnet XVII: My Poet, Thou Canst Touch
eng
1
Sonnet XXXII: The First Time
eng
1
Sonnet XXXV: If I Leave All for Thee
eng
1
The Lady`s Yes.
eng
1
The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim`s Point
eng
1
The Sweetness Of England
eng
1
A Musical Instrument
eng
0
Adequacy
eng
0
An Apprehension
eng
0
Aurora Leigh: Book Eighth
eng
0
Aurora Leigh: Book Seventh
eng
0
Bianca Among The Nightingales
eng
0
Change Upon Change
eng
0
Chorus of Eden Spirits
eng
0
Consolation
eng
0
Cry Of The Children
eng
0
De Profundis
eng
0
From ‘The Soul’s Travelling’
eng
0
Futurity
eng
0
Grief
eng
0
I
eng
0
Ii
eng
0
Iii
eng
0
Insufficiency
eng
0
Irreparableness
eng
0
Minstrelsy
eng
0
Mother and Poet
eng
0
My Heart and I
eng
0
On A Portrait Of Wordsworth By B. R. Haydon
eng
0
Only a Curl.
eng
0
Past and Future.
eng
0
Patience Taught By Nature
eng
0
Perplexed Music
eng
0
Sonnet III: Unlike Are We, Unlike
eng
0
Sonnet IX: Can It Be Right to Give
eng
0
Sonnet VI: Go From Me
eng
0
Sonnet VIII: What Can I Give Thee Back
eng
0
Sonnet XI: And Therefore If to Love
eng
0
Sonnet XII: Indeed This Very Love
eng
0
Sonnet XIX: The Soul`s Rialto
eng
0
Sonnet XL: Oh, Yes! They Love
eng
0
Sonnet XLI: I Thank All
eng
0
Sonnet XLII: My Future
eng
0
Sonnet XLIV: Belovèd, Thou Hast Brought Me
eng
0
Sonnet XV: Accuse Me Not
eng
0
Sonnet XVI: And Yet, Because Thou
eng
0
Sonnet XX: Belovèd, My Belovèd
eng
0
Sonnet XXI: Say Over Again
eng
0
Sonnet XXIII: Is It Indeed So?
eng
0
Sonnet XXIV: Let the World`s Sharpness
eng
0
Sonnet XXIX: I Think of Thee
eng
0
Sonnet XXV: A Heavy Heart, Belovèd
eng
0
Sonnet XXVI: I Lived With Visions
eng
0
Sonnet XXVII: My Dear Belovèd
eng
0
Sonnet XXVIII: My Letters
eng
0
Sonnet XXX: I See Thine Image
eng
0
Sonnet XXXI: Thou Comest!
eng
0
Sonnet XXXIII: Yes, Call Me by My Pet-Name!
eng
0
Sonnet XXXIV: With the Same Heart
eng
0
Sonnet XXXIX: Because Thou Hast the Power
eng
0
Sonnet XXXVI: When We Met First
eng
0
Sonnet XXXVII: Pardon, Oh, Pardon
eng
0
Substitution
eng
0
Tears
eng
0
The Look
eng
0
The Meaning Of The Look
eng
0
The North And The South
eng
0
The Poet And The Bird
eng
0
The Prisoner
eng
0
The Seraph and the Poet
eng
0
The Soul`s Expression
eng
0
The Two Sayings
eng
0
The Weakest Thing
eng
0
To
eng
0
To Flush, My Dog
eng
0
To George Sand: A Desire
eng
0
To George Sand: A Recognition
eng
0
Work
eng
0
Work And Contemplation
eng
0

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