
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
poet
The eldest of 12, Elizabeth Barrett Browning quickly distinguished herself as the "poet laureate" of her large English family. As a brilliant autodidact whose parents always encouraged her literary bent, Elizabeth was reading + writing poetry by age 6, going on to publish a poem of her own by 15 and her first collection at 20.
In spite of her vocal advocacy for social justice causes {as well as lifelong debilitating spinal and lung illnesses that left her dependent on morphine}, Elizabeth was a prominent public figure who enjoyed surprising renown and influence in her own time. She was eulogized as "the Shakespeare among her sex."
poetry | including some of the most romantic love poems in the English language
1826 | published anonymously her first collection of poems, An Essay on Mind, with Other Poems, which was well received and led to scholarly correspondence with many prominent Classicists who would influence her later work
1846 | eloped with up-and-coming poet Robert Browning, estranging her from her family but encouraging some of her best and most enduring work, such as her famous collection of love poems, Sonnets from the Portuguese
1857 | put out her most renowned work of her lifetime, the book-length epic poem about a female poet trying to balance life and work, Aurora Leigh
from | to
studious and reclusive invalid | one of the most celebrated poets of the Victorian era
born on
March 6, 1806
born in
Durham, England
birth name
Elizabeth Barrett Moulton Barrett
nickname
Ba
citizen of
The United Kingdom
daughter of
Mary Graham Clarke + Edward Barrett Moulton Barrett
sister of
10 brothers and sisters
~ her father would not allow any of the 11 children to marry ~
loved studying
history
literature
metaphysics
Hebrew
Greek
married to
Robert Browning
~ she wed the younger and less established Robert in secret, prompting her father to disinherit her and her brothers to shun her ~
mother of
Robert Wiedeman Barrett Browning
~ called Penini or Pen ~
advocate for
abolition of slavery
child labor laws + workers rights
women's rights
democratic politics
influenced
Robert Browning
Emily Dickinson
Edgar Allan Poe
Virginia Woolf
in her spare time
studied the Bible + participated in Bible and missionary societies
wrote translations of Greek dramas
of note…
honored with a Google Doodle
~ on March 4, 2014...the 208th anniversary of her birthday ~
her red cocker spaniel, Flush, was the subject of a biography
~ authored by Virginia Woolf ~
died on
June 29, 1861
~ Florence, Italy ~
image credit
T. O. Barlow, Macaire Havre | Wikimedia Commons | public domain
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letter to Mary Russell Mitford | april 1839
"Full desertness, | In souls as countries, lieth silent-bare | Under the blanching, vertical eye-glare | Of the absolute Heavens."
Grief | 1844
"Birds Sing through our sighing, and the flocks and herds Serenely live while we are keeping strife..."
Patience Taught by Nature | january 1845
"Grant me...patience, as a blade of grass Grows by contented through the heat and cold."
Patience Taught by Nature | january 1845
"I love thee freely, as men strive for Right; I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise."
No. XLIII | 1850
"Nothing's small! No lily-muffled hum of a summer-bee, But finds some coupling with the spinning stars."
Aurora Leigh | 1857
for further reading about Elizabeth Barrett Browning:
curated with care by Alicia Williamson {july 2014}
Thomas B. Read (American, 1822-1872) - Portraits of Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning
The poetic power couple seriously address their viewers in these famous renderings of them by a fellow poet, American painter Thomas Buchanan Read.
Christie's | Jan Arkesteijn
Elizabeth Barrett Browning with her son Pen
Elizabeth lovingly holds the hand of her 1 child born among 4 miscarriages, a boy named after Robert but affectionately nicknamed "Pen."
Eton College
Aurora Leigh's Dismissal of Romney ("The Tryst")
Pre-Raphaelite painter Arthur Hughes offered this interpretation of a famous scene from Elizabeth's Aurora Leigh in which the title character boldly rejects a marriage proposal from her cousin in order to be able to freely pursue her true passion ~ poetry.
Tate Museum