Elizabeth
Barrett Browning is now considered to be one of the best-loved poets of her
age. She is remembered for poems like 'George Sand: A Desire' her sonnets
'Sonnets from the Portuguese' and 'Aurora Leigh'. Elizabeth
Barrett Browning was born in 1806 in Durham, England. The oldest of twelve
children, Browning began reading and writing poetry before she was eight years
old, and in 1820 her family published her first poem, "The Battle of Marathon". She was educated at
home and studied classic works of literature at an early age. A very devout
Christian and passionate reader, Browning taught herself Hebrew and Greek so
she could understand the Bible and classic dramatic works in their original
language. Her first collection of poems, An Essay on Mind and Other
Poems, was published anonymously in 1826, but achieved no critical
acclaim.
Life Facts:
- Elizabeth Barrett Browning
was born in Coxhoe Hall, Durham, England in March of 1806.
- In 1844 she published two
volumes of her work, as well as two essays in
‘The Athenaeum’.
- She was a candidate for poet
laureate alongside Tennyson in 1850.
- Elizabeth Barrett Browning
married Robert Browning in September of 1846.
- She lived her last years in
Italy.
Interesting
facts:
- Elizabeth Barrett Browning
was one of twelve children.
- She began writing poetry at
the age of four.
- She wrote ‘The Cry of the
Children’ condemning child labor.
- Browning had an unknown
debilitating illness.
- Her family lived in Jamaica
for a generation.
Famous Poems
- ‘Sonnet 14: If thou must
love me’ contains one speaker’s ideas
about how she wants to be loved. She says that she wants to be appreciated
for love’s own sake. It is important to her that her lover loves her for
things that are permanent, rather than her smile or her appearance. She
wants a love that’s going to last through “eternity”.
- ‘George Sand: A
Desire’ is dedicated to the French writer
Amantine-Lucile-Aurore Dupin who wrote under the name, “George Sand”.
Throughout, Browning praises the writer for her work but expresses her
belief that Dupin should’ve written under her own name. Despite this, she
still appreciates the woman’s strength she showed through
the subject matter she delved into.
- ‘Sonnets from the Portuguese
24’ Let the world’s
sharpness’ is
another one of Browning’s famous Petrarchan sonnets. In it, the
speaker compares the end of the world’s problems to the closing of a
knife. With the blade out of reach, the terrors of the world can’t impact
anyone.
- ‘Patience Taught by Nature’ was published in 1845
in Browning’s collection of poems, A Drama of Exile:
and other poems. In the poem, she speaks about another world, one
that is not influenced by the mundane problems of humanity. There, where
God resides, things are different.
- ‘Aurora Leigh’ is a long poem, stretching
to the length of a novel. It includes nine books of text that go through
the life of a character, Aurora, who is trying to become a poet. Browning
details the roadblocks she encounters along the way. It is well regarded
and by some considered to be the greatest long poem of the century.
Early Life
Elizabeth
Barrett Browning was born in Coxhoe Hall, Durham, England in March of
1806. Her family had been living in Jamaica for over one hundred years before
she was born and had become quite wealthy. They were the owners of a number of
large estates throughout northern Jamaica, as well as sugar plantations and
workshops.
She was the
first of twelve children born to Edward Barrett Moulton Barrett and Mary Graham
Clarke. Her childhood was a pleasant one; she spent time riding horses and
walking in the country. In the early 1800s, the family moved to Hope End in
Ledbury, Herefordshire. It was here that her father built a Turkish-inspired
mansion for the family
Literary Career
Browning was educated at
home and began writing poetry at the age of four. She was an outgoing child,
dedicated to her studies. During these early years, her family compiled
her poems into a work titled, Poems by Elizabeth B. Barrett. It
was also around this time that she began to deal with an illness that is still
to this day unknown. She had intense headaches and spinal pain which degraded
her mobility. The illness followed her for the rest of her life.
Browning’s
mother died in 1828 and was soon followed by her grandmother. It was also
during this time period that the abolition of slavery was causing the family to
lose a great deal of wealth. They had to sell their home, Hope End, and
Browning ended up living in Belle Vue in Sidmouth.
During the
early 1840s, Browning wrote a great deal. She published the poem ‘The Cry of
the Children’ in Blackwoods, a work that was focused
on the condemnation of child labor. In 1844 she published two volumes of her
work Poems, as well as two essays in The
Athenaeum. She was a candidate for poet laureate alongside Tennyson in
1850 and was considered one of Britain’s best-loved and prolific poets.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning married Robert Browning in September of
1846. The two lived in Italy for the rest of Elizabeth’s life.
Death
Browning’s health began to decline in the
early 1860s. She had developed what might have been tuberculosis ulceration of
the lungs. Browning died in June of 1861.
‘Beloved, thou hast
brought me many flowers’. One of the poems from Elizabeth Barrett
Browning’s Sonnets from the Portuguese, is a fine love poem about
her courtship and eventual marriage to her fellow poet, Robert Browning. In
terms of its form, ‘Beloved, thou hast brought me many flowers’ is a Petrarchan
or Italian sonnet. But unlike Petrarch’s medieval sonnets in the courtly love
tradition, the relationship between the man and woman has been consummated in
Barrett Browning’s poem. The courting has involved the gift of ‘many flowers’ –
flowers, of course, are often associated with poetry, as the etymology of the
term anthology demonstrates.
Beloved, thou hast brought me many
flowers
Plucked in the garden, all the summer
through
And winter, and it seemed as if they
grew
In this close room, nor missed the sun
and showers,
So, in the like name of that love of
ours,
Take back these thoughts which here
unfolded too,
And which on warm and cold days I
withdrew
From my heart’s ground. Indeed, those
beds and bowers
Be overgrown with bitter weeds and rue,
And wait thy weeding; yet here’s
eglantine,
Here’s ivy!— take them, as I used to do
Thy flowers, and keep them where they
shall not pine.
Instruct thine eyes to keep their
colours true,
And tell thy soul, their roots are left
in mine.
👍
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