A Biography of Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Biography:

            Elizabeth Barrett Browning was a famous English poet that was born in 1806 in Durham, England. She was the first born of twelve children and her family had lived in England, but had their sugar plantations in Jamaica where they relied on slave labor. Elizabeth was homeschooled and she loved to read. She read lots of Shakespearean plays, and one of the greatest passages from Paradise Lost all by the age of ten. Elizabeth also enjoyed writing. She wrote her first poem, which was consisted on four books of rhyming couplets. Then, when Elizabeth was twelve years old, she had developed a lung ailment that plagued her, and when she was fifteen she suffered spinal injury (from riding her horses). These “injuries” had a dramatic play in Elizabeth’s education, but Elizabeth never game up. In fact, Elizabeth taught herself how to speak Hebrew just so she could read the Old Testament. Elizabeth’s mother then passed away in 1828 leaving the Barrett’s poor. Edward (Elizabeth’s father) sold the rural estate at a public auction and the then rented cottages for him and his children for three years until they were able to move to London. At this time, Elizabeth had published her translation of Prometheus Bound (1833). She was twenty seven years old and she still lived with her father and siblings, but her father had Elizabeth’s younger siblings travel to Jamaica to help with the family estates. Elizabeth didn’t agree with slavery and didn’t like that her siblings were being sent away. In 1838 Elizabeth had written The Seraphim and Other Poems. These poems talked about Christian sentiments that were translated into classic Greek tragedy.  Elizabeth was then sent away to live in Torquay for a year escorted by her brother, Edward. Edward had died in the sailing in the sea of Torquay and after Elizabeth found out she went back home and locked herself in her room for 5 years. Of course Elizabeth was still writing; in 1844 Elizabeth then produced a collection titled Simply Poems. This then caught the eye of a famous poet named Robert Browning. He was very interested in her writing, so he wrote her a letter. These two ended up writing letters to each other constantly; over a 12 month period, 574 letters were written back and forth. Edward (Elizabeth’s father) did not want any of her children to get married, but Elizabeth and Robert ended up getting married in 1846. After they got married they moved to Florence, Italy. Elizabeth’s father never talked to her again. Elizabeth and Robert then had a son named Robert Wideman Browning.  Elizabeth was still writing, and her collection of The Sonnets love lyrics (in English) was her best work. Critics say that this was her best and most known piece and they compared her imagery to Shakespeare! Elizabeth was a well-known poet in Europe and she ended up dying on June 29, 1861 in Florence.

 

Sources Cited:

Everett, Glenn. "The Life of Elizabeth Barrett Browning." The Life of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. N.p., 6 Apr. 2002. Web. 25 Aug. 2013.