Revies on EBB in Appendix D6-D9

In this blog, I will be summarizing and analyzing three different texts from the “Appendix D 6-9: “The Italian Question, Reviews of Poems before Congress” section of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Selected Poems. These texts include “Poems before Congress” by Henry Forhergill Chorley, “Mrs. Browning’s New Poems, The Atlas”, and “Poetic Aberrations by William Edmondstoune Aytoun. These three blogs talk about women and some talk about EBB and others talk about women of the time.

Summary

The three of these articles were kind of confusing to follow along, but each article I read seemed to be a little different. In the first review I read, “Poems before Congress” Chorley talks about EBB and her writing. “She is more political than poetical, expressing her blind faith in Napoleon the Third as the hope of Italy, and flinging out a malediction against England” (351). I do agree that EBB is more of a political writer, but I don’t see anything wrong with that because women at this time didn’t like to know about politics let alone create poems about political issues. This review also says “…One who has written, in her time, better than the best of English poetesses” (352). I don’t think that EBB is one of the best English poetesses and I think that because I like Robert Browning’s poetry better. Elizabeth is still a very great poet, I just don’t “click” with her poems. In the next review, Mrs. Browning’s new poems, they also talk about how great of a poet EBB is! “a writer who unites the strength of a man’s intellect to the largeness of a woman’s heart” (353). He also talks about one of her other poems “A Curse for a Nation” and in this poem, Elizabeth talks about cursing her own country. At the time, this wasn’t right for people to do, not even a little bit. “A curse from the depths of womanhood, its very salt, and bitter, and good” (353). Then, in the last review that I read by William Aytoun he talks about women in general, not so much about EBB. He states that women shouldn’t interfere with politics. He says that “we love the fair sex too well, to desire that they should be withdrawn from their own sphere, which is that of adorning the domestic circle, and tempering by their gentleness the asperities of our ruder nature…” (354). I don’t think it’s “bad” that women can be involved in politics, I mean maybe it was like this at the time, but anyone who wanted to be involved could be. Like I mentioned above, these reviews were pretty hard to understand, so hopefully I got the basic information out.

Analysis

Even though I was a little confused on the reviews, I still liked reading them. I just find it very interesting that women were looked down if they were into politics, or even if they wrote about politics in their poems. Women are strong and independent and now that women have a say it shouldn’t matter if they want to talk about politics in their poetry or not. And I do agree that EBB is a great poet, but I don’t think she is the best female poet of this time.

EBB's Appendix C in "Selected Poems"

In this blog, I will be summarizing and analyzing three different texts from the “Appendix C: Trans-Atlantic Abolitionism and Responses to EBB’s Anti-Slavery Poems” section of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Selected Poems. These texts include “The Slave-mother” by Maria Lowell, “The Original Opening of The Runaway Slave at Pilgrims Point” and The literary World on Hiram Powers Greek Slave and The Runaway Slave at Pilgrims Point” All of these short passages are different because they don’t all have reviews specifically on EBB, but they do talk about her anti-slavery poem The Runaway Slave at Pilgrims Point.

Summary:

Like I just mentioned above, these passages aren’t all critiquing EBB’s poetry, theses passages more describe her poetry and the emotions throughout her poems especially in her poem The Runaway Slave at Pilgrims Point. The first passage I chose, Lowell writes a passage in the form of a poem. In this poem, there are six stanzas and each stanza has four lines. The poem’s poetry form has rhyme to it. The last word in each line rhymes with the last word in the next line, so the first two end words rhyme and the next two lines rhyme. For example on page 337:

“Then on her face she looketh, but not as mother proud,

And seeth how her features, as from out a dusky cloud,

Are tenderly unfolding, far softer than her own,

And how, upon the rounded cheek, a fairer light is thrown;”

The next passage I chose wasn’t written by someone, it’s just an added in passage.  And in this passage, it talks about EBB’s opening of the poem The Runaway Slave at Pilgrims Point. I liked this little passage because it gives a great explanation on the beginning of her poem. I would encourage anyone who wanted to read this poem to read this short little passage first. It states how in the beginning of the poem, the dramatic speaker is a black slave and how later in the poem (stanza 16) the speaker changes to a female slave “I am black. I am black/ I wear a child upon my breasts”. Then in the passage it states how the beginning of this poem talks about a child being abandoned and gives different titles to others poem about children being abandoned. Then the last passage I looked at talked about how EBB’s poem The Runaway Slave at Pilgrims Point had erred (made a mistake). “With slavery, whether it be regarded with loathing, liking, or indifference, the Union has nothing to do; the American is not responsible for it; it is purely a local institution…” (342). As I read EBB’s poem, I didn’t notice that she made a mistake. I enjoyed this poem because there was so much emotion in it and even though it was sad it was still a very well written poem.

Analysis:

So the three texts that I choose were all different in some sort of way, but that’s why I chose those three..I wanted there to be a variety of EBB’s poem The Runaway Slave at Pilgrims Point. As I mentioned earlier, I enjoyed her poem because it made me understand the whole slavery point of view and how children are put into slavery whether the male of the master was a slave and definitely if the mother/female was a slave bore child. The emotion was also outstanding and I would recommend this poem to anyone because I really did think it was interesting!

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

In this blog, I will be summarizing and analyzing three different texts from the “Appendix B: Religion and Factory Reform” section of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Selected Poems. These texts include “Reviews” “The Guardian (22 January 1851), “Death of Mrs. Browning” by Samuel B. Holcombe, and “Mrs. Browning’s Poetry” by Hannah Lawrance. Not all of the reviews talked about EBB’s poetry, but all described a little how she wrote or who her influences were, and this is what I found to be interesting within the three separate reviews.

Summary:

Like I stated above, not all of these reviews critiqued her poetry, but all of the reviews did mention her influences or compared her poetry to other poets. We haven’t read much of EBB yet, but Lawrance states that EBB is “highly favored among women” (322). EBB talks about The Virgin Mary and how a mother should give so much love to her child, so this part of her poetry obviously pulls young women and grown women to read her poetry. Holcombe then compares EBB to the girl version of Shakespeare. “She is truly the Shakespeare among her sex; and yet, no women has written in a spirit of such genuine, intense, and pathetic womanliness…” (321). Going along with what Lawrence said about her talking about The Virgin Mary, Holcombe describes how she is a Christian poet. Not all of her pieces have Christianity in them, and she doesn’t use it too often, but Christianity is hidden secretly in her pieces. Then we have the Reviews who tell us that Mr. Carlyle, Mr. Tennyson, and her husband Mr. Browning are EBB’s idols. Even though I don’t know who two of these men are, I do believe that Mr. Browning had a big effect on EBB’s poetry. So yes, all of these texts are different, but they all describe EBB in a different way, and that what I found interesting about these different texts.

Analysis:

Like I stated above, we haven’t really read much of EBB’s poems, but from what the texts have said, I can see how each one connects. For example, when the “reviews” talk about her idols, I do agree that Mr. Browning was one of her idols because he was also a very well-known poet and I do believe that he influenced EBB to write poetry. This is why half of her poems in this book are about Mr. Browning and how she fell in love with him. Her poetry is different than Roberts and that’s a good thing because they aren’t writing about the same things, but if they are then they are written in a different way. And when Holcombe says that she’s like the women Shakespeare I can already start to see it. Maybe once we read a few more of her pieces it will be clear who she writes like, but I agree with Holcombe.

Victorian Views; John Forster, William Morris, Gerard Manley Hopkins

In this blog, I will be summarizing and analyzing three different texts from the “Victorian Views” section of Robert Browning’s Poetry: “Evidence of a New Genius for Dramatic Poetry,” by John Forster; “Browning’s Alleged Carelessness,” by William Morris; and “Strictures on Browning,” by Gerard Manley Hopkins. These three (Forster, Morris, and Hopkins) were Victorian authors, and the views that they had on Robert Browning were very interesting to me

Summary

The three poets that I mentioned earlier were all debating on how good of a poet Browning was. There were some people that loved his poetry like Forster and Morris, but then you have Hopkins who doesn’t even think that Browning is a poet. In Forster’s explanation of Browning he states “Mr. Browning has the power of a great dramatic poet; we never think of Mr. Browning while we read his poem; we are not identified with him, but with the persons into who he has flung his genius” (496). Then we have Morris’ explanation of Browning, and he talks about how other authors use the word “obscure” in the wrong meaning. “…and I know also that they use the word wrongly; meaning difficult to understand fully at first reading, or, say at second reading, even: yet, taken so, in what a cloud of obscurity would “Hamlet” be!” (501). Last but not least we have Hopkins who completely disagrees with Morris. “Yes, Browning was great. And as what will he be remembered? As a poet? Ah, not as a poet! He will be remembered as a writer of fiction, as the most supreme writer of fiction, it may be, that we have ever had” (518).

Analysis

I really disagreed with Hopkins because after reading a few of Browning’s poems I think that he is a great poet. He has a way of creating an image in the audience’s head as they read his poems and to me that’s important. He clearly has a passion for writing poetry, and all of his pieces are different in some way. This is what a true poet should be like. Forster has a quote about passion and to me, this sums up the way I think of Browning “Passion is invariably displayed, and never merely analysed. Even at those moments when we seem most of all to be listening to its results alone, we are made to vividly sensible of the presence of the very agents by which the results have been determined (496). In some of Browning’s pieces, the audience has to deeply think about what Browning’s trying to say whether it be trying to figure out what a certain character looks like, or what the plot of the poem is etc. When reading, it’s good to be able to imagine the characters as the author tries to describe them. It’s also interesting that not every person sees the same kind of person as you do even though the author describes him/her the same way. Morris also has a quote about Browning “..I place Robert Browning; high among the poets of all time, and I scarce know whether first, or second, in our own: and, it is a bitter thing to me to see the way in which he has been received by almost everybody; many having formed a certain theory of their own about him… (501).

 

Forster, John. “Evidence of a New Genius for Dramatic Poetry” Robert Browning’s Poetry. Ed.

James F. Loucks and Andrew M. Stauffer. 2^nd Edition. New York: W.W. Norton, 2007. 516-517.

Hopkins, Gerard Manley. “Strictures on Browning” Robert Browning’s Poetry. Ed. James F.  

Loucks and Andrew M. Stauffer. 2^nd Edition. New York: W.W. Norton, 2007. 495-496. Print.

 

Morris, William. “Browning’s Alleged Carelessness.” Robert Browning’s Poetry. Ed. James F.  

Loucks and Andrew M. Stauffer. 2^nd Edition. New York: W.W. Norton, 2007. 501-502. Print

A Biography of Robert Browning

Biography:

            Robert Browning was born in Camberwell (a suburb of London) on May 7, 1812. He too was the oldest child. Robert was a very intelligent little boy. He began reading and writing by the age of five, and by the age of fourteen Robert knew how to speak Latin, Greek, French, and Spanish. He was educated at home by his father who worked as a bank clerk, was also an artist, scholar, antiquarian, and collector of books and pictures. Robert was also tutored in music, drawing, dancing and horsemanship. By age twelve, he wrote a volume of Byronic verse that was called Incondita. This book was never published because his parents, but in 1825 his cousin gave Robert a collection of Shelley’s poetry. He enjoyed reading her book and he even asked for all of Shelley’s work for his thirteenth birthday. Robert didn’t start writing until after he turned twenty. He ended up attending the University of London, but he left so that he could read and learn at his own pace. In 1833, Browning published his first major work, Pauline and in 1840 he published Sordelo, which was widely viewed as a failure. Robert also tried drama, but they were unsuccessful. His play Strafford was ran for five nights in 1837 and again that was unsuccessful. Then, his dramatic monologues came in and this was his use of diction, rhythm, and symbol. Dramatic monologues were considered Robert’s most important contribution to poetry, and he even influenced major poets of the twentieth century. Soon after that, he had read Elizabeth Barrett’s work and was very interested in her. They met in person in 1845 after sending letters back and forth to each other for 12 months. The two got married in 1846 by Robert’s father and then they both moved to Florence, Italy. They had a son a little later and his name was also Robert, but they liked to call him “Pen”. Elizabeth inspired Robert’s collection of poems Men and Women (1855), which Robert dedicated to her. This was known as one of Robert’s best works, and after it was published Robert was known as Elizabeth Barrett’s husband. A few years later, Elizabeth passed away and Robert and Pen then moved to London. At this time Robert was publishing Dramatis Personae and The Ring and the book. After he published these two, the Browning Society was founded in 1881 and Robert was awarded honorary degrees by Oxford University in 1882. Robert then died in 1889, the same day that his final volume of verse, Asolando was published.  

 

Sources Cited:

Everett, Glenn. "Robert Browning - Biography." Robert Browning - Biography. N.p., 7 May 2007. Web. 25 Aug. 2013.

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.

The Dramatic Monologue by Robert Langbaum

Let me first start off by saying that I’m not familiar with Elizabeth or Robert Browning, in fact I’ve never even heard of them before. I just read The Dramatic Monologue: Sympathy versus Judgment by Robert Langbaum and I could tell that this piece was one of the most important pieces. Although at times I seemed confused, I thought that this piece was very interesting and I just wanted to keep reading.

Summary:

            Robert Browning’s The Dramatic Monologue was one of the pieces of work that was looked at in a conference in London. I don’t think that there is an exact definition as to what dramatic monologue means, but after reading this piece I gather that it could be defined as multiple things. For example, a person (someone who’s not the poet) speaks the speech that makes up the poem in a specific situation or special moment. Langbaum says “The dramatic monologue must have not only a speaker other than the poet, but also a listener, an occasion, and some interplay between speaker and listener”.[1]Another definition of a dramatic monologue could be that this person also addresses and interacts with one or multiple people. We as the readers know exactly what they say/do, but that’s because of the clues that the single speaker gives. In a dramatic monologue, it’s important that the poet’s choice enhances the reader meaning that the piece is interesting and draws people closer. Like I said above, I wanted to keep reading about the monologue because I was so interested in what it actually meant. Some of the most famous monologues from the Browning’s are My Last Duchess and Childe Roland and Caliban. Another quote I found to be interesting was the quote on page 537 “He is doing what Browning does in all the dramatic monologues on religion-making the empiricist argument, starting without any assumptions as to faith and transcendental values”. This quote is stating that even though Blougram may not be completely right because he knows his argument isn’t the best doesn’t mean that it’s necessarily wrong. I think that if someone says something meaningful their “answer” wouldn’t be wrong. As long as that person can back up their answer with information then no answer could be wrong.

 

  

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[1] Robert, Langbaum. "The Dramatic Monologue: Sympathy versus Judgment." Robert Browning's Poetry: Authoritative Texts, Criticism. By Robert Browning and James F. Loucks. New York: Norton, 1979.