Born: 6 March 1806, United Kingdom
Died: 29 June 1861
Country most active: United Kingdom, Italy
Also known as: Elizabeth Moulton-Barrett
From Famous Women: An Outline of Feminine Achievement Through the Ages With Life Stories of Five Hundred Noted Women. Written by Joseph Adelman, published 1926 by Ellis M Lonow Company:
Elizabeth Barrett Browning, one of the great poets of England. She early displayed precocity, eagerly read books beyond the comprehension of most children, and when about eleven years old, composed The Battle of Marathon, an echo of Pope’s Iliad. Taking up the study of the classics in the original, she read widely in Greek literature. In 1926 she published anonymously An Essay on Mind and Other Poems, and in 1844, published Poems, including The Cry of the Children, and Lady Geraldine’s Courtship, in which she praised Robert Browning’s verse. In May, 1845, she first met him, and on September 12, 1846, they were married against her fathers wishes. The married life of these brilliant poets was singularly happy, and their mutual influence is clearly seen in their verse. Proceeding to Italy, they made Florence their home and there mutual influence is clearly seen in their verse. Proceeding to Italy, they made Florence their home and there in 1849 a son was born, Robert W. B., who became known as an artist and a poet. In 1850 appeared a collected edition of Mrs. Browning’s poems, containing a translation of the Prometheus Bound of Aeschylus, and in 1856 Aurora Leigh a romance, partly autobiographical, in blank verse.
During her early childhood she had a spinal affection, her lungs became delicate, and all her life she was more or less an invalid. In 1860 her health began to fail, and she died in Florence June 30, 1861. Here husband who tended her alone on the night of her decease, wrote to a friend:
“With the most perfect expression of her love to me, smilingly, happily, and with a face like a girl’s, she died in my arms, her head on my cheek. There was no lingering, nor acute pain, nor consciousness of separation, but God took her to Himself as you would lift a sleeping child from a dark uneasy bed into your arms and the light.”
Nathaniel Hawthorne thus describes her appearance:
A pale, small person, scarcely embodied at all; at any rate, only substantial enough to put forth her slender fingers to be grasped, and to speak with a shrill, yet sweet, tenuity of voice. She is a good and kind fairy, sweetly disposed towards the human race, although only remotely akin to it. It is wonderful to see how small she is, how pale her cheeks, how bright and dark her eyes. There is not such another figure in the world; and her black ringlets cluster down into her neck, and make her face look the whiter by their sable profusion.”
The literary estimates of Mrs. Browning’s poetry differ widely, though it is generally agreed that she holds a high place among the masters of poetic verse. In Aurora Leigh there are many fine moments, as in these lines:
“Nothing is small.
No lily-muffled hum of summer bee
But finds some coupling with the spinning stars;
No pebble at your foot but proves a sphere;
. . . Earth’s crammed with Heaven,
And every common bush afire with God;
But only he who sees, takes off his shoes.”
The Sonnets from the Portuguese, which were in reality original compositions, written after her engagement to Robert Browning, are unrivaled, of their kind, in the English language as an exquisite expression of pure yet passionate love.
Edgar Allen Poe claimed she had done more in poetry, than any woman, living or dead. William Sharp thought that “no more impassioned soul ever found expression in rhythmical speech.”
While Lilian Whiting said: “There are passages in her work which surpass anything that has been given to the world since Shakespeare.”
Perhaps the more conservative opinion of Alice Meynell is nearest the truth:
“The place of Elizabeth Barrett Browning in English literature is high, if not upon the summits. She had an original genius, a fervent heart, and an intellect that was, if not great, exceedingly active. She seldom has composure or repose, and while the impassioned peace of the greatest poetry is not hers, there is in her poetic personality a glory of righteousness, of spirituality, and of ardour that makes her name a splendid one in the history of an incomparable literature.”
From Woman: Her Position, Influence and Achievement Throughout the Civilized World. Designed and Arranged by William C. King. Published in 1900 by The King-Richardson Co. Copyright 1903 The King-Richardson Co.:
Elizabeth B. Browning, English Poetess, 1806 – 1861 A.D.
The highest place among modern poetesses belongs to Mrs. Browning, and she far outranks most of our modern poets. Her pure joy and lofty sentiment and intellectual power are far inferior only to Tennyson.
She was born in London and was from infancy a delicate child. She was naturally retiring and loved solitude. At fifteen she sustained an injury of the spine which further weakened her physical powers. Being deprived of the usual pursuits and pleasures of young people she gave herself to study and began to write. She could see little of the world and so she found or made her own.
In 1839 she burst a blood vessel of the lungs and was removed to a milder climate. Soon afterwards her favorite brother, with two other young men, drowned while sailing. These physical and mental shocks so weakened her that for years she lived in a darkened room, visited only by her family and a few intimate friends. Yet from that fairy hand came works of power which made the world marvel. She settled down to her lot with sweet resignation, in no wise questioning her Master’s goodness and love.
Then came a change. Robert Browning had already won for himself a name. He had learned to love the invalid poetess through her works and sought her in marriage, to the amazement of her family and friends. He believed that she need not be an invalid all her days. Love could win her to health she had never known.
They were married and spent four years in France and Italy. When they returned to England Mrs. Browning a new creature. Hope, Love, and Italy had wrought marvels. Theirs was a perfect a union as the world often sees. Each had a marked individuality. Each was a complement to the other.
Mrs. Browning possessed the unusual combination of masculine understanding and thoroughly feminine heart. She could treat social problems in a mastery way and at the same time she could set forth the tenderest, deepest sentiments of a woman’s heart.
The following is excerpted from “400 Outstanding Women of the World and the Costumology of Their Time” by Minna Moscherosch Schmidt, published in 1933.
English poetess: born at Burn Hall, Durham, in 1809; died at Florence, 1861. Her father Edward Moulton took the name of Barrett on succeeding to some property. She grew up at Hope End, near Ledbury, Herefordshire, where her father possessed a large estate. Her bodily frame was from the first extremely delicate, and she had been injured by a fall from her pony when a girl, but her mind was sound and vigorous, and disciplined by a course of severe study of the classics. When only seventeen she published An Essay on Mind with other poems. A money catastrophe compelled her father to settle in London, and her continued delicacy received a severe shock by the accidental drowning of her brother, causing her to pass years in the confinement of a sick-room. Her health was at length partially restored, and in 1846 she was married to Robert Browning, soon after which they settled in Italy, and continued to reside for the most part in the City of Florence.
Her Promethus Bound (from the Greek of Aeschylus) and Miscellaneous Poems appeared in 1833; The Seraphim and other poems in 1838. In 1856 a collected edition of Mrs. Browning’s works appeared, including several new poems, and among others Lady Geraldine’s Courtship. Casa Guidi Windows, a poem on the struggles of the Italians for liberty, in 1848-9, appeared in 1851. The longest and most finished of all her works Aurora Leigh, a narrative and didactic poem in nine books was published in 1857. Poems Before Congress appeared in i860, and two posthumous volumes Last Poems, 1862, and The Greek Christian Poets and the English Poets (prose essays and translations) 1863, were edited by her husband.