Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-61), British poet. She was educated at home and began writing while still very young. An injury to her spine in a childhood riding accident made her a semi-invalid. In 1845 she met Robert Browning and became engaged to him. Her over-protective father disapproved of the marriage, so they married in secret and fled to Italy (1846), where they lived until her death. Sonnets from the Portuguese (1847) are love poems to Robert, who nicknamed her “my Portuguese”. Her greatest work was the narrative poem Aurora Leigh (1856). Her husband Robert Browning (1812-89) was one of the leading poets of the Victorian age. In his poetry he made use of the dramatic monologue, in which a real or imaginary character serves as a mouthpiece for the poet’s thoughts. His longest work, The Ring and the Book (1868-69), is the story of a Renaissance murder told from several different points of view. His other poems include The Pied Piper of Hamelin and ‘Home Thoughts from Abroad’.
