Browning, Elizabeth Barrett
Elizabeth Barrett (1809-1861), an English poet. She was the daughter of Edward Moulton-Barrett, a wealthy merchant, resident at the foot of the Malvern Hills. Her father took great pains with her education, and she was fond of reading and study. She wrote verses before she was eight years old. When about seventeen she published a poem entitled Essay on Mind, which, in later years, she considered unworthy of a place in a complete edition of her writings. In 1832 she published a translation of Prometheus Bound, a work which she rewrote a dozen years later and greatly improved. Miss Barrett continued to write, publishing a poem occasionally in some magazine. In 1838 a volume appeared entitled The Seraphim and Other Poems, which received much praise and some censure from the critics.
About this time her health failed. She had always been delicate and now a warmer climate was recommended as her only escape from an affection of the lungs. Her brother Edward took her to Torquay, but his accidental drowning while there was so great a shock to her nervous system that she was utterly prostrated. For a number of years she lived in seclusion in her father's house, a confirmed invalid. In spite of her weakness and suffering she continued her literary work. In 1844 she published two volumes of poetry containing some of her most popular work. In one of these, Lady Geraldine's Courtship, she made complimentary allusion to the poet Browning. This led to an acquaintance between the two poets and to their marriage in 1846. Mr. Barrett was bitterly opposed to the marriage of any of his children. Miss Barrett, at this time a woman of mature years, naturally decided the question for herself. To her great sorrow a complete reconciliation with her father was never effected. Mr. and Mrs. Browning went to Italy soon after their marriage and made their home in Florence until Mrs. Browning's death. Her Sonnets from the Portuguese were published soon after her marriage. They are a series of love letters written during her engagement and are considered the finest sonnets of the sort in the English language. Her health was feeble; but Browning, unlike too many poets, was assiduous and unremitting in his care of her. Their life together was a happy one. Mrs. Browning's death occurred before her husband had attained public recognition as a man of genius. In 1856 appeared Aurora Leigh, a novel in verse. It is autobiographical, not so far as the incidents of the story are concerned, but in the account of the development of the heroine's mind and character. In a way, it reminds one of Tennyson's Princess. It is Mrs. Browning's most ambitious attempt and ranks next to, but far below, the Sonnets. The Cry of the Children is an eloquent protest against the employment of little children in British factories,--the piling up of national wealth by child labor. Lady Geraldine's Courtship is perhaps her most popular poem.
Mrs. Browning's work is very uneven. She seems to have written on sudden inspiration and to have spent little time in polishing and perfecting her work. The inspirations, however, were sufficiently frequent and powerful to win for her the reputation she has ever since retained of the greatest woman poet who has written in the English language.
SAYINGS.
And life is perfected by death.
And thrusts the thing we have prayed for in our face,
A gauntlet with a gift in 't.
Than the strong man in his wrath.
Poetry has been as serious a thing to me as life itself; and life has been a very serious thing. I never mistook pleasure for the final cause of poetry, nor leisure for the hour of the poet.
SAID OF MRS. BROWNING
In fervor, melodiousness, and splendor of genius, Mrs. Browning stands first among women.--Bayne.
Her genius was more dramatic than idyllic, and lyric first of all.--Stedman.
No writer has exerted a better, gentler, happier influence.--Chambers.
The most eminent poet among women is Elizabeth Barrett Browning.--Shaw.
A woman--an inspired singer, if there ever was one--all fire and air, her song and soul alike devoted to liberty, aspiration and ethereal love.--Stedman.
She felt for all who are in any way crushed or bruised by the pressure of society.--Britannica.