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Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806 – 1861) was a prominent Victorian poet. She was widely read in England and the United States and was the wife of the poet Robert Browning, whom she married in 1846.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning didn’t come to possess her wonderfully alliterative name by chance alone. Elizabeth Barrett was born into a wealth family with extensive land holdings in England and Jamaica. Their holdings included sugar plantations, mills, glassworks and trading ships. The family was not only proud of their wealth but proud of their name. They often stipulated that the name “Barrett” should be used by a beneficiary inheriting from their estate. Elizabeth herself singed legal documents “Elizabeth Barrett Moulton Barrett” and used the initials EBB for “Elizabeth Barrett Barrett.”
Browning’s poetry was striking beautiful is prose and sentiment and it was widely read during her lifetime. In addition to the fictional writing for which he is known, the American author, Edgar Allen Poe was also an import literary critic.
Poe felt so highly of her work that he borrowed the meter for The Raven from her poem, Lady Geraldine’s Courtship.
Perhaps the greatest testament to her skill is the simple fact that her work is so well known and recognized. Here is Sonnet XLIII (43) from the 1845 volume, Sonnets from the Portuguese.

Poems

  • A Child Asleep
  • A Curse For A Nation
  • A Dead Rose
  • Adequacy
  • A Man’s Requirements
  • A Musical Instrument
  • An Apprehension
  • A Sea-Side Walk
  • A Thought For A Lonely Death-Bed
  • Aurora Leigh: Book 1
  • Aurora Leigh: Book 2
  • Aurora Leigh: Book 3
  • Aurora Leigh: Book 4
  • Aurora Leigh: Book 5
  • Aurora Leigh: Book 6
  • Aurora Leigh: Book 7
  • Aurora Leigh: Book 8
  • Aurora Leigh: Book 9
  • A Woman’s Shortcomings
  • A Year’s Spinning
  • Bianca Among The Nightingales
  • Change Upon Change
  • Cheerfulness Taught By Reason
  • Chorus Of Eden Spirits
  • Comfort
  • Consolation
  • De Profundis
  • Discontent
  • Exaggeration
  • From ‘The Soul’s Travelling’
  • Futurity
  • Grief
  • How Do I Love Thee?
  • Human Life’’s Mystery
  • Insufficiency
  • Irreparableness
  • Lady Geraldine’s Courtship
  • Lord Walter’s Wife
  • Minstrelsy
  • Mother And Poet
  • My Heart And I
  • On A Portrait Of Wordsworth By B. R. Haydon
  • Only A Curl
  • Pain In Pleasure
  • Past And Future
  • Patience Taught By Nature
  • Perplexed Music
  • Rosalind’s Scroll
  • Sonnets from the Portuguese
  • Stanzas on the Death of Lord Byron
  • Substitution
  • Tears
  • The Autumn
  • The Best Thing in the World
  • The Cry Of The Children
  • The Deserted Garden
  • The House Of Clouds
  • The Lady’s Yes
  • The Look
  • The Meaning Of The Look
  • The North And The South
  • The Poet And The Bird
  • The Prisoner
  • The Romaunt Of Margret (Excerpts)
  • The Runaway Slave At Pilgrim’s Point
  • The Seraph And The Poet
  • The Soul’s Expression
  • The Two Sayings
  • The Weakest Thing
  • To
  • To Flush, My Dog
  • To George Sand
  • Work
  • Work And Contemplation