The courtship and marriage between the two were carried out in secret, for fear of her father's disapproval.

During this time she met and corresponded with the writer Robert Browning, who admired her work. Her prolific output made her a rival to Tennyson as a candidate for poet laureate on the death of Wordsworth.īrowning's volume Poems (1844) brought her great success. She campaigned for the abolition of slavery and her work helped influence reform in child labour legislation. Living at Wimpole Street, in London, Browning wrote prolifically between 18, producing poetry, translation and prose. During this time she contracted a disease, possibly tuberculosis, which weakened her further. Browning's first adult collection The Seraphim and Other Poems was published in 1838. In the 1830s Barrett's cousin John Kenyon introduced her to prominent literary figures of the day such as William Wordsworth, Mary Russell Mitford, Samuel Taylor Coleridge Alfred, Lord Tennyson, and Thomas Carlyle. She took laudanum for the pain, which may have led to a lifelong addiction and contributed to her weak health. At 15 Browning became ill, suffering from intense head and spinal pain for the rest of her life, rendering her frail. She wrote poetry from around the age of six and this was compiled by her mother, comprising what is now one of the largest collections extant of juvenilia by any English writer. Wonderful Adventures of Mrs.Elizabeth Barrett Browning was one of the most respected poets of the Victorian era.īorn in County Durham, the eldest of 12 children, Browning was educated at home.The Mummy! or, A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century.Frankenstein: or, the Modern Prometheus.New Amazonia: A Foretaste of the Future.Jane Austen & the Rise of Feminism: Women Writers As Agents of Change Such resistance, in part, prevented her from becoming Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom (she would have been the first woman to do so).Ī different edition of this text has been digitized and is available through the Internet Archive.Įngaging Male Writers, Disputing Misogyny Browning reached unprecedented success for a female poet in her era but still experienced backlash from the male literary establishment. The most well known-poem in Sonnets is Sonnet 43, which is displayed here. Browning never originally intended to publish these writings, but Robert encouraged her to do so, calling her poetry 'fresh strange music, the affluent language, the exquisite pathos and true new brave thought”. In actuality, the collection contains intimate love poems which Browning wrote during her courtship with Robert Browning, her soon-to-be husband and a well-known poet as well. She carefully selected the title-Sonnets from the Portuguese-to suggest that the poetry was translations of European sonnets. Browning wrote this collection of love sonnets around 1845, but did not publish them until 1850.