Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Elizabeth Barrett Browning was one of the most prominent poets of Victorian Era. During her lifetime, her poems were popular among England and United States.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning was born on March 6,1806, in County Durham, England. Her parents were Edward Barrett and Mary Graham Clarke and Elizabeth was the eldest of their 12 children. She was educated at home and learned from her brothers' tutor. She was a very studious and precocious child. At the age of six, she read novels, at eight she was opened by Pope's translations of Homer and she studied Greek writing her own Homeric epic ' The Battle of Marathon'. Her mother put her poetry into collections of "Poems by Elizabeth B. Barrett". Her father called her the 'Poet Laureate of Hope End' and encouraged her. The result of her work became one of the largest collections. Her intellectual fascination with classics and metaphysics was reflected in a religious intensity.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning died in Florence, Italy on June 29, 1861.

1818 Probable date of her narrative poem "The Battle of Marathon".

1820 Elizabeth's father gets Battle of Marathon printed; Her family will often support her literary aspirations in this manner.

1821 Stricken by illness, Elizabeth takes opium by medical prescription, developing a lifelong habit.

1825 "The Rose and Zephyr," her first published work, is published in Literary Gazette.

1826 Publishes first volume of poems, An Essay on Mind, anonymously. It draws no critical attention.

1833 Publishes Prometheus Bound, a translation from Greek playwright Aeschylus, again anonymously. Again, it receives no critical notice.

1837 Family settles at 50 Wimpole Street in London. Elizabeth bursts a blood vessel, affecting her lungs. This is the first serious illness in a long period of invalidism.

1838 Publishes The Seraphim and Other Poems under her own name; it is favourably reviewed and sells well. This marks the start of her successful literary career. Though constrained by illness, she corresponds with prominent members of the literary world, including Wordsworth, Carlyle, and Edgar Allan Poe. Moves to Torquay, on the seaside, for her health. She is accompanied by different family members at different times; her favourite brother, Edward, is her primary companion.

1840 "Bro" drowns in Babbacombe Bay off Torquay, impacting Elizabeth greatly. She writes "De Profundis," articulating her grief; it will be published posthumously. Additionally, she writes "Queen Annelida and False Arcite" for an edition of poetry by Chaucer and "The Cry of the Children," attacking child labour.

1841 Returns to the family home in London, still an invalid. Works on book reviews, articles, and translations.

1842 Publishes "The Cry of the Children." A popular work, it helps bring about the regulation of child labour.

1844 Publishes a two-volume edition