Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (Moulton) (March 6, 1806 – June 29, 1861) was the most respected female poet of the Victorian era.

She was born at Coxhoe Hall (now demolished) near Durham, England in 1806. She was christened in Kelloe church, where a plaque describes her as 'a great poetess, a noble woman, a devoted wife'. Her mother was Mary Graham-Clarke of a wealthy Newcastle family. She and Edward (Moulton) Barrett married there in St Nicholas, Gosforth in 1805. In her early teens, Elizabeth contracted a lung complaint, possibly tuberculosis, although the exact nature has been the subject of much speculation, and was treated as an invalid by her parents. For a girl of that time, she was well-educated, having been allowed to attend lessons with her brother's tutor. She published her first poem, anonymously, at the age of fourteen.

Her most famous work is Sonnets from the Portuguese, a collection of love sonnets written by Browning but disguised as a translation. By far the most famous poem from this collection, with one of the most famous opening lines in the English language, is number 43:

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

I love thee to the depth and breadth and height

My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight

For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.

I love thee to the level of everyday's

Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight.

I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;

I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.

I love thee with the passion put to use

In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.

I love thee with a love I seemed to lose

With my lost saints,—I love thee with the breath,

Smiles, tears, of all my life!—and, if God choose,

I shall but love thee better after death.

The family moved to London in 1837, and it was there that Elizabeth met the English poet Robert Browning, whom she married. They went to live in Italy and had one son. She died at their home, the Casa Guidi, in Florence and is buried there in the Cimitero Degli Inglesi .

Other works

• Casa Guidi Windows (1851)
• Aurora Leigh (1855)
• Poems Before Congress (1860)

External link

• Project Gutenberg e-text of Sonnets from the Portuguese