Poems

by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (Creator)

This is a reproduction of the original artefact. Generally these books are created from careful scans of the original. This allows us to preserve the book accurately and present it in the way the author intended. Since the original versions are generally quite old, there may occasionally be certain imperfections within these reproductions. We're happy to make these classics available again for future generations to enjoy!

Genres: Poetry, Classics

262 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1892

About the author

Elizabeth Barrett Browning was one of the most respected poets of the Victorian era.

Born in County Durham, the eldest of 12 children, Browning was educated at home. 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. At 15 Browning became ill, suffering from intense head and spinal pain for the rest of her life, rendering her frail. She took laudanum for the pain, which may have led to a lifelong addiction and contributed to her weak health.

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. Browning's first adult collection The Seraphim and Other Poems was published in 1838. During this time she contracted a disease, possibly tuberculosis, which weakened her further. Living at Wimpole Street, in London, Browning wrote prolifically between 1841 and 1844, producing poetry, translation and prose. She campaigned for the abolition of slavery and her work helped influence reform in child labour legislation. Her prolific output made her a rival to Tennyson as a candidate for poet laureate on the death of Wordsworth.

Browning's volume Poems (1844) brought her great success. During this time she met and corresponded with the writer Robert Browning, who admired her work. The courtship and marriage between the two were carried out in secret, for fear of her father's disapproval. Following the wedding she was disinherited by her father and rejected by her brothers. The couple moved to Italy in 1846, where she would live for the rest of her life. They had one son, Robert Barrett Browning, whom they called Pen. Towards the end of her life, her lung function worsened, and she died in Florence in 1861. A collection of her last poems was published by her husband shortly after her death.

Browning was brought up in a strongly religious household, and much of her work carries a Christian theme. Her work had a major influence on prominent writers of the day, including the American poets Edgar Allan Poe and Emily Dickinson. She is remembered for such poems as "How Do I Love Thee?" (Sonnet 43, 1845) and Aurora Leigh (1856).

Reviews

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume that I have in hand is old, but apparently it is a reproduction of an even older book of poetry by Elizabeth Barrett Browning up through 1850. It contains both a forward to the 1844 edition, and another to the 1850 version, both written by Mrs. Browning. She also includes a dedication to her father who was a great supporter of her writing. There is a "Memoir" in this edition, written not by EBB herself, but by a good friend who spent much time with her and her poet husband. This selection of prose offers a lot of incite into the poet's background, her love of her earliest home which she remembers in some of her work, her later illness and sorrow caused first by an injury to her spine, then exaggerated by the sudden and devastating death of her bother. The book is packed full of long narrative poems, sonnets, translations, a delightful group of poems of miscellaneous theme, and even some very early work which she agreed to include. I, of course, have not read every poem in this book, but I have read several from each type of poem offered. This is the kind of book to enjoy over time. Mrs. Browning's forwards tell much about her own opinion of herself and her writing, what she has thrown out or drastically altered, and her reaction and response to the inevitable criticism. One specific thing that I discovered about my own reaction to reading her work is that I like it because the words and phrases are beautiful, but also because reading through them can be like solving a puzzle. This may be because of unusual word order, a reference to something ancient that I don't know about, the use of foreign-influenced (maybe Scottish) words, and more. I can't just read through one without stopping to ponder just what she means. I love the poems that express her love of nature, her respect for memory, and her contrast of the outlook of a child to the seasoned response of the more mature but less pretty adult the child may become. Her subject matter is vast and tantalizing. All in all, a great book to own. I have had it forever given to me long ago by a relative, and even then it was an old copy.

[Jacky Chan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A terrific poet who, along with other women poets like Augusta Webster and Amy Levy, make the 19th century shine (their male counterparts are simply lacklustre). Haven't read all that she's written yet--very much looking forward to Aurora Leigh and to exploring her political poems--but in what I have read, EBB's writing flourishes with both frankness and lyricality. The way she gives voice to the marginalised by, among other ways, applying all sorts of pressures on traditional forms and ideas, is dynamically poetic, if poetry is language placed under pressure and constraint. Edward Said's idea that all language 'exists to be revitalized by change', then, rings true here; EBB has charged her voices and forms with an electric specificity and freshness that speaks out loud and true the experiences of the silenced.

All thanks by the way to Dr Clare Broome Saunders for introducing me to and teaching me about EBB. I wish I were reading her for University instead of Edmund Spenser.

[P.S. Winn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a lover of poetry, but you don't have to be one to grab this book. Although when finished you will be I am sure. The author is one all should read. The classics words and the distinctive writing will never go out of style and the feeling inside will stay with readers long after the last word is read.

[Ronald Cullen · Rating 5 out of 5]

my favourite poet, truly beautiful

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautifully deep poet. Raw insights and emotion

[Yinzadi]

Table of Contents (Easton Press Edition)
An Island
A Denial
Proof and Disproof
From Aurora Leigh
The Deserted Garden
My Doves
Human Life's Mystery
Inclusions
Hiram Power's Greek Slave
Exaggeration
Died
Sonnets from the Portuguese
De Profundis
The Cry of the Children
The Churchyard
Substitution
Grief
The Poet
Futurity
The Prospect

[Betsy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not sure if this is the same volume I read or not. My copy is from 1908 and the poetry was selected by Robert Browning. My volume did not have the Sonnets from the Portuguese or Aurora Leigh or other works which I am more familiar. But I loved it! Just confirmed that EBB is my favorite poet.

[Ashleigh · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5

[Hayden Franklin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I dressed up as her in a school performance and her life was bizarre

[Joy]

http://allpoetry.com/Elizabeth_Barret...

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 candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with a 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.