Love In Browning's Meeting At Night And Parting At Night

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“How Do I Love Thee?” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “Meeting at Night” by Robert Browning, and “Parting at Morning” by Robert Browning all share the same theme, love. Biographical information, symbols, setting, and the supported theme in all three of these poems will be discussed. “Elizabeth Barrett Browning was the eldest of eleven children, and she was born in 1806 to a wealthy and over-bearing father” (Browning 1). Her [Browning’s] family owned a large estate in Herefordshire, England (Sonnet 43). At the age of four, she started to read and write verses (Sonnet 43). “When she was fourteen, Browning’s father secretly published her epic, ‘The Battle of Marathon: A Poem’” (Browning 1). “Browning injured her spine in a riding accident at this time, but she continued to study poetry” (Browning 1). This injury led to chronic cough that she would have to deal with for the rest of her life (Sonnet 43). She was published anonymously in 1826 and 1833 (Browning 1). Elizabeth’s father had made a ton of money from the Jamaican sugar plantations, but there were serious financial losses in 1832 (Sonnet 43). They had to sell their house and move to London in 1832 (Sonnet 43). In the 1840’s, she met another poet, Robert Browning (Browning 1). They chose Florence, Italy, hoping that the warm weather would help Elizabeth with her cough (Sonnet 43). In 1846, Robert and Elizabeth Browning eloped to Italy and made Florence their new home. (Browning 1). Due to a serious cold, Elizabeth died in Florence in 1861, when she was 55 years old (Sonnet 43). Robert Browning was born in Camberwell, London to Robert Browning and Sarah Anne Wiedemann in 1812 (Browning 23). The early Robert Browning had a library, which his son used at an early age (Browning... ... middle of paper ... ...Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning are represented by the traditional love poems “Meeting at Night”, “Parting at Morning”, and “How Do I Love Thee?”, which is one of the most often quoted poems in the English language” (Kirszner and Mandell 904). “In one of pair of poems- ‘Meeting at Night’ and ‘Parting at Morning’- he is concerned with the lengths to which lovers will go be together and the necessity for parting” (Odden 167). Robert and Elizabeth Browning are great examples of what love is, and some of their poems have the theme ‘love.’ In conclusion, biographical information of two poets, the symbols in three poems, the settings in three poems, and the shared theme have been discussed. “How Do I Love Thee?” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “Meeting at Night” by Robert Browning, and “Parting at Morning” by Robert Browning have been thoroughly researched.

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