Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Elizabeth Barrett Browning was born on March 6, 1806, in Coxhoe Hall, Durham, England. She was the eldest of eleven children born of Edward and Mary Moulton-Barrett (DISCovering Authors). Her father was a “possessive and autocratic man loved by his children even though he rigidly controlled their lives” (Encyclopedia of World Biography). Although he forbid his daughters to marry, he always managed to encourage their scholarly pursuits (DISCovering Authors). Her mother, Mary Graham-Clarke, was a prosperous woman who earned their wealth from a sugar plantation in Jamaica (EXPLORING Poetry). When Elizabeth was “three years old, the family moved to Hope End in Herefordshire,, and she spent the next twenty-three years of her life in this minareted country house overlooking a lake” (Hayter).

Since a young age Barrett Browning had shown significant amounts of interest in poetry and literature. By the age of four she had began reading and writing verse. “She was educated at home, and learned classic Greek, Latin, and several modern languages” (Shilstone 646). For being self-educated, her devotion to poetry, literature, and classical studies was exceptional (EXPLORING Poetry). “Elizabeth could read Homer in the original at 8 years old” (Greer). “She completed an epic poem, ‘Battle of Marathon’. when she was thirteen, and her father had it privately printed” (Greer).

In 1821, Barrett Browning began suffering from a nervous disorder that caused headaches, weakness, and fainting spells in which would affect her for the rest of her life (EXPLORING Poetry). Additionally, around the age of fourteen she injured her spine when attempting to saddle her pony, consequently dooming herself into a life of deficiency and solitude (DISCovering Autho...

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...rary heroine fleeing from tyrannical father to poet-lover” (DISCovering Authors).

Works Cited

“Elizabeth Barrett Browning.” DISCovering Authors 2003. Gale Student Resources In Context. Web. 27 Feb. 2011.

“Elizabeth Barrett Browning.” Encyclopedia of World Biography 1998. Gale Student Resources In Context. Web. 27 Feb. 2011.

"Elizabeth Barrett Browning." EXPLORING Poetry 2003. Gale Student Resources In

Context. Web. 6 Mar. 2011.

Greer, Germain, ed, and Showalter, Elaine, ed. “Browning, Elizabeth Barrett.” Women’s Writing in English. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999. 96. Print.

Hayter, Alethea. “Elizabeth Barrett Browning.” Encyclopedia of British Writers. Ed. Ian Scott-

Kilvert. New York: Facts On File, 2005. 310-312. Print.

Shilstone, Frederick W. “Browning, Elizabeth Barrett.” The World Book Encyclopedia. 2010 ed.

646. Print.