Preface Of Robert Browning

Naji Rizig

British Literature

Mrs. Boagni

4 April 2014

Biographical Preface

Robert Browning was born on May 7th, 1812 in Camberwell, London, England. He is considered to be one of the two major poets of the Victorian era. His first poem was written when he was at the age of six. At the age of eight he attended a boarding school until he was sixteen. He then enrolled at the University of London in 1828. Having only stayed at the university for a few months, Browning decided to leave to follow his dream of becoming a poet. Most of his education came from tutors and the many books found in his father’s library. His love to write came from reading many famous works such as Alexander Pope’s Iliad of Homer as well as many romantic poems. His favorite poet was Percy Bysshe Shelley. The first official poem Browning wrote and published is “Pauline” in 1833. In 1846 he met his soon to be wife Elizabeth Barrett and quickly fell in love. They went to Italy where they would later get eloped, have a son, and live there till the death of his wife in 1861. After her death, Browning and his son moved back to England where published The Ring and the Book. It was a series of dramatic monologues related to a seventeenth century murder case. It was the book that essentially established his reputation. He continued on to publish Dramatic Idyls in the years 1879 through 1880 and received world-wide fame. Browning is most widely known for creating the dramatic monologue. In 1881 the Browning Society was built to study and analyze Browning’s poems and to celebrate his work. Browning died in 1889 in Venice, Italy and was buried in Poet’s Corner of Westminster Abbey.

Robert Browning: His Influence on Victorian Poetry

The Victorian era was a time of harmon...

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...and all her hair In one long yellow string I wound Three times her little throat around, And strangled her” (Browning 36-41). Here the twisted mind of Browning is shown. He takes a moment and makes it seem as if it is lovely and sweet and then unexpectedly hits you with a surprise to teach you the lesson of expecting the unexpected. Most of Browning’s works have something in common. Browning believed in recitation with states of mind and he believed in extreme states of mind. Poems that had this reoccurring theme include “Porphyria’s Lover,” “Johannes Agri-cole in Meditation,” “Soliloquy of the Spanish Choister,” and “My Last Duchess”. An example from “My Last Duchess” includes, “In speech -- (which I have not) -- to make your will Quite clear to such an one, and say, 'Just this Or that in you disgusts me; here you miss, Or there exceed the mark'” (Browning 36-39).