Elizabeth Barrett Browning Elizabeth Barrett Browning was born Elizabeth Barrett Moulton-Barrett at Coxhoe Hall, Durham County on March 6, 1806. She was one of twelve children. Her parents, Edward Moulton-Barrett and Mary Graham Clarke Moulton-Barrett had eight sons and four daughters. Between 1809 and 1814 Elizabeth began writing poetry. In 1818 she wrote “The Battle of Marathon” and in 1820 her father had it published. When Elizabeth was fifteen years of age, she developed an illness and was prescribed Opium, which began her lifelong Opium habit. Elizabeth’s first published work was “The Rose and Zephyr” in 1825 at the age of twenty-one. A year later, she published An Essay on Mind. Both publications were anonymous and were financially supported by her family. Her father assisted in getting them both published. Elizabeth had commented later in her career that these works were “Pope’s Homer done over again, or rather redone”. She obviously thought very little of the early part of her career. Her Mother passed away in 1828 and Elizabeth began studying classical literature under H.S. Boyd. Her next publication was Prometheus Bound, published in 1833 and once again, anonymously. This translation was from the Greek playwright, Aeschylus. Boyd re-ignited an interest of Elizabeth’s since childhood, in Greek literature and studies. During her youth, Elizabeth was self- taught in the area of literature. She read Paradise Lost, Dante’s Inferno and the Old Testament, in Hebrew, which was obviously the backdrop for Prometheus Bound. In 1837 Elizabeth’s health deteriorated when she burst a blood vessel affecting her lungs; Elizabeth became an invalid. One year later, Elizabeth published her first volume of poetry under her own name, The Seraphim and Other Poems. This work received favorable reviews, which in turn, brought about a correspondence with Wordsworth, Carlyle, and Poe. Poe even wrote an introduction in Elizabeth’s two-volume edition of poetry Poems in 1844. She truly began her literary career in 1838. Elizabeth moved to Torquay for her health and was often accompanied by different family members but her favorite was her brother, Edward. Elizabeth’s uncle passed away that same year leaving her financially secure. In 1840, Edward drowned in Babbacombe Bay off Torquay. She then wrote “De Profundis” expressing her grief. In 1840, Elizabeth wrote “The Cry of the Children”. In 1841 she returned to London, still an invalid, and began working on reviews, articles, and translations.
In 1851, Victor Hugo, a french writer, was exiled from France for writings that were deemed critical by the government by Napoleon. Many believed the exiling was unjust and expressed their views strongly, through opinionated letters, which revealed people’s stances on Hugo’s exile. Although some agreed and other disagreed, one thing they all had in common was the persuasive use of rhetorical strategies. Elizabeth Barrett Browning, an English poet, wrote a letter to Napoleon in 1857, but never mailed it. Browning’s letter incorporated strong word choice, repetition, and an appeal to emotion which overall was used to persuade Napoleon to pardon Hugo would benefit him and his people.
French writer Victor Hugo, was banished by Napoleon III, emperor of France, for writings that were critical to the government. In April of 1857, English Poet, Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote a letter to Napoleon, which she never mailed. Imploring Napoleon to excuse Hugo for writing a furious letter to the government.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning is an English Poet of the Romantic Movement who read various number of Shakespeare’s plays and many different passages from Paradise Lost before the age of 10. As a child, Elizabeth suffered from lung ailment and spinal injury that had plagued her for the rest of her life, but that didn’t stop her from completing her education, and writing numerous amount of sonnets and poems. When she was living under her father’s tyrannical rule, she bitterly opposed slavery and her siblings being sent away to Jamaica by writing the poem, The Seraphim and Other Poems, that expresses the Christian sentiments in the form of Greek tragedy. In 1846, the couple, Elizabeth and Robert, eloped and settled in Florence, Italy, in which helped
Born Felicia Dorothea Browne in Liverpool in 1793 and raised in North Wales, Hemans was largely home-schooled by her mother. Considered a child prodigy by her family, she loved Shakespeare, was well read in several languages, and is said to have been able to quote passages from literature at length after only one reading. Felicia also studied music and drawing, and was later to include several of her sketches as frontispieces for her publications. She began writing as early as the age of eight, and her first volume, Poems was published by subscription in 1808 when she was only 14. The collection was met with some harsh reviews, which, although upsetting to the young poet, did not lessen her passion for writing. In fact, the same year saw the publication of England and Spain, or Valour and Patriotism. This volume was likely inspired by the service of her elder brothers, who both entered the army at an early age, and served in the Peninsular Campaigns in Spain. As her sister Anne Browne was later to write in her posthumous biography of Hemans, "trumpets and banners now floated through her dreams in which birds and flowers had once reigned paramount." [2]
In the early Victorian period, a number of poems were composed which served to highlight a specific troubled spot in society. The poets often wrote for human rights groups and the like in order to convey a message to those members of society who could make a difference, namely, the educated white men. Among these poems is Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s “The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim’s Point.” This piece deals with a female slave who has killed her newborn son and fled to Pilgrim’s Point, where she speaks of her feelings leading up to the present moment. Another poem, which can be placed in comparison to Browning’s, is Augusta Webster’s “A Castaway,” a dramatic monologue of a prostitute who struggles to justify her lifestyle both to herself and to her reader. In each of these works, the female speaker has acted in a morally questionable manner that initially appears condemnable. However, the issue is not clearly defined; many questions arise as to the motives behind and the circumstances surrounding each woman’s behavior. Do the choices made assert the freedom of each woman? That is to say, is the woman to be held entirely accountable for her actions based on the idea that she has freely chosen to carry them out? Upon careful reading of the two poems in question, the answer becomes much clearer. The choices made by the castaway and the runaway slave are in reality not the uninhibited decisions they at first appear. Restricted on all sides by their respective society’s powerful men, each woman faces very limited options. In each of the poems, the idea of choice (and subsequently, the question of its validity) emerges in the areas of materna...
Elizabeth Barrett Browning follows ideal love by breaking the social conventions of the Victorian age, which is when she wrote the “Sonnets from the Portuguese”. The Victorian age produced a conservative society, where marriage was based on class, age and wealth and women were seen as objects of desire governed by social etiquette. These social conventions are shown to be holding her back, this is conveyed through the quote “Drew me back by the hair”. Social conventions symbolically are portrayed as preventing her from expressing her love emphasising the negative effect that society has on an individual. The result of her not being able to express her love is demonstrated in the allusion “I thought one of how Theocritus had sung of the sweet
Elizabeth Browning starts out her letter by setting up her ethos. She explains to the Emperor about herself and her life. She states, “having grown used to great men (among the Dead at least) I cannot feel entirely at loss in speaking to the emperor Napoleon.” By revealing this, Browning is attempting to build her virtue in the eyes of Napoleon, making her seem more than just a common person. She follows the first paragraph, where she crafted
For this essay, this essay will talk about the analysis of a poem written by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Elizabeth Barrett Browning was born in 1806 in Durham, England. She started reading and writing poems when she was 8 years old and her family published her first poem when she was 14 called, “The Battle of Marathon.” She was homeschooled and she studied classic works of literature at an early age. She taught herself Hebrew and Greek just to understand the bible and other poems in their original language. Her mother died 2 years after the collection was printed which is, An Essay on Mind and Other Poems. Her Father’s plantation in Jamaica financially forced the family because of the abolition of slavery. In 1835, she moved to London and published her second collection of poetry, The Seraphim and Other Poems (1838). Elizabeth then traveled to Torquay with her brother after The Seraphim was published but her brother died from
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett. “Aurora Leigh”. 1856. Correspondence Course Notes: ENGL 205*S Selected Women Writers I, Spring-Summer 2003, pp. 26, 27.
Emma Lazarus was born in New York City on July 22, 1849, and is the fourth child of Moses Lazarus, and Esther Lazarus. Moses Lazarus was a wealthy sugar merchant and his wife, Esther Lazarus was well known for her side of the family, which was a family whose members were very influential in New York legal circles. Emma and her siblings were raised in New York and were spoiled by their parents. Emma was very weak as a child and could not leave the house often so all of the Lazarus children were educated at home by private tutors. Lazarus’ first literary achievement happened because of her un-paralleled knack for languages. (7)
as far as to declare her love as the sole reason for her existence in
Elizabeth Barrett Browning 's "Sonnet XLIII" speaks of her love for her husband, Richard Browning, with rich and deeply insightful comparisons to many different intangible forms. These forms—from the soul to the afterlife—intensify the extent of her love, and because of this, upon first reading the sonnet, it is easy to be impressed and utterly overwhelmed by the descriptors of her love. However, when looking past this first reading, the sonnet is in fact quite ungraspable for readers, such as myself, who have not experienced what Browning has for her husband. As a result, the visual imagery, although descriptive, is difficult to visualize, because
She says “writing can be an expression of one 's innermost feelings. It can allow the reader to tap into the deepest recesses of one 's heart and soul. It is indeed the gifted author that can cause the reader to cry at her words and feel hope within the same poem. Many authors as well, as ordinary people use writing as a way to release emotions.” She makes plenty points in her review that I completely agree with. After reading the poem I think that Elizabeth Barret Browning is not only the author of her famous poem, but also the speaker as well. She is a woman simply expressing her love for her husband in a passionate way through poetry. In the 1st Line it reads “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.” A woman drunk in love she is, and next she begins to count the numerous ways she can love her significant
Elizabeth Barrett Browning was one of the braver literary pioneers. Choosing to utilize the vocabulary she favored rather than submit to the harsh criticisms of those who held the power to make or break her is an applaudable novelty about her. Many writers, having been successful in their literary exploits, are susceptible to accusations that their work was catered to critics. Surely, this cannot and should not be said of Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
The Victorian time period started in 1837 when Queen Victoria took the throne. The people living in England that were ruled by Queen Victoria at the time, were called “Victorians”, this congregation of people were also said to be very “stuffy, prudish, hypocritical and narrow minded” (Everett). During this time period, if you were at the nobles rank you were the very best you could be and everyone wanted to be at that rank.