Robert Browning Biography

 

Robert Browning was born in Camberwell, a suburb of London, England, on May 7, 1812, the first son of Robert and Sarah Anna Browning. His father was a man of both fine intellect and character, who worked as a well-paid clerk for the Bank of England. Robert's father amassed a library of around 6,000 books, many of them obscure and arcane. Thus, Robert was raised in a household of significant literary resources. His mother, with whom he was ardently bonded, was a devout Nonconformist. He had a younger sister, also gifted, who became the companion in her brother's later years. As a family unit they lived simply, and his father encouraged his interest in literature and the Arts.

In childhood, he was distinguished by love of poetry and natural history. By twelve, he had written a book of poetry, which he destroyed when no publisher could be found. After being at one or two private schools, and showing an insuperable dislike of school life, he was educated by a tutor.

Browning was a rapid learner and by the age of fourteen was fluent in French, Greek, Italian and Latin as well as his native English. He became a great admirer of the Romantic poets, especially Shelley. In 1825, a cousin gave Browning a collection of Shelley's poetry; Browning was so taken with the book that he asked for the rest of Shelley's works for his thirteenth birthday, and declared himself a vegetarian and an atheist in emulation of the poet. At age sixteen, he attended University College, London, but left after his first year, anxious to read and learn at his own pace. His mother’s staunch evangelical faith circumscribed the pursuit of his reading at either Oxford or Cambridge, then both only available to members of the Church of England. Through his mother he inherited musical talent and he composed arrangements of various songs.

In 1833, Browning anonymously published his first major published work, Pauline. It has been said, that it was inspired by Eliza Flower, a performer and composer of religious music. First the publication sold not a single copy but eventually the work was noted by J.S. Mills.

 

Between 1834 and 1836 The Monthly Repository published several shorter poems by Browning. In 1834 he travelled to Russia and made in 1838 his first trip to Italy. Browning's early poetical works attracted little attention until the publication of PARACELSUS (1835), which dealt with the life of the famous Swiss alchemist. From 1837 to 1846 Browning attempted to write verse drama for the stage. During these years he met Carlyle, Dickens, and Tennyson, and formed several important friendships.

Between 1841 and 1846 Browning works appeared under the title BELLS AND POMEGRANATES. It contained several of his best-known lyrics, such as How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix, and PIPPA PASSES (1841), a dramatic poem depicting a silk winder and his wandering in Italy. Among his earlier works was SORDELLO (1840), set against the background of restless southern Europe of the 13th century. It influenced Ezra Pound in his conception of the Cantos. However, Sordello's hostile reception shadowed Browning's reputation for over twenty years.

After reading Elizabeth Barrett's Poems (1844) and corresponding with her for a few months, Browning met her in 1845. Gradually a significant romance developed between them, leading to their secret marriage in 1846, against the wishes of Barrett's father. The couple moved to Pisa and then Florence, where they continued to write. They had a son, Robert "Pen" Browning, in 1849, the same year his Collected Poems was published. Elizabeth inspired Robert's collection of poems Men and Women (1855), which he dedicated to her. Now regarded as one of Browning's best works, the book was received with little notice at the time; its author was then primarily known as Elizabeth Barrett's husband.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning died in 1861, and Robert and Pen Browning soon moved to London. Browning went on to publish Dramatis Personae (1863), and The Ring and the Book (1868). The latter, based on a seventeenth-century Italian murder trial, received wide critical acclaim, finally earning a twilight of reknown and respect in Browning's career. The Browning Society was founded while he still lived, in 1881, and he was awarded honorary degrees by Oxford University in 1882 and the University of Edinburgh in 1884. Robert Browning died at his son's home Ca' Rezzonico in Venice on 12 December 1889, he died on the same day that his final volume of verse, Asolando, was published.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

 

Elizabeth Barrett Moulton-Barrett was born at Coxhoe Hall, near Durham 6th March, 1806. Her father was Edward Moulton-Barrett, whose wealth was derived from sugar plantations in the British colony of Jamaica. Mary Graham-Clarke, her mother, came from a family with similar commercial interests. Elizabeth grew up in the west of England and was largely educated at home by a tutor, quickly learning French, Latin and Greek. Both parents supported her early writing. By her twelfth year she had written her first "epic" poem, which consisted of four books of rhyming couplets.

In the early 1820s she injured her spine in a riding accident, and was long an invalid, using morphine for the pains for the rest of her life. The abolition of slavery, a cause which she supported (see her work The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim's Point (1849)), considerably reduced Mr. Barrett's means. In 1932 the Barrett family moved to Sidmouth and in 1835 to London, where she began to contribute several periodicals "The Romaunt of Margaret", "The Romaunt of the Page", "The Poet's Vow", and other pieces, and corresponded with literary figures of the time, including Mary Russell Mitford. In 1838 appeared The Seraphim and Other Poems.

Gaining notoriety for her work in the 1830's, Elizabeth continued to live in her father's London house under his tyrannical rule. He began sending Elizabeth's younger siblings to Jamaica to help with the family's estates. Elizabeth bitterly opposed slavery and did not want her siblings sent away. During this time, she wrote The Seraphim and Other Poems (1838), expressing Christian sentiments in the form of classical Greek tragedy. Due to her weakening disposition she was forced to spend a year at the sea of Torquay accompanied by her brother Edward, whom she referred to as "Bro." He drowned later that year while sailing at Torquay and Elizabeth returned home emotionally broken, becoming an invalid and a recluse. She spent the next five years in her bedroom at her father's home. She continued writing, however, and in 1844 produced a collection entitled simply Poems. This volume gained the attention of poet Robert Browning, whose work Elizabeth had praised in one of her poems, and he wrote her a letter.

Elizabeth and Robert, who was six years her junior, exchanged 574 letters over the next twenty months. Immortalized in 1930 in the play The Barretts of Wimpole Street, by Rudolf Besier (1878-1942), their romance was bitterly opposed by her father, who did not want any of his children to marry. In 1846, the couple eloped and settled in Florence, Italy, where Elizabeth's health improved and she bore a son, Robert Wideman Browning. Her father never spoke to her again. Elizabeth's Sonnets from the Portuguese, dedicated to her husband and written in secret before her marriage, was published in 1850. Critics generally consider the Sonnets—one of the most widely known collections of love lyrics in English—to be her best work.

Elizabeth Browning became supporter of Italian independence movement, which she advocated in CASA GUIDI WINDOWS (1851). She also opposed slavery in her books THE RUNAWAY SLAVE AT PILGRIM'S POINT (1849) and in the political POEMS BEFORE CONGRESS (1860). Browning's family had treated their slaves well. Her magnum opus, AURORA LEIGHT (1857), was a novel in blank verse about a woman writer, her childhood and pursuit of a literary career. It also dealt such themes as the poet's mission, social responsibilities, and the position of women. LAST POEMS (1862), issued posthumously, and contained some of her best-known lyrics.

In her late years, Elisabeth Browning developed an interest in spiritualism. She died, romantically, in her husband's arms on June 29, 1861 in Florence.

 

The Browning Society

 

The Browning Society was formed in 1969 to provide a focus for contemporary interest in Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning. The Society arranges an annual programme of lectures, visits, etc., in London and elsewhere, as well as publishing Browning Society Notes. The aims of the Society are to widen the appreciation and understanding of the poetry of the Brownings, and other Victorian writers and poets, and to collect items of literary and biographical interest. For an account of The Browning Society formed during the poet's lifetime, see William S. Peterson's Interrogating the Oracle: A History of the London Browning Society (Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 1969).

The Society's activities centre on London and the Home Counties, but members who live elsewhere in Britain and overseas are kept in touch through the journal and regular interchanges of news and information. In addition to activities and events in England, the Browning Society supports the efforts of the Friends of Casa Guidi to restore and maintain the Browning's home in Florence, Italy. (http://www.browningsociety.org/)

 

Robert Browning’s poem

 

Life in a Love

Escape me?
Never---
Beloved!
While I am I, and you are you,
So long as the world contains us both,
Me the loving and you the loth
While the one eludes, must the other pursue.
My life is a fault at last, I fear:
It seems too much like a fate, indeed!
Though I do my best I shall scarce succeed.
But what if I fail of my purpose here?
It is but to keep the nerves at strain,
To dry one's eyes and laugh at a fall,
And, baffled, get up and begin again,---
So the chace takes up one's life ' that's all.
While, look but once from your farthest bound
At me so deep in the dust and dark,
No sooner the old hope goes to ground
Than a new one, straight to the self-same mark,
I shape me---
Ever
Removed!

This poem is part of Men and Women which was Browning's first published work for five years, and his first collection of shorter poems since his marriage to Elizabeth Barrett in 1846, it was published on 1855. His reputation had still not recovered from the disastrous failure of Sordello fifteen years previously, and Browning was at the time comprehensively overshadowed by his wife in terms of both critical reception and commercial success. Although now generally regarded as featuring his best shorter pieces, the collection sold poorly and was not well received critically at the time.

Men and Women was dedicated to his wife Elizabeth Barrett Browning; we can see that many of the poems we find in this collection are love poems; Life in a Love is an example of what we can find.

In my opinion the poem transmit strength of loves power. When you read the poem you can feel who Robert Browning loved his wife, I think that he wanted to show it.

While I am I, and you are you,
So long as the world contains us both,
Me the loving and you the loth
While the one eludes, must the other pursue.
My life is a fault at last, I fear:
It seems too much like a fate, indeed!
Though I do my best I shall scarce succeed.

In this first part I see as if Browning wanted to show who they got on well together. As if he was not complete till the moment he found her.

But what if I fail of my purpose here?
It is but to keep the nerves at strain,
To dry one's eyes and laugh at a fall,
And, baffled, get up and begin again,---
So the chace takes up one's life ' that's all.
While, look but once from your farthest bound
At me so deep in the dust and dark,
No sooner the old hope goes to ground
Than a new one, straight to the self-same mark,
I shape me---

In this second part I see fear, I mean, many couples when they feel so happy, they also feel the fear of lost them love, in Browning’s case, is quite understandable because his wife was suffering an illness which in any moment can kill her. But in any case, he will be with her, because he loves her. 

 

 

Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s poem

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.

 

Her most famous work is Sonnets from the Portuguese, a collection of love sonnets. By far the most famous poem from this collection, with one of the most famous opening lines in the English language, the poem we have above. Sonnets from the Portuguese was dedicated to his husband Robert Browning. As we can see, the poem is a love poem. She is expressing her love to her husband in every verse. Every time she is writing I love thee she is showing us the way she love he. And it seams to be a trust way of explaining her love, I mean; I have read many poems which are dedicated may be to a metaphysical love, or an unreal love, and many times they seam superficial, but when I have read Browning’s poem it was as if I can feel what she felt. 

 

 

Bibliography

 

- Robert Browning; 29th Dec. 2007. Wikipedia: The free encyclopedia; Last modified 15th January 2008:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Browning

- Robert Browning; 29th Dec. 2007. The Victorianweb; Last modified 9th May 2007: http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/rb/rbov.html

- Robert Browning; 29th Dec. 2007. Robert Browning (1812-1889); 2003: http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/browning.htm

- Robert Browning; 29th Dec. 2007. Poets’ org: from the Academy of American poets; 1997 - 2008 by The Academy of American Poets: http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/182

- Robert Browning; 29th Dec. 2007. Robert Browning - Life Stories, Books, and Links: http://www.todayinliterature.com/biography/robert.browning.asp

 

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning; 30th Dec. 2007. Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861) - née Barrett; 2003: http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/ebrownin.htm

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning; 30th Dec. 2007. Wikipedia: The free encyclopedia; Last modified 4th January 2008: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Barrett_Browning

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning; 30th Dec. 2007. Poets’ org: from the Academy of American poets; 1997 – 2008 by The Academy of American Poets: http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/152

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning; 30th Dec. 2007.  XLIII. "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways...”; Page last updated: 15 October 1998: http://www.amherst.edu/~rjyanco94/literature/elizabethbarrettbrowning/poems/sonnetsfromtheportuguese/howdoilovetheeletmecounttheways.html

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning; 30th Dec. 2007. Elizabeth Barret Browning; 2001, 2005 Blackdog Media: http://www.classicreader.com/author.php/aut.162/

 

- Robert Browning – Elizabeth Barrett Browning; 2nd Jan. 2008. The Browning Society; 2003: http://www.browningsociety.org/

- Robert Browning – Elizabeth Barrett Browning; 2nd Jan 2008. The Relationship of Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning; Last modified 1991:  http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/ebb/ebbio1.html

 

- Robert Browning; 29th Dec. 2007. Life in a Love: http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/life-in-a-love/