This month, we are celebrating the birthday of Elizabeth Barrett Browning (March 6, 1806-June 29, 1861). She was born Elizabeth Moulton Barrett. Her parents were Edward Barrett Moulton-Barrett and Mary Graham Clarke. The Barrett family was obsessed with keeping their family name alive at all costs and often encouraged men marrying into the family to legally assume the Barrett name.
The Barretts and the Clarkes were both slaveholding families. Their wealth came from plantations in Jamaica. The Barretts lived in England.
Elizabeth was the eldest of twelve children (eight boys and four girls). While Elizabeth’s birth was recorded as March 6th, when she was christened on March 9th there was speculation that she was already several months old. Her parents married in May 1805 and any sooner birthdate would have been embarrassing for the family. Whie she might not be a true March birthday Barret Browning is the ideal choice of authors to celebrate during Women’s History Month.
According to several sources, Elizabeth’s father was distant until it became obvious that four-year-old Elizabeth was highly intelligent. She could read and had begun writing poetry. Her efforts were preserved by her mother in what might be the greatest collection of juvenile poetry by an English author. At the age of six or eight, she wrote her first poem, “On the Cruelty of Forcement to Man,” about the evils of impressment, the forced conscription of men into military or naval service by intimidation or the use of physical force. By the age of eleven, she had written the epic poem, “The Battle of Marathon.”
Soon after completing the poem, Eizabeth became ill and suffered debilitating headaches and spinal pain. Doctors could not discover the source of her illness and began prescribing laudanum, a tincture of opium, for the pain. Elizabeth had to take laudanum for the rest of her life, and she became addicted to the drug.
Edward liked to bask in the brilliance of his daughter’s poetry. He often referred to her as the “Poet laureate of Hope End,” the name of their English estate, but Elizabeth was her own person. By the age of fifteen, she had read Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Women, and she became a supporter of Wollstonecraft’s political ideas about women’s suffrage.
In 1828, Elizabeth’s mother died. Mary’s sister moved in to care for the Barrett children. She and Elizabeth often clashed over what she considered to be Elizabeth’s strong will.
Elizabeth opposed impressment and slavery. She celebrated when the British empire ended their participation in the slave trade and outlawed slavery in 1834. Her father feared for their family fortune. He was concerned that they would have to sell their property in England and live on their plantation in Jamaica. Edward worried about living in close proximity to the formerly enslaved people who were now his employees. Edward sold Hope End to pay off his creditors, and purchased a home on Wimple Street in London.
In 1837, Elizabeth became ill with what was probably tuberculosis. Her health continued to decline for the rest of her life.
Despite her frail health, she was introduced into society in 1841 by her cousin John Knowles. From 1941-1844, she published several poems. “The Cry of the Children,” is a poem about child labor which helped reform child labor laws by raising support for Lord Shaftesbury’s Ten Hours Bill. She also penned several prose works including a laudatory essay on Thomas Carlyle. In 1844, she published the two-volume, Poems as several critical essays. Elizabeth was becoming a favorite with poetry lovers in England and the United States.
Robert Browning, an established British poet, and playwright, read Poems. He was so impressed with her work that he wrote her a letter. Elizabeth and Robert began corresponding regularly. John Kenyon arranged for them to meet the next year (1845). This was the beginning of one of the most famous courtships in literature. They were married in 1846.
Elizabeth’s father disapproved of the relationship and disinherited Elizabeth when she and Robert secretly wed. Edward disinherited each of his children who married. In keeping with family tradition, Elizabeth went by the name Elizabeth Barrett Browning to help keep her family’s name alive.
Elizabeth and Robert moved to Italy where her health greatly improved. She and Robert wrote their best work after their marriage, and they each became famous. In between four miscarriages, Elizabeth gave birth to a son. They named him Robert Wiedeman Barrett Browning and nicknamed him “Pen.”
During their marriage, Elizabeth’s literary career surpassed her husband’s, but he remained her most supportive fan. He insisted that the second edition of Poems should include her love sonnets.
Elizabeth and Robert often entertained famous writers and creatives in their home and during their travels, including William Makepeace Thackeray, George Sand, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and the sculptor Harriet Hosmer,
In the last years of her life, Elizabeth became engrossed in Italian politics. She and Robert’s political leanings were denounced by conservative publications in England. Elizabeth’s health once again began to decline, and she died in her husband’s arms. She was buried in the Protestant English Cemetery of Florence. Her last work, A Musical instrument, was published posthumously.
Published Works by Elizabeth Barrett Browning*:
The Battle of Marathon
An Essay on Mind, With Other Poems
Prometheus Bound, Translated from the Greek of Aeschylus, and Miscellaneous Poems
The Seraphim, and Other Poems
Poems: A Drama of Exile, and other Poems
Poems (“New Edition” – 2 volumes) Revision of 1844 edition adding Sonnets from the Portuguese and Others
Casa Guidi Windows
Poems (3rd edition)
Two Poems – “A Plea for the Ragged Schools of London” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning and “The Twins” by Robert Browning
Poems (4th Edition)
Aurora Leigh
Poems Before Congress
Last Poems
*Several works were published posthumously including letters to family members and friends.