The
poetry of the Victorian Age is rich that produced two great poets Tennyson and
Browning. There are minor poets whose contribution to literature is equally
notable. Among them, Elizabeth Barrett Browning rightly occupies a central
position.
It
was the publication of Mrs. Browning’s “The Seraphim and Other Poems (1838)”
that brought her literary reputation. After that, her ill health and the shock
of her brother’s death made her broke down and was confined to the four walls of
her room.
As
she recovered slightly, she published “Poems” some of them were impulsive but
favored by the public. One of such poems was “The Cry of the Children” which
voiced the protest of humanity against the evil of child labor. This poem
appealed the populace most and she became so much popular that her fame name
was placed beside Tennyson and Browning. So mush so, when Wordsworth died, she
was considered for the poet laureate but finally, this title was given to
Tennyson.
Around
1845, she met Browning and they fell in love, eloped and married. The romance
of their love is beautifully reflected in her “Sonnets from the Portuguese
(1850)”. It has become the inspiring collection of love poems every student of
literature would like to enjoy!
For
the fifteen years, they lived very happy life. In 1856, Elizabeth Barrett
published a novel in verse, “Aurora Leigh”. The hero of the novel is a social
reformer which suggests Browning and the heroine is enthusiastic which suggest
Elizabeth herself. The social and moral ideals of the novel reminds of the
Dickens and George Eliot.
Her
two poems “Last Poems” and “Poems before Congress” were published just after
her death in 1861
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