Elizabeth Browning

I get excited when I read about a woman playing her part in the poetry world! Elizabeth Barrett Browning was one of a kind in the Victorian Age. She was one of the stronger female poets. Elizabeth was raised in a very upscale environment. She had both a father and mother who supported her in whatever she was doing. She was the oldest of eleven children. I view the eldest child as being the example for the rest of the family. She was able to receive an outstanding education due to her family’s wealth.

Elizabeth’s poetry started early in her life due to her imagination strengths. I feel that her illness contributed to strengthen her imagination. Her strength during her illness is what inspired me most about Mrs. Browning. She thought she was almost at the end of her rope until the love of her life came along, Mr. Richard Browning.

I am all about happy endings! I hated the fact that her father disowned her but she was happy and she expressed this in Sonnets from the Portuguese. She felt she was dying until Richard came along as she states on page 530, “Guess now who holds thee?” – “Death,” I said. But, there, The silver answer rang, -- “Not Death, but Love.” Richard gave her hope. When she spoke of him stating that he loved her she referenced it to a “cuckoo-song”. I thought of birds singing and how peaceful and uplifting. Also on page 530 she wrote about Spring and its color of green. “Comes the fresh Spring in all her green completed. Beloved, I , amid the darkness greeted…” Richard was her Spring that took her out of the darkness. When you think about coming out of the Winter season and going into the Spring season, it does brighten your day. I believe we all look forward to Spring after a cold and dark Winter. On page 531, “When our two souls stand up erect and strong, Face to face, silent, drawing nigh and nigher,….Can the earth do to us, that we should not long Be here contented?” I referred to this as them coming together as husband and wife and once they are united there will be nothing and no one that can come between them. I felt this included her dad as well. At the end of this poem she states, “With my lost saints, -- I love with the breath, Smiles, tears, of all my life! – and, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death.” To me, she was saying that she loved him with all of her heart and soul and you can’t get any better than that.

In closing, I am happy that Richard came along to bring life back to Elizabeth. I am also glad to see a powerful woman in the Victorian Age that rose to the obstacle of being a great writer!