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Essay On Elizabeth Barrett Browning

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Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Elizabeth Barrett Browning was an English poet of the Victorian Era. She was born on March 6, 1806 at Coxhoe Hall, Durham, England. Barrett had a big family, she was the oldest out of 12 children. Her parents, Mary Graham Clarke and Edward Barrett, educated their children at home. The family made their money off of Jamaican sugar plantations and depended on slave labor. Barrett began her love for reading and writing poetry at a very young age. She began reading the classic poetry written by William Shakespeare and John Milton. At the age of 12, she wrote her first book of poetry. When Barrett was 14 years old, she suffered a spinal injury while riding her pony. The doctors diagnosed her with a skeletal …show more content…

Barrett continued to publish her books anonymously, and in 1826 she published her book, An Essay on Mind and Other Poems. This book really started the kickoff in her writing career.
In 1829, Barrett 's mother passed away. Due to the abolition of slavery, the Barretts income decreased tremendously. In 1832, Edward Barrett was forced to sell his rural estate at an auction. After selling their land, the family rented cottages in a coastal town for the next three years before settling in London. In 1833, after the move, Barrett published her translation of Aeschylus’s Prometheus Bound, an Ancient Greek tragedy. A few years after that she published The Seraphim and Other Poems, a book expressing her opinion on Christian faith.

Barrett 's health continued to decline, she moved in with her brother, Edward, near the sea of Torquay. That same year, Edward drowned while sailing in the waters of Torquay. Barrett was forced to move back to London, she was physically and emotionally weak, but that didn’t stop here from her writing. In 1844 she published her collection Poems. This collection drew lots of attention from the public, in particular, this drew the attention of the English Poet, Robert Browning. Browning began to write letters to Barrett, confessing his love. Over twenty months, they exchanged 574 letters to each other. Barrett and Browning fell deeply in love with each other and wished to marry. Edward Barrett was very

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