Soon after the estate was sold, she published her translation of Aeschylus’s Prometheus Bound (1833), and in 1838, she published The Seraphim and Other Poems.īarrett’s poor health forced her to live with her brother Edward near the Sea of Torquay for a period, but tragedy would strike again when he drowned, and she returned to London, emotionally and physically shattered. The family eventually settled in London, but the interruption never gave Barrett pause. Barrett’s mother died two years later and her father’s business foundered, forcing him to sell their estate. Unfortunately, fate would throw more obstacles her way soon after its release. In 1826, she (anonymously) published the collection An Essay on Mind and Other Poems, which became a touchstone in her writing career. Despite her health issues, Barrett lived the literary life to the fullest, teaching herself Hebrew, studying Greek culture and publishing her first book in 1820, The Battle of Marathon, which her father bound and released privately. Emerging WriterĪt age 14, Barrett developed a lung illness that required her to take morphine for the rest of her life, and the following year, she suffered a spinal injury that would serve as another setback. Deeply religious, Barrett’s writing often explored Christian themes, a trait that would remain throughout her life’s works. Having delved into classics such as the works of John Milton and William Shakespeare before her teen years, she also wrote her first book of poetry by age 12. Educated at home, Barrett was a precocious reader and writer. She was the oldest of 12 children, and her family made their fortune from Jamaican sugar plantations. Early LifeĮlizabeth Barrett Browning was born on March 6, 1806, at Coxhoe Hall, Durham, England. The couple moved to Italy, where Elizabeth became interested in Italian politics and released her monumental work, Sonnets From the Portuguese in 1850. Her collection Poems (1844) caught the attention of fellow poet Robert Browning, whose admiring letter to her led to a lifelong romance and marriage.

Born in 1806, Victorian poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning published her first major collection, The Seraphim and Other Poems, in 1838.

Browning sonnets