FREE ESSAY ON ROBERT BROWNING

ROBERT BROWNING

B.J. Gilstrap
English
March 20, 1999
Biography of Robert Browning
Robert Browning was born on May 7, 1812, in Camberwell (a suburb of London), the first
child of Robert and Sarah Anna Browning. His mother was a fervent and an accomplished
pianist. Mr. Browning had angered his own father and forgone a fortune: the poet's
grandfather had sent his son to oversee a West Indies sugar plantation, but the young man
had found the institution of slavery so abhorrent that he gave up his prospects and
returned home, to become a clerk in the Bank of England. On this very modest salary he
was able to marry, raise a family, and to acquire a library of 6000 volumes. He was an
exceedingly well-read man who could recreate the siege of Troy with the household chairs
and tables for the benefit of his inquisitive son. 
Indeed, most of the poet's education came at home. He was an extremely bright child and a
voracious reader and learned Latin, Greek, French and Italian by the time he was
fourteen. He attended the University of London in 1828, the first year it opened, but
left in discontent to pursue his own reading at his own pace. This somewhat distinctive
but extensive education has led to difficulties for his readers: he did not always
realize how obscure were his references and allusions. 
In 1845 he saw Elizabeth Barrett's poems and contrived to meet her. Although she was an
invalid and very much under the control of a domineering father, the two married in
September 1846 and a few days later eloped to Italy, where they lived until her death in
1861. The years in Florence were among the happiest for both of them. Her love for him
was demonstrated in the Sonnets from the Portugese, and to her he dedicated Men and
Women, which contains his best poetry. Public sympathy for him after her death (she was a
much more popular poet during their lifetimes) surely helped the critical reception of
his Collected Poems (1862) and Dramatis Personae (1863). The Ring and the Book (1868-9),
based on an old yellow book which told of a Roman murder and trial, finally won him
considerable popularity. He and Tennyson were now mentioned together as the foremost
poets of the age. Although he lived and wrote actively for another twenty years, the late
'60s were the peak of his career. His influence continued to grow, however, and finally
lead to the founding of the Browning Society in 1881. He died in 1889, on the same day
that his final volume of verse, Asolando, was published. He is buried in Poet's Corner of
Westminster Abbey.