Voices of the Past

Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning

Poetry drew Elizabeth Barret Browning and Robert Browning together before they ever met. They first learned of each other from the pages of their published books and admired each other’s writings from afar.

Elizabeth, a well-known poet in 1840’s England, added a section to one of her own books defending Robert’s poetry against his critics. In turn, Robert was totally captivated by Elizabeth’s 1844 collection, Poems, and even went so far as to write her a fan letter, in January 1845, in which he stated, “I love your poems with all of my heart […] and I love you, too.”

But he was moving a little fast for Elizabeth. Her trust wasn’t to be won by a few fancy words. She was concerned that he was infatuated with her writing, not her. A man of determination, Robert used his pen to persuade her otherwise.

They exchanged letters for five months before they met in person for the first time: a meeting that deepened the roots of their growing love. However, Elizabeth’s father wasn’t about to give permission for anyone to court his daughter, especially not Browning, the son of a bank clerk.

Born to wealth, Elizabeth had grown up in her father’s twenty-bedroom mansion, but by the time she was in her thirties, she was an invalid whose life was controlled by her father and the doctors. At one point, the doctors took her inkstand away declaring that writing poetry was bad for her health. Her father tolerated the poetry, but he would not allow his daughter to receive visits from a man he believed to be a fortune-hunter.

Not to be deterred, Robert continued to write to Elizabeth and to visit secretly when he could manage it. During their twenty months of letter writing and secret courtship, they exchanged a total of 575 letters!

By August 1846, he had persuaded Elizabeth to elope with him. It would mean leaving her home and her close-knit family, possibly forever, but Robert was the love of her life and her best friend. She was willing to risk everything for him.

On September 12, 1846, Elizabeth snuck out of the house and met Robert at a parish church. There, they were wed. A week later, Robert spirited her away to Italy. Her father was outraged. He disinherited and disowned Elizabeth and refused to accept her letters or ever see her again.

Meanwhile, Elizabeth flourished in the warmth of Robert’s love and Italy. Her health improved significantly, they had a son, and she wrote the best poetry of her lifetime: Sonnets from the Portuguese, a collection of love poems written during her courtship and the early years of her marriage, and Aurora Leigh.

Elizabeth became seriously ill in the summer of 1861 and died in Robert’s arms a few months later. He went on to become one of Britain’s greatest poets in his own right, but he never remarried.

Their love is canonized here in one of Elizabeth’s poems:

Sonnet 43

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints,—I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life!—and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

Photo of Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning by Thomas B. Reed