Portrait of Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Date1916
Source : Little Journeys To The Homes Of Famous Women
Author: The Roycrofters
This work is in the public domain
Via WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
ELIZABETH BARRET BROWNING: POET WHO CHOSE LOVE AND FREEDOM
In a world that often silenced women, Elizabeth Barrett Browning raised her voice in verse so powerful that it still echoes across centuries.
Born in 1806 into a prosperous English family whose wealth came from Jamaican plantations, Elizabeth was a child prodigy. By eight, she was reading Homer in Greek; by twelve, she was writing long poems that astonished her family. Her father, proud of her precocious talent, published her first book when she was barely a teenager.
But destiny turned cruel.
A serious spinal injury and recurring lung illness confined her to a life of constant pain. Doctors prescribed laudanum, an opium-based medicine, to ease her suffering. It became both her comfort and her chain.
For years, she lived quietly in her father’s London home, an invalid surrounded by books but cut off from the world. Her father’s love was possessive; he forbade any of his children to marry. Yet even within those walls, Elizabeth’s mind and imagination soared. Poetry became her window to freedom.
In 1844, her collection Poems made her one of England’s most celebrated poets. Her verses, filled with deep emotion and moral courage, touched hearts across the land — including that of a young poet named Robert Browning.
He wrote to her:
> “I love your verses with all my heart, dear Miss Barrett…”
Thus began one of the most famous literary romances of all time — a love born not of sight, but of soul. Letter followed letter, until love became undeniable. Against her father’s will, Elizabeth chose courage over comfort.
In 1846, at the age of forty, she left her father’s house forever and secretly married Robert Browning. The couple fled to Italy, where sunlight, freedom, and love renewed her life. Her health improved, and at forty-three, she gave birth to a son — a miracle her doctors had declared impossible.
In Florence, she wrote her most beloved work, Sonnets from the Portuguese, inspired by her love for Robert.
> “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways...”
Few lines in English poetry have captured the human heart so completely.
But Elizabeth Barrett Browning was more than a poet of love. She was a voice for justice.
In The Cry of the Children, she denounced the cruelty of child labor.
In The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim’s Point, she condemned the horrors of slavery.
In Aurora Leigh, she championed the rights of women to think, feel, and create freely.
She wrote not from comfort, but from conviction — using poetry as a form of protest and truth.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning passed away in Florence in 1861, in the arms of her beloved husband. Her last whispered word was “Beautiful.”
Robert never remarried. He preserved her room just as she had left it and carried her memory tenderly through his own life and work.
Why Her Story Inspires
Elizabeth Barrett Browning reminds us that no illness, no prison, and no command can silence the human spirit.
She refused to let her pain define her. She refused to live unloved or unfree.
Through the power of her pen — and the courage of her heart — she wrote herself into immortality.
Her life is a testament to this truth:
The soul that dares to love, to speak, and to rise — can never truly be confined.
💫 “I love thee to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach…”
— Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Grateful thanks to ChatGPT for its great help and support in creating this blogpost and
The Roycrofters, WIKIMEDIA COMMONS for the image
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