Elizabeth Barrett Browning

An English poet of the Victorian era, she is renowned for her personal love sonnets and socially engaged verse. Her collection Sonnets from the Portuguese remains a landmark of lyric poetry. Biography ↓More ↓

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A Musical Instrument

What was he doing, the great god Pan, Down in the reeds by the river? Spreading ruin and scattering ban, Splashing and paddling with hoofs of a goat, And breaking the golden lilies afloat With the dragon-fly on the river. He tore out a reed, the great god Pan, From the deep cool bed of the river: The limpid water turbidly ran, And the broken lilies a-dying lay, And the dragon-fly had fled away, Ere he brought it out of the river. High on the shore sat the great god Pan, While turbidly flowed the river; And hacked and hewed as a great god can, With his hard bleak steel at the patient reed,

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

To Flush, My Dog

Yet, my pretty sportive friend, Little is't to such an end That I praise thy rareness! Other dogs may be thy peers Haply in these drooping ears, And this glossy fairness. But of thee it shall be said, This dog watched beside a bed Day and night unweary— Watched within a curtained room, Where no sunbeam brake the gloom Round the sick and dreary. Roses, gathered for a vase, In that chamber died apace, Beam and breeze resigning. This dog only, waited on,

Biography

An English poet of the Victorian era, she established herself as a major literary voice through both her intimate lyrics and her outspoken social criticism. Her poetry often fuses emotional intensity with formal elegance, addressing themes of love, faith, and justice. The Sonnets from the Portuguese, a sequence of love poems, is among the most celebrated sonnet cycles in English literature. In works like 'The Cry of the Children,' she protested child labor and other social ills, blending personal pathos with public advocacy. Her imagery draws on nature, classical mythology, and Italian influences, reflecting her wide reading and her years in Italy. She was also a prominent literary critic and translator, contributing to the cultural debates of her time. Her marriage to Robert Browning formed a legendary creative partnership, though her own career had begun earlier and remained distinct. Her technical skill, emotional range, and willingness to confront contemporary issues helped pave the way for later women poets. Today she is recognized as one of the most accomplished and influential poets of the nineteenth century.

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