Background of the poets

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861)

• An English poet of the Romantic Movement
  
  



• Born in 1806 at Coxhoe Hall, Durham, England
  
  




• By her twelfth year, she had written her first "epic" poem
  

• In 1826, Elizabeth anonymously published her collection An Essay on Mind and Other Poems

• Elizabeth's Sonnets from the Portuguese, dedicated to her husband and written in secret before her marriage, was published in 1850
  




• Political and social themes embodied Elizabeth's later work
  
  

For more on Elizabeth Barrett Browning, visit http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/152

Robert Browning (1812-1889)

• Born on May 7, 1812, in Camberwell, England

• At the age of twelve he wrote a volume of Byronic verse entitled Incondita, which his parents attempted, unsuccessfully, to have published
  

• In 1833, Browning anonymously published his first major published work, Pauline, and in 1840 he published Sordello, which was widely regarded as a failure
  

• After reading Elizabeth Barrett's Poems (1844) and corresponding with her for a few months, Browning met her in 1845

• They were married in 1846, against the wishes of Barrett's father

• Robert Browning died on the same day that his final volume of verse, Asolando, was published, in 1889

For more on Robert Browning, visit
http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/182

Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809-1892)

• Born on August 6, 1809, in Somersby, Lincolnshire, England

• At the age of twelve he wrote a 6,000-line epic poem

• Hallam and Tennyson became the best of friends, touring Europe together in 1830 and again in 1832

• Hallam's sudden death in 1833 greatly affected the young poet and he wrote a long elegy, In Memoriam for him

• Selected Poet Laureate in succession to Wordsworth

• In 1884, he accepted a peerage, becoming Alfred Lord Tennyson

• Tennyson died in 1892 and was buried in Westminster Abbey

For more on Alfred Lord Tennyson, visit
http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/300