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Elizabeth Barrett Browning During her lifetime, Mrs. Browning was considered a better poet than her husband, Robert Browning. Today, her life and personality excite more interest than her work. She is widely known for her treatment of social injustice in her poetry. Her political and personal sympathies touch on such issues as slave and child labour as well as the repression of women, earning her status as an early feminist. She is also well known for her highly individual gift for lyric poetry and evidence of classical training in her works of poetry. Although she lived most of her life as a reclusive invalid, she established and maintained a popularity among critics and the public that made it clear that “no female poet was held in higher esteem among cultured readers in both the United States and England than Elizabeth Barrett Browning during the nineteenth century.” (“Elizabeth Barrett Browning”) Elizabeth Barrett Browning1806 - 1861 The oldest of twelve children, she is born into a wealthy family and begins writing poetry as early as 8 years old. (“E. B. Browning – A Chronology”) By the time she was ten, she had read the complete works of Shakespeare, Pope and Milton and had studied the works of prominent classical writers in their original languages. She had also read the entire Old Testament in Hebrew. In 1821, she injures her spine attempting to saddle her horse and begins taking opium by prescription. She develops a lifelong habit. Her mother dies in 1828 and not long after, due to financial loss, the Barretts are forced to move to a more modest home, one of three moves until the family finally settles at 50 Wimpole Street in London. Elizabeth bursts a blood vessel in 1837, affecting her lungs. From this, she develops a chronic cough and coupled with the injury to her spine, Elizabeth suffers a long period of invalidism. (“Poet’s Corner – Elizabeth Barrett Browning”) Elizabeth Barrett Browning A Brief History . . . Although a prolific writ