Robert Browning
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In this research paper I will tell about the life of Robert Browning. His life as a poet and a husband and friend. And good speaker he was.
To begin with, Browning was born in Camberwell, south London, as the son of Robert Browning, He attended a boarding school near Camberwell and spent a little bit of his time traveling to places like Russia and Italy. He preferred to have his education at home, where he was tutored in foreign languages, boxing, music, and horsemanship, and read “omnivore at the age of 14 he first discovered Percy Shelly works and was strongly influenced by it. After reading Shelly, He made the decision to be an atheist and a liberal. But in a few years he grew away from atheism and the extreme phases of his liberalism. The things he learned from the books he read would largely influence his poems late in his life. ( HOIT ADVENTURES IN ENGLASH LITERATURE PG. 570)
Although A wealthy clerk in the Bank of England, and Sarah Anna Wiedemann, of German-Scottish origin. Robert Browning Senior had spent in his youth some time on the Caribbean island of St Kitts, where he becomes disgusted at the slaves treatment. Back at England, he thought of a career of an artist, but eventually accepted his job at the bank. Sarah Anna loved music and gardening. The historian Thomas Carlyle called her “the true type of a Scottish gentlewoman”. His earlier poetry was regarded with indifference and largely misunderstood. It was not until the 1860s that he would at last gain publicity and would even are compared with Alfred Lord Tennyson, another very famous poet of the time. ( HOIT ADVENTURES IN ENGLASH LITERATURE PG. 570)
On the other hand some of his early poetry was influenced by his unusual education. The poet also had an anxious desire to avoid exposing himself explicitly to his readers. The first poem he wrote called Pauline, was written in 1883 at the age of twenty-one, but he did not sign it because of his fear of exposing himself to the public too much. Since Browning did not want to expose himself too personally, he decided to try his hand at writing plays. He was encouraged by the actor W.C. Macready. Browning began work on his first play, Strafford, a historical tragedy. Unfortunately, the play only lasted four nights when it was first put on in London in 1837. For ten more years, the young writer would continue to struggle to produce a play that would better hold the attention of the audience, but they all remained failures. ( HOIT ADVENTURES IN ENGLASH LITERATURE PG. 570)
Afterwards Browning received scant formal education. However, his father encouraged him to read and he had access to his large (6,000 volumes) library. The book collection filled most of the third storey at the familys house at New Cross. In his teens, Browning discovered Shelley, adopting the authors confessionals in poetry. His first poems Browning wrote under the influence of Shelley, who also inspired him to adopt atheist principles for a time. At the age of 16, he began to study at newly established London University, returning home after a brief period. At home his parents showed understanding of his decision to withdraw and supported him morally and financially. (www.msn/encyclopedia.com)
In 1833 Browning published anonymously PAULINE: A FRAGMENT OF A CONFESSION. It has been said, that it was inspired by Eliza Flower, a performer and composer of religious music. ÐFirst the publication sold not a single copy but eventually the work was noted by J.S. Mills. Between 1834 and 1836 The Monthly Repository published several shorter poems by Browning. In 1834 he traveled to Russia and made in 1838 his first trip to Italy. Brownings early poetical works attracted little attention until the publication of PARACELSUS (1835), which dealt with the life of the famous Swiss alchemist. From 1837 to 1846 Browning attempted to write verse drama for the stage. During these years he met Carlyle, Dickens, and Tennyson, and formed several important friendships. (www.msn/encyclopedia.com)
Between 1841 and 1846 Browning works appeared under the title BELLS AND POMEGRANATES. It contained several of his best-known lyrics, such as ÐHow