Their correspondence ensued until they met for the first time in the summer of 1845. Over the next several months, they became ever closer. Elizabeth remarked that she and Robert were “growing to be the truest of friends.”
According to her, Robert’s best qualities were fortitude, integrity, and courage in adversity. In all, their courtship went on for twenty months, during which time they exchanged five hundred seventy-five letters.
Who are they? Story of Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning
She brought those qualities to life in the receptors she had in her heart! He brought forward in her what no other man, not even her father, could awaken in her!
“Thou large-brained woman and large-hearted man.” (“To George Sand: A Desire”)
. . . . . . . . . .
“No man can be called friendless who has God and the companionship of good books.”
. . . . . . . . . .
“You’re something between a dream and a miracle.”
. . . . . . . . . .
“What is genius but the power of expressing a new individuality?”
“Smiles, tears, of all my life! – and, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death.”
. . . . . . . . . .
“Who so loves believes the impossible.”
How Do I Love Thee? (Sonnet 43)
Elizabeth Barrett Browning – 1806-1861
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and ideal grace.
I love thee to the level of every day’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for right.
I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.
Integrity
Growing up with a strict father and a mother described as meek, Elizabeth had, at least, the privilege of being able to study that classics and correspond with prominent scholars. Her translations of Greek and Byzantine verse were published.
“More fond of books than of social life, she was laying the necessary foundation for a noble fame. The lives of Elizabeth Barrett Browning,…emphasize the necessity of almost unlimited knowledge, if woman would reach lasting fame. A great man or woman of letters, without great scholarship, is well-nigh an impossible thing.”
Sarah K. Bolton describes the beginnings of Elizabeth’s brilliant career in Lives of Girls Who Became Famous (1914)
Courage
Tragic loss of a brother; many dark years of mourning
Elizabeth nearly died of a broken blood vessel in the lungs in 1838. She was quite ill for a year, and then was sent to the seaside resort of Torquay to recover. This sojourn to a warmer climate did improve her health.
In 1840, Elizabeth was still enjoying the effects of the sunny climate of Toquay, joined by her favorite brother. What happened next broke her spirit. The events are described in Lives of Girls Who Became Famous by Sarah K. Bolton (1914):
“One beautiful summer morning she went on the balcony to watch her brother and two other young men who had gone out for a sail. Having had much experience, and understanding the coast, they allowed the boatman to return to land. Only a few minutes out, and in plain sight, as they were crossing the bar, the boat went down, and the three friends perished. Their bodies even were never recovered …
The sister, who had seen her brother sink before her eyes, was utterly prostrated. She blamed herself for his death, because he came to Torquay for her comfort. All winter long she heard the sound of waves ringing in her ears like the moans of the dying. From this time forward she never mentioned her brother’s name, and later, exacted from Mr. Browning a promise that the subject should never be broached between them.
Letters of Admiration and Love
In 1844, Elizabeth’s second collection of poems was published and warmly received. The work included lines that praised Robert Browning. After reading the poems, Robert wrote a letter of thanks to Elizabeth on January 10, 1845, with the tantalizing line, “I love your verses with all my heart … and I love you, too.”
Their correspondence ensued until they met for the first time in the summer of 1845. Over the next several months, they became ever closer. Elizabeth remarked that she and Robert were “growing to be the truest of friends.”
Letters of Admiration and Love
In 1844, Elizabeth’s second collection of poems was published and warmly received. The work included lines that praised Robert Browning. After reading the poems, Robert wrote a letter of thanks to Elizabeth on January 10, 1845, with the tantalizing line, “I love your verses with all my heart … and I love you, too.”
Their correspondence ensued until they met for the first time in the summer of 1845. Over the next several months, they became ever closer. Elizabeth remarked that she and Robert were “growing to be the truest of friends.”
In 1846, Elizabeth Barrett arose from her sick-bed to marry the man of her choice, who took her at once to Italy, where she spent fifteen happy years. At once, love seemed to infuse new life into the delicate body and renew the saddened heart. She was thirty-seven. She had wisely waited till she found a person of congenial tastes and kindred pursuits. Had she married earlier, it is possible that the cares of life might have deprived the world of some of her noblest works.
The marriage was an ideal one. Both had a grand purpose in life. Neither individual was merged in the other. George S. Hillard, in his Six Months in Italy, when he visited the Brownings the year after their marriage, says, “A happier home and a more perfect union than theirs it is not easy to imagine; and this completeness arises not only from the rare qualities which each possesses, but from their perfect adaptation to each other ….”
Reference pages:
iteraryladiesguide.com/author-quotes/elizabeth-barrett-browning-quotes/#:~:text=“My%20sun%20sets%20to%20raise%20again.”&text=“World’s%20use%20is%20cold%2C%20world’s,not%20the%20fruit%20of%20pain.”&text=“What%20I%20do%20and%20what,taste%20of%20its%20own%20grapes.”&text=“I%20love%20you%20not%20only,when%20I%20am%20with%20you.
