By: Jenn Corcoran

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Robert Browning

• By Jenn Corcoran

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Robert Browning 1812-1889

• He was born on May 7, 1812 in Camberwell, England
• Browning had a sister named Sarianna Browning
• His mother, Sarah Anne Wiedemann was an
  accomplished pianist and a devout Christian
• His father, Robert Browning was a bank clerk, and
  also an artist, scholar, antiquarian, and
  collector of books and pictures
• Browning got much of his education from his
  father
• He learned Latin, Greek, and French by the time
  he was fourteen
• From age fourteen to sixteen he was educated at
  home
• When he was ten he started at the Peckam school
  where he stayed for four years
• At age twelve he wrote a volume of Byronic verse
  entitled Incondita. His parents tried to have it
  published but were unsuccessful (www.poets.org)

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• In 1828 Browning enrolled at the University of
  London, but soon after he left because he wanted
  to read and learn at his own pace
• In 1833 he anonymously published his first major
  work, Pauline A Fragment of a Confession
• In 1840 he published Sordello, which was a
  failure
• Browning also tried writing drama, but his plays,
  Strafford, and the Bells and Pomegranates series
  were unsuccessful
• However his use of diction, rhythm, and symbol
  are regarded as his most important contribution
  to poetry, influencing major poets of the
  twentieth century such as Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot,
  and Robert Frost
• Browning corresponded with Elizabeth Barrett
  (born September 12, 1846) in 1844 for a few
  months after reading her Poems, and finally met
  her in 1845
• They got married in 1846 and moved to Pisa and
  then to Florence where they continued to write
• In 1849 they had a son, Robert Pen Wiedemann
  Barrett Browning
• This was the same year Brownings Collected Poems
  was published
• Elizabeth inspired Roberts collection of poems
  Men and Women in 1855, which is now one of his
  best works but at the time was not noticed much

(www.poets.org) (http//eir.library.utoronto.ca/rp
o/display/poet37.html) (http//www.galegroup.com/f
ree_resources/poets/bio/browning_r.htm)
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• Elizabeth Barrett Browning died in 1861 and
  Robert Browning and his son moved back to London
• In 1863 Browning published Dramatis Personae
• In 1868 The Ring and the Book firmly established
  Brownings reputation, and from then on he was
  considered one of Englands greatest living poets
• In 1879-80 he published Dramatic Idyls and other
  works that brought him worldwide fame
• In 1881 the Browning Society was established in
  London to study his poems
• He was awarded with Hon. M.A. of Oxford June
  1868, Hon. fellow of Balliol College October
  1868, Hon. LL.D. of the University of Edinburgh
  1884, Hon. president of 5 Assoc. Societies of
  Edinburgh 1885
• Robert Browning died on December 12,1889 during a
  stay in Venice and, he was buried in Poets
  Corner of Westminster Abbey (www.poets.org)
  (www.galegroup.com) (

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• This is the first stanza of The Pied Piper of
  Hamelin
• Hamelin Town's in Brunswick,
• By famous Hanover city
• The river Weser, deep and wide,
• Washes its wall on the southern side
• A pleasanter spot you never spied
• But, when begins my ditty,
• Almost five hundred years ago,
• To see the townsfolk suffer so

http//eir.library.utoronto.ca/rpo/display/poem275
0.html
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A Woman's Last Word I.Let's contend no more,
Love,Strive nor weepAll be as before,
Love,---Only sleep!II.What so wild as words
are?I and thouIn debate, as birds are,Hawk on
bough!III.See the creature stalkingWhile we
speak!Hush and hide the talking,Cheek on
cheek!IV.What so false as truth is,False to
thee?Where the serpent's tooth isShun the
tree---
V.Where the apple reddensNever pry---Lest we
lose our Edens,Eve and I.VI.Be a god and hold
meWith a charm!Be a man and fold meWith thine
arm!VII.Teach me, only teach, LoveAs I
oughtI will speak thy speech, Love,Think thy
thought--- VIII.Meet, if thou require it,Both
demands,Laying flesh and spiritIn thy hands.
IX.That shall be to-morrowNot to-nightI must
bury sorrowOut of sightX---Must a little
weep, Love,(Foolish me!)And so fall asleep,
Love,Loved by thee.
http//www.emule.com/poetry/?pagepoempoem282
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My Star All that I know Of a certain star, Is,
it can throw (Like the angled spar) Now a dart
of red, Now a dart of blue, Till my friends
have said They would fain see, too,  My star
that dartles the red and the blue! Then it stops
like a bird like a flower, hangs furled They
must solace themselves with the Saturn above it.
What matter to me if their star is a world?
Mine has opened its soul to me therefore I love
it.
Meeting At Night The grey sea and the long black
land And the yellow half-moon large and low
And the startled little waves that leap In
fiery ringlets from their sleep, As I gain the
cove with pushing prow, And quench its speed i'
the slushy sand.   Then a mile of warm
sea-scented beach Three fields to cross till a
farm appears A tap at the pane, the quick sharp
scratch And blue spurt of a lighted match, And
a voice less loud, thro' its joys and fears,
Than the two hearts beating each to each!
http//eir.library.utoronto.ca/rpo/display/poem289
.html
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Pauline A Fragment of a Confession (1833)
Anonymous Paracelsus (1835) Sordell (1840)
Christmas-Eve and Easter-Day (1850) Two Poems
(1854) By Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett
Browning. Men and Women (1855) Two volumes one
volume. The Poetical Works of Robert Browning
(1868) Six volumes. The Ring and the Book (1868)
Two volumes. Red Cotton Night-Cap Country or,
Turf and Towers (1873)  The Inn Album (1875)
 Pacchiarotto and How He Worked in Distemper,
with Other Poems (1876)  La Saisiaz, and The Two
Poets of Croisicv (1878)  Dramatic Idyls (1879)
 Dramatic Idyls Second Series (1880)
 Jocoseria (1883)  Ferishtah's Fancies (1884)
 Parleyings with Certain People of Importance in
Their Day (1887)  Asolando Fancies and Facts
(1889) Complete Poetic and Dramatic Works of
Robert Browning (1895) Cambridge Edition,
edited by G. W. Cooke and H. E. Scudder. The
Complete Works of Robert Browning (1898)
Florentine Edition, edited by Charlotte
Porter and Helen A. Clarke, 12 volumes. The
Works of Robert Browning (1912) Centenary
Edition, edited by Frederic G. Kenyon, 10
volumes. New Poems by Robert Browning and
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1914) Edited by
Frederic G. Kenyon. Robert Browning The
Ring and the Book (1971) Edited by Richard D.
Altick The Brownings to the Tennysons (1971)
Edited by Thomas J. Collins. Robert Browning
The Poems (1981) Edited by John Pettigrew,
supplemented and completed by Thomas J.
Collins, 2 volumes.
Poetry
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Thomas Jones, The Divine Order Sermons (1884)
Introduction by Browning.     Letters of Robert
Browning Collected by Thomas J. Wise (1933)
Edited by Thurman L. Hood.     Robert Browning
and Julia Wedgwood A Broken Friendship as
Revealed in Their Letters (1937) Edited by
Richard Curle.     New Letters of Robert
Browning (1950) Edited by William Clyde DeVane
and Kenneth Leslie Knickerbocker.     Dearest
Isa Browning's Letters to Isa Blagden (1951)
Edited by Edward C. McAleer.      Browning to
His American Friends (1965) Letters between the
Brownings, the Storys, and James Russell Lowell,
1841-1890. Edited by Gertrude Reese Hudson.
    Learned Lady Letters from Robert Browning
to Mrs. Thomas FitzGerald 1876-1889 (1966) Edited
by Edward C. McAleer.     The Letters of Robert
Browning and Elizabeth Barrett, 1845-1846 (1969)
Edited by Evan Kintner, 2 volumes.
(www.poets.org)
Prose
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    Strafford An Historical Tragedy (1837)
    Bells and Pomegranates. No. I - Pippa Passes
(1841)     Bells and Pomegranates. No. II - King
Victor and King Charles (1842)     Bells
and Pomegranates. No. III - Dramatic Lyrics
(1842)     Bells and Pomegranates. No. V - A
Blot in the 'Scutcheon A Tragedy in Five Acts
(1843) Edited.     Bells and Pomegranates. No. V
- Colombe's Birthday A Play in Five Acts (1844)
    Bells and Pomegranates. No. VII - Dramatic
Romances Lyrics (1845)     Bells and
Pomegranates. No. VIII - and Last, Luria and A
Soul's Tragedy (1846)     Poems A New Edition
(1849) Two volumes.     Dramatis Personae (1864)
    Balaustion's Adventure, Including a
Transcript from Euripides (1871)     Prince
Hohenstiel-Schwangau, Saviour of Society (1871)
    Fifine at the Fair (1872)     Aristophanes'
Apology (1875) Including a Transcript from
Euripides Being the Last Adventures of
Balaustion.     Bells and Pomegranates, No. IV -
The Return of the Druses A Tragedy in Five Acts
(1943) (www.poets.org)
Drama
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Anthology
    The Agamemnon of Aeschylus (1877)
www.poets.org
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Sources

• http//eir.library.utoronto.ca/rpo/display/index.c
  fm
• http//www.poets.org
• http//www.emule.com