Today March 6, 2014 Google is celebrating the live and legacy of Elizabeth Browning on their United Kingdom Search engines with the question who was Elizabeth Browning? This is the first time I have seen Google asking the question like “Who was Elizabeth Browning?” instead of just providing the person’s name like Elizabeth Browning or writing “Elizabeth Browning’s 208th Birthday”.
So who was Elizabeth Browning?
According to Wikipedia Elizabeth Barrett Browning was a famous English poet, they go so far as to say that she was one of the most prominent English Poets of the Victorian Era. According to the Wikipedia site her Poetry was very popular in the United States and the United Kingdom where she was born.
Elizabeth Browning was born in Kelloe, Durham in England on March 6, 1806 and died on June 29, 1861 in Florence, Italy at the age of 55.
It is believed that Elizabeth Browning started writing poetry at the age of 6 and that her mother helped her to compile the poetry. Her first Poetry Book “The Seraphim and Other Poems” written in 1838 was very well received and almost immediately earned her the “most famous English Poet” title which still stands today.
Elizabeth’s father forbid any of his children to marry and when Elizabeth met Robert Browning through a letter he wrote her, she married him and her father disinherited her. She left England with her husband where they lived in Italy in Florence for most of their married lives.
One of the most famous poems by Elizabeth Browning
We also presume that this is the poem the doodler had in mind when designing the “Who was Elizabeth Browning” Google Doodle.
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 candlelight.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love with a 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.
Other Works and Poems by Elizabeth Browning
- 1820: The Battle of Marathon: A Poem. Privately printed
- 1826: A Essay on Mind, with Other Poems. London: James Duncan
- 1833: Prometheus Bound, Translated from the Greek of Aeschylus, and Miscellaneous Poems. London: A.J. Valpy
- 1838: The Seraphim, and Other Poems. London: Saunders and Otley
- 1844: Poems (UK) / A Drama of Exile, and other Poems (US). London: Edward Moxon. New York: Henry G. Langley
- 1850: Poems (“New Edition”, 2 vols.) Revision of 1844 edition adding Sonnets from the Portuguese and others. London: Chapman & Hall
- 1851: Casa Guidi Windows. London: Chapman & Hall
The above is just a small sample of works by Elizabeth Browning to learn more about “Who was Elizabeth Browning” we suggest that you also visit the Wikipedia article about her where you will get a better understanding of “Who was Elizabeth Browning”. – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Barrett_Browning
