Brief biography and works of Victorian poet Robert Browning, known for dramatic monologues in his verses.
Robert Browning was a major poet of the Victorian period known for mastery of dramatic monologues. He is best known for "The Ring and the Book" and 'The Pied Piper of Hamelin' dramatic lyrics. He also wrote plays.
Browning was married to Elizabeth Barrett, a famous poet in her own right. Their elopement and secret wedding in Italy, 1846, is by itself a famous love story.
Early Life
Robert Browning was born in Camberwell, London on May 7, 1812. His father, Robert, the Elder, was a clerk at the Bank of England. His mother's parents were German. At the family home he read many books in his father's huge library. Reading poems by writers such as Percy Bysshe Shelley and John Keats inspired him to become a poet himself. Fortunately his family was well of, with no need to earn money to fend for himself as a writer.
The Poet and His Poetry
Browning's dramatic monologue, people from the past reveal their thoughts and lives as if thinking aloud. His poem usually tells of a key moment in the life of a person, in which the words not only convey setting and action but also reveal the speaker’s character.
Browning's first poem, 'Pauline: a Fragment of a Confession' appeared when he was 21. Later, he wrote plays and long story-poems such as 'The Pied Piper of Hamelin.' But his best works are the long speech-like poems in Dramatic Lyrics, Men and Women, Dramatis Personae, and The Ring and the Book – the work that at last made him famous.
The Man and His Poems
Browning disliked anyone who let life slip away instead of striving to achieve something. He often wrote about obscure people and places, and sometimes, either crammed into few words that sometimes readers find it difficult to understand what he is trying to impart. Some critics say that it was because of this that he was over the age of 50 when he became more known than his famous poet-wife Elizabeth Barrett-Browning.
Browning Societies
Browning Societies were founded in his time, and sometimes he made appearances at the meetings. Today, they exist in some major cities to widen appreciation and understanding of the Brownings' poetry.
Last Years
After his wife died, he returned to live in England and published books at a fast pace. In 1878, he returned to Italy for the first time, seventeen years since Elizabeth's death, and returned there on several occasions. He also returned to shorter poems. He died in his only son's home in Venice, but buried in Poets' Corner, Westminster Abbey. He died on Dec 12, 1889, aged 77.
Works by Robert Browning
- Pauline: A Fragment of a Confession, 1833
- Paracelsus, 1835
- Strafford, play, 1837
- Sordello, 1840
- Bells and Pomegranates, poetry, drama in verse, 1841-1846
- Pippa Passes, play, 1841
- Dramatic Lyrics, including 'The Pied Piper of Hamelin', 1842
- Dramatic Romances and Lyrics, 1845
- Luria, play, 1846
- Christmas Eve and Easter Day, 1850
- Men and women, 1855
- Dramatis Personae, 1864
- The Ring and the Book, 1868-1869
- Dramatic Idyls, 1879-1880
- Asolando, 1889
Sources:
Biographical Dictionary, edited by Una McGovern, Chambers (2002)
Dictionary of Writers, edited by Rosemary Goring, Larousse (1994)
