Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Elizabeth Barrett, an English poet of the Romantic Movement, was born in 1806 at Coxhoe Hall, Durham, England. The oldest of twelve children, Elizabeth was the first in her family born in England in over two hundred years. For centuries, the Barrett family had lived in Jamaica, where they owned sugar plantations and had slave labor to run them. Elizabeth's father was Edward Barrett Moulton Barrett, who chose to raise his family in England, while his …

…of his children to marry. In 1846, the couple eloped and settled in Florence, Italy, where Elizabeth's health improved and she had a son, Robert Wideman Browning. Her father never spoke to her again. Elizabeth's Sonnets from the Portuguese, dedicated to her husband and written in secret before her marriage, was published in 1850. Critics generally consider the Sonnets one of the most widely known collections of love lyrics. Elizabeth Barrett Browning died in Florence on June 29, 1861.