Robert Browning was an English poet and playwright who lived between 1812 and 1889. He is famous for his dramatic monologues, his emotionally charged poems, and his epic poem The Ring and the Book. Critics often praise his poetry, with The Ring and the Book ranked by T. S. Eliot as one of the top ten best long poems in English literature.
What influenced Robert Browning to write poetry?
Robert Browning was born in 1812, the son of fairly liberal parents who took an interest in his education and personal growth. He read voraciously as a youth, and began to write poetry while still quite young, influenced by Percy Bysshe Shelley, whose radicalism urged a rethinking of modern society.
What are types of poetry does Robert Browning write?
Robert Browning (7 May 1812 – 12 December 1889) was an English poet and playwright whose dramatic monologues put him high among the Victorian poets.He was noted for irony, characterization, dark humour, social commentary, historical settings and challenging vocabulary and syntax.. His early long poems Pauline (1833) and Paracelsus (1835) were acclaimed – but his rating fell back for a time ...
What poems did Robert Browning write?
His career began well – the long poems Pauline (1833) and Paracelsus (1835) were acclaimed – but his reputation shrank for a time – his 1840 poem Sordello was seen as wilfully obscure – and took over a decade to recover, by which time he had moved from Shelleyan forms to a more personal style.
What style of poetry did Robert Browning write?
Robert Browning was a 19th-century English playwright and poet. He was one of the leading Victorian poets who have mastered the dramatic monologue. The striking characteristics of his poetry are irony, dark humor, characterization, social commentary, challenging vocabulary, historical setting, and syntax.
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What was Robert Browning style of writing?
Browning's Unique Writing Style Dramatic Monologue: His critical reputation rests mainly due to his dramatic monologues. It is a form of speech addressed to a silent listener. Its aim is 'character study' or 'psycho-analysis.
What kind of poet is Browning?
Robert Browning (7 May 1812 – 12 December 1889) was an English poet and playwright whose dramatic monologues put him high among the Victorian poets. He was noted for irony, characterization, dark humour, social commentary, historical settings and challenging vocabulary and syntax.
What was Robert Graves style of poetry?
Graves began before 1914 as a typical Georgian poet, but his war experiences and the difficulties of his personal life gave his later poetry a much deeper and more painful note. He remained a traditionalist rather than a modernist, however, in his emphasis on meter and clear meaning in his verse.
What is Robert Browning's most famous poem?
Through all the vicissitudes of critical reputation, however, Browning's major contribution to the canon of children's literature, “The Pied Piper of Hamelin,” has retained its popular audience. At the time of his death in 1889, he was one of the most popular poets in England.
What are the major themes in Browning poetry?
Robert Browning: Poems ThemesDeath. Much of Browning's work contemplates death and the way that it frames our life choices. ... Truth/Subjectivity. ... Delusion. ... Beauty. ... The quest. ... Religion. ... The grotesque.
Is Browning a romantic poet?
Browning is often considered to be one of the major successors of Romanticism, especially in any consideration of his versatile handling of love poetry, as in “Love among the Ruins”, or in his apocalyptic, Gothic poems like “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came” and the long, conceptual poems from early in his career: ...
What is Robert Graves most famous for?
Robert Graves (1895-1985) is now probably best-remembered for two prose works: his 1929 memoir Goodbye to All That, about his experience fighting in the First World War, and his 1934 novel I, Claudius, set in ancient Rome.
Is Robert Graves is a war poet?
He published his first volume of poems, Over the Brazier, in 1916. He developed an early reputation as a war poet and was one of the first to write realistic poems about the experience of frontline conflict.
What were Robert Graves poems about?
Most of the poems he wrote in 1917 were not about the horrors of trench life, but about childhood innocence and the English countryside. Graves is one of the foremost English poets of the twentieth century. His feelings about the First World War were complex and ambiguous, and his writings reflect this.
What influenced Robert Browning's poetry?
Browning was influenced strongly by Percy Bysshe Shelley, and in particular Shelley's lengthier dramatic poems such as Prometheus Unbound, which inspired him to the dramatic poetry which would ultimately cement his own reputation.
Who is famous for dramatic monologue?
Though the form is chiefly associated with Robert Browning, who raised it to a highly sophisticated level in such poems as “My Last Duchess,” “The Bishop Orders His Tomb at St.
Who is the father of dramatic monologue?
Robert Browning was a very successful homegrown writer. Browning's first work was published when he was only twenty-one years old. He wrote from 1833 till 1880 during the Victorian era.
What type of poetry did Elizabeth Barrett Browning write?
Elizabeth Barrett Browning's poetic form encompasses lyric, ballad and narrative, while engaging with historical events, religious belief and contemporary political opinion. Dr Simon Avery considers how her experimentation with both the style and subject of her poetry affected its reception during the 19th century.
What was the theme of Robert Browning?
The Relationship Between Art and Morality He questioned whether artists had an obligation to be moral and whether artists should pass judgment on their characters and creations. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Browning populated his poems with evil people, who commit crimes and sins ranging from hatred to murder.
Is Browning an obscure poet?
uch ink has been spilt in proving and disproving that Browning is an obscure poet. It is hard to absolve Browning of the charge of unintelligibility and difficulty. In his own age, he was considered very difficult and obscure and hence could not achieved popularity and recognition like his contemporary Tennyson.
What is Elizabeth Barrett Browning best known for?
Elizabeth Barrett Browning, née Elizabeth Barrett, (born March 6, 1806, near Durham, Durham county, England—died June 29, 1861, Florence, Italy), English poet whose reputation rests chiefly upon her love poems, Sonnets from the Portuguese and Aurora Leigh, the latter now considered an early feminist text.
Who selected Robert Browning's poems?
Selected by Dr Oliver Tearle. Robert Browning (1812-89) was a prolific poet, so whittling down his poetic oeuvre to just ten defining poems is going to prove a challenge. With that in mind, it’s best to view the following list of Browning’s ten best poems as indicative – there are many other classic Robert Browning poems around.
Which poem was written in response to Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species?
And snaky sea which rounds and ends the same …. One of the first poems to respond to Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, this 1863 poem is – you’ve guessed it – another dramatic monologue, spoken by the native, Caliban, from the magical island in Shakespeare’s The Tempest.
What is the title of the poem "While the Chaffinch sings on the orchard bough"?
While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough. In England—now! So begins this classic Browning poem. The title singing the praises of the English countryside is less well-known than the poem’s opening line: ‘Oh, to be in England’ .
When was the first time a poet's voice had ever been captured for posterity?
Continue to explore Browning’s work with our short overview of his life and work – which includes a recording of Browning’s voice from 1889 (the first time a poet’s voice had ever been captured for posterity). If you’re looking for a good edition of Browning’s poems, we recommend The Major Works (Oxford World’s Classics).
What is the poem "Porphyria's Lover" about?
One of Browning’s most disturbing poems – and it’s up against quite a bit of competition – ‘Porphyria’s Lover’ is spoken by a murderer, a man who strangles his lover with her own hair. It was one of Browning’s first great poems, published in 1836 (as ‘Porphyria’) when the poet was still in his mid-twenties. It was also one of his earliest experiments in the dramatic monologue, a form which he and Alfred, Lord Tennyson developed in the 1830s. Despite the poem’s reputation as one of Browning’s finest dramatic monologues, it – like much of Browning’s early work – was largely ignored during his lifetime.
When was Robert Browning's poem published?
Published in four parts from November 1868 to February 1869, the poem was a success both commercially and critically, and finally brought Browning the renown he had sought for nearly 40 years. The Robert Browning Society was formed in 1881 and his work was recognised as belonging within the British literary canon.
Who learned from Browning's exploration of the possibilities of dramatic poetry and of colloquial idiom?
Ian Jack, in his introduction to the Oxford University Press edition of Browning's poems 1833–1864, comments that Thomas Hardy, Rudyard Kipling, Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot "all learned from Browning's exploration of the possibilities of dramatic poetry and of colloquial idiom".
What is the only book that Browning wrote?
This section lists the plays and volumes of poetry Browning published in his lifetime. Some individually notable poems are also listed, under the volumes in which they were published. (His only notable prose work, with the exception of his letters, is his Essay on Shelley .)
How many times did Browning write Strafford?
As a result of his new contacts he met Macready, who invited him to write a play. Strafford was performed five times. Browning then wrote two other plays, one of which was not performed, while the other failed, Browning having fallen out with Macready.
What was the name of the play that Robert Browning played in?
In 1930, the story of Browning and his wife was made into the play The Barretts of Wimpole Street, by Rudolph Besier. It was a success and brought popular fame to the couple in the United States. The role of Elizabeth became a signature role for the actress Katharine Cornell. It was twice adapted into film. It was also the basis of the stage musical Robert and Elizabeth, with music by Ron Grainer and book and lyrics by Ronald Millar .
What did Browning believe about spiritualism?
Browning believed spiritualism to be fraud, and proved one of Daniel Dunglas Home 's most adamant critics. When Browning and his wife Elizabeth attended one of his séances on 23 July 1855, a spirit face materialized, which Home claimed was Browning's son who had died in infancy: Browning seized the "materialization" and discovered it to be Home's bare foot. To make the deception worse, Browning had never lost a son in infancy.
Where was Robert Browning born?
Early years. Robert Browning was born in Walworth in the parish of Camberwell, Surrey, which now forms part of the Borough of Southwark in south London. He was baptised on 14 June 1812, at Lock's Fields Independent Chapel, York Street, Walworth, the only son of Sarah Anna (née Wiedemann) and Robert Browning.
What is Robert Browning famous for?
12, 1889, Venice), major English poet of the Victorian age, noted for his mastery of dramatic monologue and psychological portraiture. His most noted work was The Ring and the Book (1868–69), the story of a Roman murder trial in 12 books.
What was the name of the poem that Browning wrote in 1835?
It was perhaps Mill’s critique that determined Browning never to confess his own emotions again in his poetry but to write objectively. In 1835 he published Paracelsus and in 1840 Sordello, both poems dealing with men of great ability striving to reconcile the demands of their own personalities with those of the world.
Who did Elizabeth Barrett meet in 1845?
By 1845 the first phase of Browning ’s life was near its end. In that year he met Elizabeth Barrett. In her Poems (1844) Barrett had included lines praising Browning, who wrote to thank her (January 1845). In May they met and soon discovered their love for each other.
Who is Robert Browning?
... (Show more) ... (Show more) ... (Show more) Robert Browning, (born May 7, 1812, London—died Dec. 12, 1889, Venice), major English poet of the Victorian age, noted for his mastery of dramatic monologue and psychological portraiture. His most noted work was The Ring and the Book ...
What is the book The Ring and the Book based on?
In 1868–69 he published his greatest work, The Ring and the Book, based on the proceedings in a murder trial in Rome in 1698. Grand alike in plan and execution, it was at once received with enthusiasm, and Browning was established as one of the most important literary figures of the day.
What was the name of the poem that Browning wrote?
One of Browning’s biggest successes was the children’s poem “The Pied Piper of Hamelin.” Published in Dramatic Lyrics in 1842, the poem was not one that Browning deemed consequential; however it is one of his most famous.
Who Was Robert Browning?
Robert Browning was a prolific Victorian-era poet and playwright. He is widely recognized as a master of dramatic monologue and psychological portraiture. Browning is perhaps best-known for a poem he didn’t value highly, The Pied Piper of Hamelin, a children's poem that is quite different from his other work. He is also known for his long form blank poem The Ring and the Book, the story of a Roman murder trial in 12 books. Browning was married to the poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
What was the name of the college that Browning received an honorary D.C.L. from?
(Doctor of Civil Law) from Balliol College at Oxford University. Browning continued publishing poetry, with his final work, Asolando, published on the day he died.
Why did Robert Browning dislike Sordello?
Robert Browning’s Paracelsus, published in 1835, received good reviews, but critics disliked Sordello, published in 1840, because they found its references to be obscure. In the 1830s, Browning tried to write plays for the theater, but did not succeed, and so moved on.
Who is the writer of The Ring and the Book?
Browning was married to the poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
Who is Elizabeth Barrett Browning?
Victorian poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning is perhaps best known for her 'Sonnets From the Portuguese' and 'Aurora Leigh' as well as the love story between her and fellow poet Robert Browning. (1806–1861) Person.
Who is the best known poet for his poem The Ring and the Book?
Robert Browning. English poet and playwright Robert Browning was a master of dramatic verse and is best known for his 12-book long form blank poem 'The Ring and the Book.'.
Pippa Passes
This poem is not only a beautiful example of Browning’s dramatic monologues, but also one of his most religious poems. The poem is an allegory for a young woman’s life and her journey to find her way in her faith. The poem follows Pippa as she enters and exits different churches, questioning whether or not their church was right for her.
How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix
Robert Browning’s poem How They Brought The Good News From Ghent to Aix is a narrative piece. The poem is about an old lady and her granddaughter discuss her recent trip to see her son. The grandmother explains that she has been outside of town. She describes her journey to a nice little place with a view of fields and crops.
Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister
The poem Soliloquy of Spanish Cloister is about a nun who contemplates suicide as she watches children playing outside. The woman knows that she cannot make her own choices. She also knows that one day she will have to to give up her independence.
Andrea Del Sarto
If you’re feeling a little stuck in your career, take inspiration from Andrea del Sarto—the Renaissance-era artist and subject of one of Robert Browning’s most famous poems. Rather than working on traditional frescoes (which dried slowly), Andrea attempted to work on a quicker form of painting known as tempera, which he also experimented with.
When did Robert Browning publish his poems?
These beautiful poems were written for Robert Browning only. However, when he read them, he insisted upon their publication, which occurred in 1850. After Mrs. Browning’s death, Robert and Pen Browning moved to England. Browning's poetic career flourished; he is now one of the most highly regarded English writers.
What did Robert Browning learn?
By the age of fourteen he had learned Latin, Greek, French, and Italian. After fourteen, he received no formal education but was a prolific reader in his father's library.
How old was Barrett when she met Browning?
He was 34 and she was 40. The couple's unusual courtship, consisting entirely of letters and visits Browning made to Barrett in her father's home, was a result of two unusual circumstances. First, Barrett's father, Edward Moulton-Barrett, was an extremely dominating and excessively possessive individual.
Who was the poet who praised Elizabeth Barrett?
This particular poem commended his poetry! Browning responded with a letter expressing his admiration.
When did the two poets meet?
This eventually led to a personal meeting of the two poets in May 1845. During the next fifteen months they exchanged poems and hundreds of letters (573 of hers remain) and enjoyed ninety-one meetings in her father's home. The first time they were together outside his home, they married.
What is Robert Browning's literary style?
Robert Browning’s Literary Style. Browning rose from his failure to identify the most dramatic nature of his work. Before 1846, Browning wrote most of the work for theatre, therefore, his most of the poems have the characteristics of dramatic monologue. The dramatic monologue consists of a narrative uttered by a character to comment on ...
What are the characteristics of Browning's poetry?
The striking characteristics of his poetry are irony, dark humor, characterization, social commentary, challenging vocabulary, historical setting, and syntax. Though the early literary career of Browning started favorably but soon collapsed, he was admired for his long poems Paracelsus and Pauline.
What does Browning show in his character?
Browning shows his sympathies with those characters that have loving hearts, the warmth of feelings, and honest natures and never satirize these qualities. He sides those characters that associate themselves with ideas, no matter if they fail. This suggests that he has a naïve system of values; however, he also understands those characters that compromise by lowering their standards. Though Browning is remote from any pessimistic view of the nature of man or his destiny, his expectations from the world are not unreasoning and simple.
What was the only work that Browning wrote?
In 1852, he published an introductory essay to some false letters of Shelley. This was the only prose work that Browning wrote. In 1855, he wrote Men and Women, a collection of dramatic lyrical poems including “Love among the Ruins,” “Memorabilia,” and “A Toccata Galuppi’s.”.
What was Browning's problem with technique and style?
When Browning overcame his problem of technique and style, the interest of the poem appears to be exhausted. Browning often employs an unexpected point of view, particularly in his dramatic monologues, therefore forcing his reader to assent the unacquainted perspective.
What was the book The Ring and the Book based on?
The book was based on account of a murder trial in 1698 in Rome. This book made him one of the significant literary figures of his time. In London society, he was in great demand for the rest of his life.
What is the name of the book Robert Browning wrote in 1864?
In 1864, he published Dramatis Persona which includes: “Caliban upon Setebos,” “Mr.Sludge, ‘The Medium’ ” “Rabbi Ben Ezra,” and “Abt Vogler.”. This publication has two editions, which shows the public admiration and recognition of Robert Browning.
What is Robert Browning's most famous poem?from poetryfoundation.org
Although the early part of Robert Browning’s creative life was spent in comparative obscurity, he has come to be regarded as one of the most important English poets of the Victorian period. His dramatic monologues and the psycho-historical epic The Ring and the Book (1868-1869), a novel in verse, have established him as a major figure in the history of English poetry. His claim to attention as a children’s writer is more modest, resting as it does almost entirely on one poem, “ The Pied Piper of Hamelin ,” included almost as an afterthought in Bells and Pomegranites. No. III.—Dramatic Lyrics (1842) and evidently never highly regarded by its creator. Nevertheless, “The Pied Piper” moved quickly into the canon of children’s literature, where it has remained ever since, receiving the dubious honor (shared by the fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen and J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan) of appearing almost as frequently in “adapted” versions as in the author’s original. His approach to dramatic monologue influenced countless poets for almost a century.
Where was Robert Browning born?from poetryfoundation.org
Browning was born on May 7, 1812 in Camberwell, a middle-class suburb of London. He was the only son of Robert Browning, a clerk in the Bank of England, and a devoutly religious German-Scotch mother, Sarah Anna Wiedemann Browning. He had a sister, Sarianna, who like her parents was devoted to Browning.
What age did Browning ask his father what he was reading?from poetryfoundation.org
Browning remembers at the age of five asking what his father was reading. To explain the siege of Troy, the elder Browning created a game for the child in which the family pets were assigned roles and furniture was recruited to serve for the besieged city.
How many lines are there in the poem The Cardinal and the Dog?from poetryfoundation.org
Just before his death in 1889, Browning finally published the other poem written for young Willie Macready, “The Cardinal and the Dog.”. This 15-line poem, like “The Pied Piper,” originated in one of the legends recounted in Wanley’s Wonders of the Little World.
How many children did the Brownings have?from poetryfoundation.org
The Brownings had one child, Robert Wiedemann Barrett Browning, called “Pen,” born in 1849 (the same year Browning’s mother died). Both parents doted on the boy, and Robert Browning took particular responsibility for his son’s education—yet another diversion from poetic production.
What did Browning learn from the Iliad?from poetryfoundation.org
Browning’s appetite for the story having been whetted, he was induced to learn Greek so as to read the original.
When did the Pied Piper poem begin?from poetryfoundation.org
The story of the Pied Piper was evidently well known in Browning’s home. The poet’s father began his own poem on the subject in 1842 for another young family friend, discontinuing his effort when he learned of his son’s poem.
Overview
Robert Browning (7 May 1812 – 12 December 1889) was an English poet and playwright whose dramatic monologues put him high among the Victorian poets. He was noted for irony, characterization, dark humour, social commentary, historical settings and challenging vocabulary and syntax.
His early long poems Pauline (1833) and Paracelsus (1835) were acclaimed, but …
Biography
Robert Browning was born in Walworth in the parish of Camberwell, Surrey, which now forms part of the Borough of Southwark in south London. He was baptised on 14 June 1812, at Lock's Fields Independent Chapel, York Street, Walworth, the only son of Sarah Anna (née Wiedemann) and Robert Browning. His father was a well-paid clerk for the Bank of England, earning about £150 per year. Br…
History of sound recording
At a dinner party on 7 April 1889, at the home of Browning's friend the artist Rudolf Lehmann, an Edison cylinder phonograph recording was made on a white wax cylinder by Edison's British representative, George Gouraud. In the recording, which still exists, Browning recites part of How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix (and can be heard apologising when he forgets the words). When the recording was played in 1890 on the anniversary of his death, at a gatheri…
Legacy
Browning's admirers have tended to temper their praise with reservations about the length and difficulty of his most ambitious poems, particularly Sordello and, to a lesser extent, The Ring and the Book. Nevertheless, they have included such eminent writers as Henry James, Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw, G. K. Chesterton, Ezra Pound, Jorge Luis Borges, and Vladimir Nabokov. Among livin…
Cultural references
In 1914, the American modernist composer Charles Ives created the Robert Browning Overture, a dense and darkly dramatic piece with gloomy overtones reminiscent of the Second Viennese School.
In 1917, the U.S. composer Margaret Hoberg Turrell composed a song based on Browning's poem "Love: Such a Starved Bank of Moss". In 1920, the U.S. com…
List of works
This section lists the plays and volumes of poetry Browning published in his lifetime. Some individually notable poems are also listed, under the volumes in which they were published. (His only notable prose work, with the exception of his letters, is his Essay on Shelley.)
• Pauline: A Fragment of a Confession (1833)
Further reading
• Waddy, Frederick (illustr.) (1873). Robert Browning, in Cartoon Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Men of the Day. London: Tinsley Brothers. Retrieved 28 December 2010. {{cite book}}: |author= has generic name (help)
• Berdoe, Edward. The Browning Cyclopædia. 3rd ed. (Swan Sonnenschein, 1897)
External links
• Profile and poems written and audio at the Poetry Archive
• Profile and poems at the Poetry Foundation
• Profile and poems at Poets.org
• The Brownings: A Research Guide (Baylor University)
Who Was Robert Browning?
Early Life
- Robert Browning was born on May 7, 1812 in Camberwell, a suburb of London. He and a younger sister, Sarianna, were the children of Robert Browning and Sarah Anna Browning. Browning’s father supported the family by working as a bank clerk (foregoing a family fortune because he opposed slavery), and assembled a large library — some 6,000 books — which formed the foun…
Popular Recognition
- Browning only began to attain popular success when he was in his 50s. In the 1860s, he published Dramatis Personae, which had both a first and second edition. In 1868-69, he published the 12-volume The Ring and the Book, which some critics believe to be his greatest work, and which earned the poet popularity for the first time. One of Browning’s biggest successes was th…
Later Life and Death
- In his more advanced years, Browning became widely respected: the Victorian public appreciated the hopeful tone of his poems. In 1881, the Browning Society was founded to further study the poet’s work, and in 1887, Browning received an honorary D.C.L. (Doctor of Civil Law) from Balliol College at Oxford University. Browning continued publishing poetry, with his final work, Asoland…