Joey Saves The Day!: Facts about Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Learn Quick Facts about

Elizabeth Browning.

For the next 20 weeks, I will be blogging about a famous poet each Thursday. I have picked 20 poets to write quick facts about. We are on week 2!

This week’s famous poet is Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Last week’s famous poet was Emily Elizabeth Dickinson.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning is a famous poet. She started writing poems at a young age, sometime between six and eleven years old. She wrote well over 100 poems. She was born in County Durham, England. Her parents are Edward Barrett Moulton and Mary Graham Clarke. She had eleven siblings: eight brothers and three sisters. Keep reading to find out more about Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

Here is a list of some poems/writings by Elizabeth Barrett Browning:

The Cry of the Children
A Child Asleep
A Musical Instrument
Sabbath Morning at Sea
Grief
The Soul’s Expression
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways
Beloved, thou hast brought me many flowers
A Dead Rose

Parents/caretakers, be sure poems are child-friendly before reading them to your child/children.

Do you have a favorite poet?

Quick facts about Elizabeth Barrett Browning:

1. She was born March 6, 1806, in County Durham, England.

2. Elizabeth Barrett Browning was 55 years old when she died. She passed away on June 29, 1861. She is buried in The English Cemetery in Florence, Italy. She is buried in a beautiful tomb. On the ground, during spring, beautiful irises and other flowers grow all around it.

3. Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s most famous poem is:

How Do I Love Thee?

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 candle-light.

I love thee freely, as men strive for right.

I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.

I love thee with the 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.

(You can print out a worksheet on this poem. You will fill in the missing words in the poem)

4. Elizabeth Barrett Browning married Robert Browning, a famous poet. They had one child, Robert Wiedeman Barrett-Browning, who was nicknamed Pen. Elizabeth was forty-three years old when Pen was born.

5. Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s last word was “beautiful.” She died peacefully in her husband’s arms. Scientists believe she may have been killed from hypokalemic periodic paralysis.

6. Elizabeth Barrett Browning was against slavery. She wrote two poems about slavery: “The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim’s Point” and “A Curse for a Nation.”

7. She loved to read books, ride ponies, and have picnics. When she was younger, she and her family would put on plays for family and friends to watch. She had a pet dog named Flush, a spaniel. She received the dog as a gift from Mary Mitford, a famous author. Elizabeth met several authors, poets, and artists during her adult life.

8. Elizabeth suffered from head and spinal pain starting when she was around 15 years old. She took opiates for the pain, became addicted to them, and used them for most of her adult life. She also became ill with a lung disease later in her life.

9. She got her education at home, taught by her oldest brother, Edward, and a tutor. She learned to write when she was about four years old.

Share a fact about Elizabeth Barrett Browning with us in the comments?