Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Personal Life

• Elizabeth Barrett was born in 1806 at Coxhoe Hall, Durham, England.
• The oldest of twelve children
• Elizabeth was the first in her family born in England over two hundred years. 
• the Barrett family were part Creole
• had lived in Jamaica, where they owned sugar plantations and relied on slave labor
• She spent the next five years in her bedroom at her father's home.

Career Life

• Educated at home,
• Elizabeth had read passages from Paradise Lost and a number of Shakespearean plays before the age of ten.
• When She was 12 she had written her first "epic" poem, which consisted of four books of rhyming couplets.
• Two years later, Elizabeth developed a lung illness that that was there for the rest of her life.
• Doctors began treating her with morphine, which she would take until she dies.
• a year later riding horse back, Elizabeth also suffered a spinal injury. 
• due to her illnesses her education continued to improve and impress.
• Throughout her teenage years, Elizabeth taught herself Hebrew so that she could read the Old Testament;
• her interests later turned to Greek studies.
• The liking for the classics was a passionate enthusiasm for her Christian faith.
• She became active in the Bible and Missionary Societies of her church.
• Her Most written poetry was about romance

Poetry