Editing Elizabeth Barrett Browning (section)

==Life and career==
===Family background===
<!-- PLEASE NOTE: The repetition of "Barrett" is *not* an error -->

Elizabeth Barrett had both maternal and paternal family who profited from slavery. Her father's family had lived in the [[colony of Jamaica]] since 1655, though her father chose to raise his family in England, while his business enterprises remained in Jamaica. Their wealth derived primarily from the ownership of [[slave plantation]]s in the [[British West Indies]]. Edward Barrett owned {{convert|10000|acre|km2}} of land in the estates of [[Saint James Parish, Jamaica|Cinnamon Hill]], [[Cornwall County, Jamaica|Cornwall]], [[Cambridge, Jamaica|Cambridge]] and [[Oxford, Jamaica|Oxford]] in northern Jamaica.<ref name="ONDB" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=Edward Barrett Moulton Barrett |url=https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/18032 |access-date=2024-10-01 |website=Legacies of British Slavery Database}}</ref> 

Elizabeth's maternal grandfather owned [[Sugar plantations in the Caribbean|sugar plantations]], [[sugar cane mill]]s, [[Glassblowing|glassworks]] and [[merchant ship]]s, which traded between Jamaica and [[Newcastle upon Tyne]].<ref name="ONDB">Marjorie Stone, "Browning, Elizabeth Barrett (1806–1861)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004; online edition, October 2008.</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=John Graham Clarke |url=https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/2146641351 |access-date=2024-10-01 |website=Legacies of British Slavery Database}}</ref>

The family wished to hand down their name, stipulating that Barrett always should be held as a surname. In some cases, inheritance was given on condition that the name was used by the beneficiary; the British upper class had long encouraged [[Name change#Historical usage|this sort of name changing]]. Given this strong tradition, Elizabeth used "Elizabeth Barrett Moulton Barrett" on legal documents, and before she was married, she often signed herself "Elizabeth Barrett Barrett" or "EBB" (initials which she was able to keep after her wedding).<ref name="ONDB" /> 

===Early life===
Elizabeth Barrett Moulton-Barrett was born on (it is supposed) 6 March 1806 in Coxhoe Hall, between the villages of [[Coxhoe]] and [[Kelloe]] in County Durham, England. Her parents were Edward Barrett Moulton-Barrett and Mary Graham Clarke. However, biographers have suggested<ref name=":0">[[Fiona Sampson|Sampson, Fiona]] (2021). ''Two Way Mirror: The Life of Elizabeth Barrett Browning''. Profile Books, p 33</ref> that, when she was christened on 9 March, she was already three or four months old, and that this was concealed because her parents had married only on 14 May 1805.{{Verification needed|date=September 2023}} Although she had already been baptised by a family friend in that first week of her life,<ref>Taplin, Gardner B. "Elizabeth Barrett Browning." Victorian Poets Before 1850. Ed. William E. Fredeman and Ira Bruce Nadel. Detroit: Gale Research, 1984. ''Dictionary of Literary Biography'' Vol. 32. Literature Resource Center. Web. 7 December 2014.</ref> she was baptised again, more publicly, on 10 February 1808 at Kelloe parish church, at the same time as her younger brother, Edward (known as Bro). He had been born in June 1807, 15 months after Elizabeth's stated date of birth. A private christening might seem unlikely for a family of standing, and while Bro's birth was celebrated with a holiday on the family's Caribbean plantations, Elizabeth's was not.<ref name=":0" />

Elizabeth was the eldest of 12 children (eight boys and four girls). Eleven lived to adulthood; one daughter died at the age of 3, when Elizabeth was 8. The children all had nicknames: Elizabeth was Ba. She rode her pony, went for family walks and picnics, socialised with other county families, and participated in home theatrical productions. Unlike her siblings, she immersed herself in books as often as she could get away from the social rituals of her family.{{Citation needed|date=October 2024}}

In 1809, the family moved to [[Hope End]], a {{convert|500|acre|ha|adj=on}} estate near the [[Malvern Hills]] in [[Ledbury]], Herefordshire.<ref name="ONDB"/> Her father converted the Georgian house into stables and built a mansion of opulent Turkish design, which his wife described as something from the ''Arabian Nights' Entertainments''.{{Citation needed|date=October 2024}}

The interior's brass balustrades, mahogany doors inlaid with mother-of-pearl, and finely carved fireplaces were eventually complemented by lavish landscaping: ponds, grottos, kiosks, an ice house, a hothouse, and a subterranean passage from house to gardens.<ref name="Taylor, Beverly 1999">Taylor, Beverly. "Elizabeth Barrett Browning." Victorian Women Poets. Ed. William B. Thesing. Detroit: Gale Research, 1999. ''Dictionary of Literary Biography'' Vol. 199. Literature Resource Center. Web. 5 December 2014.</ref> Her time at Hope End inspired her in later life to write ''[[Aurora Leigh]]'' (1856), her most ambitious work, which went through more than 20 editions by 1900, but none from 1905 to 1978.<ref name="Taylor, Beverly 1999"/>

[[File:Elizabeth Barrett Browning 2.jpg|thumb|left|Portrait of Elizabeth Barrett Browning in 1859]]

She was educated at home and tutored by Daniel McSwiney with her oldest brother.<ref>Dorothy Mermin (1989), ''Elizabeth Barrett Browning: The Origins of a New Poetry'', University of Chicago Press, {{ISBN|978-0226520391}}, pp. 19–20.</ref> She began writing verses at the age of four.<ref name="Browning, Elizabeth Barrett 2005">"Browning, Elizabeth Barrett: Introduction." Jessica Bomarito and Jeffrey W. Hunter (eds). ''Feminism in Literature: A Gale Critical Companion''. Vol. 2: 19th Century, Topics & Authors (A-B). Detroit: Gale, 2005. 467–469. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 7 December 2014.</ref> During the Hope End period, she was an intensely studious, precocious child.<ref name="ReferenceA">Taplin, Gardner B. ''The Life of Elizabeth Browning'' New Haven: Yale University Press (1957).</ref> She claimed that she was reading novels at age 6, having been entranced by [[Alexander Pope|Pope]]'s translations of [[Homer]] at age 8, studying [[Greek language|Greek]] at age 10, and writing her own [[Homeric epic]] ''[[The Battle of Marathon: A Poem]]'' at age 11.<ref name="ONDB"/>

In 1820, Mr Barrett privately published ''The Battle of Marathon'', an epic-style poem, but all copies remained within the family.<ref name="Browning, Elizabeth Barrett 2005"/> Her mother compiled the child's poetry into collections of "Poems by Elizabeth B. Barrett". Her father called her the "Poet Laureate of Hope End" and encouraged her work. The result is one of the larger collections of juvenilia of any English writer. [[Mary Russell Mitford]] described the young Elizabeth at this time as having "a slight, delicate figure, with a shower of dark curls falling on each side of a most expressive face; large, tender eyes, richly fringed by dark eyelashes, and a smile like a sunbeam."{{Citation needed|date=October 2024}}

At about this time, Elizabeth began to battle an illness, which the medical science of the time was unable to diagnose.<ref name="ONDB"/> All three sisters came down with the syndrome, but it lasted only with Elizabeth. She had intense head and spinal pain with loss of mobility. Various biographies link this to a riding accident at the time (she fell while trying to dismount a horse), but there is no evidence to support the link. Sent to recover at the Gloucester spa, she was treated – in the absence of symptoms supporting another diagnosis – for a spinal problem.<ref name="Taylor, Beverly 1999"/> This illness continued for the rest of her life, and it is believed to be unrelated to the lung disease that she developed in 1837.<ref name="ONDB"/>

She began to take opiates for the pain, [[laudanum]] (an [[opium]] concoction) followed by morphine, then commonly prescribed. She became dependent on them for much of her adulthood; the use from an early age may well have contributed to her frail health. Biographers such as Alethea Hayter have suggested this dependency have contributed to the wild vividness of her imagination and the poetry that it produced.<ref name="ONDB"/><ref>Hayter, Alethea (1962). ''Mrs. Browning: A Poet's Work and Its Setting''. Faber and Faber, pp. 61–66.</ref>

By 1821, she had read [[Mary Wollstonecraft]]'s ''[[A Vindication of the Rights of Woman]]'' (1792), and she become a passionate supporter of Wollstonecraft's political ideas.<ref name="ONDB"/> The child's intellectual fascination with the classics and metaphysics was reflected in a religious intensity that she later described as "not the deep persuasion of the mild Christian but the wild visions of an enthusiast."<ref>Everett, Glenn (2002). ''Life of Elizabeth Browning''.</ref> The Barretts attended services at the nearest [[Dissenter|Dissenting]] chapel, and Edward was active in Bible and [[Missionary#The British missionary societies|missionary societies]].

[[File:Panasonic GM5 black 8GB 13 1040230.JPG|thumb|upright|Blue plaque outside "Belle Vue" in Sidmouth, Devon, where Elizabeth Barrett lived with her family from 1833 to 1835]]

Elizabeth's mother died in 1828, and is buried at St Michael's Church, Ledbury, next to her daughter Mary. Sarah Graham-Clarke, Elizabeth's aunt, helped to care for the children, and she had clashes with Elizabeth's strong will. In 1831, Elizabeth's grandmother, Elizabeth Moulton, died. Following lawsuits and the abolition of slavery, Mr Barrett incurred great financial and investment losses that forced him to sell Hope End. Although the family was never poor, the place was seized and sold to satisfy creditors. Always secretive in his financial dealings, he would not discuss his situation, and the family was haunted by the idea that they might have to move to Jamaica.{{Citation needed|date=October 2024}}

From 1833 to 1835, she was living with her family at Belle Vue in Sidmouth. The site has now been renamed Cedar Shade and redeveloped. A blue plaque at the entrance to the site attests to its previous existence. In 1838, some years after the sale of Hope End, the family settled at 50 [[Wimpole Street]], Marylebone, London.<ref name="ONDB"/>

During 1837–1838, the poet was struck with illness again, with symptoms today suggesting [[Tuberculosis|tuberculous]] ulceration of the lungs. The same year, at her physician's insistence, she moved from London to Torquay on the Devonshire coast. Her former home now forms part of the Regina Hotel. Two tragedies then struck. In February 1840, her brother Samuel died of a fever in Jamaica, then her favourite brother Edward (Bro) was drowned in a sailing accident in Torquay in July. These events had a serious effect on her already fragile health. She felt guilty as her father had disapproved of Edward's trip to Torquay. She wrote to Mitford: "That was a very near escape from madness, absolute hopeless madness".<ref name="ONDB"/> The family returned to Wimpole Street in 1841.

===Success===
[[File:Brocky, Karoly - Portrait of Elisabeth Barrett-Browning (1839-44).jpg|thumb|220px|right|Portrait of Elizabeth Barrett by [[Károly Brocky]], {{circa}}&nbsp;1839–1844]]
At Wimpole Street, Elizabeth spent most of her time in her upstairs room. Her health began to improve, but she saw few people other than her immediate family.<ref name="ONDB"/> One of those was John Kenyon, a wealthy friend and distant cousin of the family and patron of the arts. She received comfort from a spaniel named Flush, a gift from Mary Mitford.<ref name="Raymond, Meredith, and Mary Rose Sullivan, eds.">{{cite book|author=Elizabeth Barrett Browning|author2=Mary Rose Sullivan|title=The letters of Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Mary Russell Mitford, 1836–1854|url=https://archive.org/details/lettersofelizabe0001brow|url-access=registration|access-date=22 October 2011|year=1983|publisher=Armstrong Browning Library of Baylor University|isbn=978-0-911459-00-5|author3=Mary Russell Mitford|author4=Meredith B. Raymond}}</ref> ([[Virginia Woolf]] later fictionalised the life of the dog, making him the protagonist of her 1933 novel ''[[Flush: A Biography]]'').

From 1841 to 1844, Elizabeth was prolific in poetry, translation, and prose. The poem ''[[The Cry of the Children (poem)|The Cry of the Children]]'', published in 1843 in ''[[Blackwood's Magazine|Blackwood's]]'', condemned child labour and helped bring about child-labour reforms by raising support for [[Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury|Lord Shaftesbury]]'s [[Factories Act 1847|Ten Hours Bill]] (1844).<ref name="ONDB"/> About the same time, she contributed critical prose pieces to [[Richard Henry Horne]]'s ''A New Spirit of the Age'', including a laudatory essay on [[Thomas Carlyle]].

In 1844, she published the two-volume ''Poems'', which included "A Drama of Exile", "A Vision of Poets", and "Lady Geraldine's Courtship", and two substantial critical essays for 1842 issues of ''[[Athenaeum (British magazine)|The Athenaeum]]''. A self-proclaimed "adorer of Carlyle", she sent a copy to him as "a tribute of admiration & respect", which began a correspondence between them.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Letters of Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Mary Russell Mitford 1836–1854 |publisher=Armstrong Browning Library |year=1983 |editor-last=Raymond |editor-first=Meredith B. |volume=1 |location=Waco, Tex. |pages=378 |editor-last2=Sullivan |editor-first2=Mary Rose}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=The Letters of Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Mary Russell Mitford, 1836–1854 |publisher=Armstrong Browning Library |year=1983 |editor-last=Raymond |editor-first=Meredith B. |volume=2 |location=Waco, Tex. |pages=438 |editor-last2=Sullivan |editor-first2=Mary Rose}}</ref> "Since she was not burdened with any domestic duties expected of her sisters, Barrett Browning could now devote herself entirely to the life of the mind, cultivating an enormous correspondence, reading widely".<ref name="Pollock, Mary Sanders 2003">{{cite book|author=Mary Sanders Pollock|title=Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning: a creative partnership|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IfuY5sdwphYC|access-date=22 October 2011|year=2003|publisher=Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.|isbn=978-0-7546-3328-0}}</ref> Her prolific output made her a rival to [[Alfred, Lord Tennyson|Tennyson]] as a candidate for poet laureate in 1850 on the death of [[William Wordsworth|Wordsworth]].<ref name="ONDB"/>

A [[Royal Society of Arts]] [[blue plaque]] now commemorates Elizabeth at 50 Wimpole Street.<ref name="EngHet">{{cite web|url=http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/discover/blue-plaques/search/barrett-elizabeth-barrett-1806-1861-a.k.a.-elizabeth-barrett-browning|title=Barrett, Elizabeth Barrett (1806–1861)|publisher=English Heritage|access-date=23 October 2012}}</ref>

===Robert Browning and Italy===
[[File:Elizabeth Barrett Browning with her son Pen.jpg|thumb|right|Elizabeth Barrett Browning with her son Pen, 1860]]
[[File:Clasped Hands of Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning MET DT8282.jpg|thumb|''[[Clasped Hands of Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning]]'', 1853 by [[Harriet Hosmer]].]]
Her 1844 volume ''Poems'' made her one of the more popular writers in the country and inspired [[Robert Browning]] to write to her. He wrote "I love your verses with all my heart, dear Miss Barrett," praising their "fresh strange music, the affluent language, the exquisite pathos and true new brave thought."<ref name="ONDB"/>

Kenyon arranged for Browning to meet Elizabeth on 20 May 1845, in her rooms, and so began one of the most famous courtships in literature. Elizabeth had produced a large amount of work, but Browning had a great influence on her subsequent writing as did she on his: Two of Barrett's most famous pieces were written after she met Browning, ''[[Sonnets from the Portuguese]]''<ref name="Burr">{{cite book|author=Elizabeth Barrett Browning|title=Sonnets from the Portuguese: A Celebration of Love|date=15 August 1986|publisher=St. Martin's Press|isbn=978-0-312-74501-1|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/sonnetsfromportu00brow_1}}</ref> and ''Aurora Leigh''. Robert's ''[[Men and Women (poetry collection)|Men and Women]]'' is also a product of that time.

Some critics state that her activity was, in some ways, in decay before she met Browning: "Until her relationship with Robert Browning began in 1845, Barrett's willingness to engage in public discourse about social issues and about aesthetic issues in poetry, which had been so strong in her youth, gradually diminished, as did her physical health. As an intellectual presence and a physical being, she was becoming a shadow of herself."<ref name="Pollock, Mary Sanders 2003"/>

[[File:Lettre de Robert Browning à Elizabeth Barrett Browning datée en 1846.jpg|left|thumb|Letter from [[Robert Browning]] to Elizabeth Barrett, 10 September 1846]]

The courtship and marriage between Robert Browning and Elizabeth were made secretly as she knew her father would disapprove. After a private marriage at [[St Marylebone Parish Church]], they honeymooned in Paris and then moved to Italy in September 1846, which became their home almost continuously until her death. Elizabeth's loyal [[lady's maid]] Elizabeth Wilson witnessed the marriage and accompanied the couple to Italy.<ref name="ONDB"/>

Mr Barrett disinherited Elizabeth as he did each of his children who married. Elizabeth had foreseen her father's anger but had not anticipated her brothers' rejection.<ref name="ONDB"/> As Elizabeth had some money of her own, the couple were reasonably comfortable in Italy. The Brownings were well respected and even famous. Elizabeth grew stronger, and in 1849, at the age of 43, between four miscarriages, she gave birth to a son, [[Robert Barrett Browning|Robert Wiedeman Barrett Browning]], whom they called Pen. Their son later married, but had no legitimate children.{{Citation needed|date=October 2024}}

At her husband's insistence, Elizabeth's second edition of ''Poems'' included her love sonnets; as a result, her popularity increased (as did critical regard), and her artistic position was confirmed. During the years of her marriage, her literary reputation far surpassed that of her poet-husband; when visitors came to their home in Florence, she was invariably the greater attraction.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Foundation |first=Poetry |date=25 May 2023 |title=Elizabeth Barrett Browning |url=https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/elizabeth-barrett-browning |access-date=25 May 2023 |website=Poetry Foundation |language=en}}</ref>

The couple came to know a wide circle of artists and writers, including [[William Makepeace Thackeray]], sculptor [[Harriet Hosmer]] (who, she wrote, seemed to be the "perfectly emancipated female") and [[Harriet Beecher Stowe]]. In 1849, she met [[Margaret Fuller]]; Carlyle in 1851; French novelist [[George Sand]] in 1852, whom she had long admired. Among her intimate friends in Florence was the writer [[Isa Blagden]], whom she encouraged to write novels.<ref>"Isa Blagden", in: ''The Brownings' Correspondence''. [http://www.browningscorrespondence.com/biographical-sketches/?id=123. Retrieved 13 May 2015.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304031817/http://www.browningscorrespondence.com/biographical-sketches/?id=123. |date=4 March 2016 }}</ref> They met [[Alfred, Lord Tennyson|Alfred Tennyson]] in Paris, and [[John Forster (biographer)|John Forster]], [[Samuel Rogers]] and the Carlyles in London, later befriending [[Charles Kingsley]] and [[John Ruskin]].<ref name="ONDB"/>

===Decline and death===
[[File:Tomb - Elizabeth Barrett Browning.jpg|thumb|right|Elizabeth Barrett Browning's tomb, [[English Cemetery, Florence]]. 2007]]

After the death of an old friend, G. B. Hunter, and then of her father, Barrett Browning's health started to deteriorate. The Brownings moved from Florence to Siena, residing at the ''Villa Alberti''. Engrossed in Italian politics, she issued a small volume of political poems titled ''Poems before Congress'' (1860) "most of which were written to express her sympathy with [[Risorgimento|the Italian cause]] after [[Second Italian War of Independence|the outbreak of fighting in 1859]]".<ref name="Donaldson"/> They caused a furore in Britain, and the conservative magazines ''[[Blackwood's Magazine|Blackwood's]]'' and the ''[[Saturday Review (London)|Saturday Review]]'' labelled her a fanatic.<ref>{{Cite ODNB |title=Browning [née Moulton Barrett], Elizabeth Barrett (1806–1861), poet and writer |url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-3711 |access-date=2025-03-19 |date=2004 |language=en |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/3711}}</ref> She dedicated this book to her husband. Her last work was ''A Musical Instrument'', published posthumously.

Barrett Browning's sister Henrietta died in November 1860. The couple spent the winter of 1860–1861 in Rome where Barrett Browning's health deteriorated, and they returned to Florence in early June 1861.<ref name="ONDB"/> She became gradually weaker, using morphine to ease her pain. She died on 29 June 1861 in her husband's arms. Browning said that she died "smilingly, happily, and with a face like a girl's...Her last word was...'Beautiful' ".<ref name="ONDB"/> She was buried in the Protestant [[English Cemetery of Florence]].<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.poetsgraves.co.uk/barrett-_browning.htm| title = Poetsgraves.co.uk}}</ref> "On Monday July 1 the shops in the area around Casa Guidi were closed, while Elizabeth was mourned with unusual demonstrations."<ref name="ReferenceA"/> The nature of her illness is still unclear. Some modern scientists speculate her illness may have been [[hypokalemic periodic paralysis]], a genetic disorder that causes weakness and many of the other symptoms she described.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Buchanan|first=A|author2=Weiss, EB|title=Of sad and wished-for years: Elizabeth Barrett Browning's lifelong illness|journal=Perspect Biol Med|date=Autumn 2011|volume=54|issue=4|pages=479–503|pmid=22019536|doi=10.1353/pbm.2011.0040|s2cid=32949896}}</ref>

===Publications===
[[File:ElizabethBarrettBrowning.jpg|thumb|right|An engraving of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, published in ''Eclectic Magazine'']]
Barrett Browning's first known poem "On the Cruelty of Forcement to Man" was written at the age of 6 or 8.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VdJCp3RDkR0C&q=on+the+cruelty+of+forcement+to+man%2C+elizabeth+barrett&pg=PA49|work =Elizbeth Barrett Browning Selected Poems|title=On the Cruelty of Forcement to Man Alluding to the Press Gang|isbn =9781770481237|last1 =Browning|first1 =Elizabeth Barrett|date =30 July 2009}}</ref> The manuscript, which protests against [[impressment]], is currently in the [[Berg Collection]] of the [[New York Public Library]]; the exact date is controversial because the "2" in the date 1812 is written over something else that is scratched out.<ref name="Donaldson">{{cite book|author=Elizabeth Barrett Browning|title="The" works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning|year=2010|publisher=Pickering & Chatto |isbn=978-1-85196-900-5}}</ref>

Her first independent publication was "Stanzas Excited by Reflections on the Present State of Greece" in ''[[The New Monthly Magazine]]'' of May 1821;<ref name="ONDB"/> followed two months later by "Thoughts Awakened by Contemplating a Piece of the Palm which Grows on the Summit of the Acropolis at Athens".<ref name="Donaldson"/>

Her first collection of poems, ''An Essay on Mind, with Other Poems,'' was published in 1826 and reflected her passion for Byron and [[Politics of Greece|Greek politics]].<ref name="Donaldson"/> Its publication drew the attention of [[Hugh Stuart Boyd]], a blind scholar of the Greek language, and of [[Uvedale Price]], another Greek scholar,  with whom she maintained sustained correspondence.<ref name="ONDB"/> Among other neighbours was Mrs James Martin from Colwall, with whom she corresponded throughout her life. Later, at Boyd's suggestion, she translated [[Aeschylus]]' ''[[Prometheus Bound]]'' (published in 1833; retranslated in 1850). During their friendship, Barrett studied Greek literature, including [[Homer]], [[Pindar]] and [[Aristophanes]].<ref name="ONDB"/>

Elizabeth [[Abolitionism in the United Kingdom|opposed slavery]] and published two poems highlighting the barbarity of the institution and her support for the abolitionist cause: "The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim's Point" and "A Curse for a Nation". The first depicts an enslaved woman whipped, raped, and made pregnant cursing her enslavers.<ref name="ONDB"/> Elizabeth declared herself glad that the slaves were "virtually free" when the [[Slavery Abolition Act 1833|Slavery Abolition Act]] passed in the [[Parliament of the United Kingdom|British Parliament]] despite the fact that her father believed that [[Abolitionism in the United Kingdom|abolition]] would ruin his business.{{Citation needed|date=October 2024}}

The date of publication of these poems is in dispute, but her position on slavery in the poems is clear and may have led to a rift between Elizabeth and her father. She wrote to [[John Ruskin]] in 1855 "I belong to a family of West Indian slaveholders, and if I believed in curses, I should be afraid". Her father and uncle were unaffected by the [[Baptist War]] (1831–1832) and continued to own slaves until passage of the Slavery Abolition Act.<ref name="ONDB"/>

In London, John Kenyon introduced Elizabeth to literary figures including [[William Wordsworth]], [[Mary Russell Mitford]], [[Samuel Taylor Coleridge]], [[Alfred, Lord Tennyson|Alfred Tennyson]] and [[Thomas Carlyle]]. Elizabeth continued to write, contributing "The Romaunt of Margaret", "The Romaunt of the Page", "The Poet's Vow" and other pieces to various periodicals. She corresponded with other writers, including [[Mary Russell Mitford]], who became a close friend and who supported Elizabeth's literary ambitions.<ref name="ONDB"/>

In 1838 ''The Seraphim and Other Poems'' appeared, the first volume of Elizabeth's mature poetry to appear under her own name.

''[[Sonnets from the Portuguese]]'' was published in 1850. There is debate about the origin of the title. Some say it refers to the series of sonnets of the 16th-century Portuguese poet [[Luís de Camões]]. However, "my little Portuguese" was a pet name that Browning had adopted for Elizabeth and this may have some connection.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Wall|first1=Jennifer Kingma|title=Love and Marriage: How Biographical Interpretation affected the Reception of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's "Sonnets from the Portuguese" (1850)|url=http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/ebb/wall1.html|website=The Victorian Web|access-date=2 January 2015|quote="the title was actually a reference to a term of endearment Robert had for Elizabeth, my little Portuguese, a reference to her dark complexion"}}</ref>

The verse-novel ''Aurora Leigh'', her most ambitious and perhaps the most popular of her longer poems, appeared in 1856. It is the story of a female writer making her way in life, balancing work and love, and based on Elizabeth's own experiences. ''Aurora Leigh'' was an important influence on [[Susan B. Anthony]]'s thinking about the traditional roles of women, with regard to marriage versus independent individuality.<ref>{{cite book|author=Alma Lutz| title=Susan B. Anthony Rebel, Crusader, Humanitarian|url=https://archive.org/details/susanbanthonyreb00lutz|url-access=registration|year=1959|publisher=Boston, Beacon Press}}</ref> The ''[[North American Review]]'' praised Elizabeth's poem: "Mrs. Browning's poems are, in all respects, the utterance of a woman — of a woman of great learning, rich experience, and powerful genius, uniting to her woman's nature the strength which is sometimes thought peculiar to a man."<ref>{{cite book|author=Elizabeth Barrett Browning|title=Aurora Leigh, and other poems|year=2001|publisher=Women's Press|isbn=978-0-7043-3820-3}}</ref>