Editing Elizabeth Barrett Browning (section)

===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>