Editing Elizabeth Barrett Browning (section)

===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>