With an Introduction & Notes by Dr Sally Minogue Elizabeth Barrett Browning was such an acclaimed poet in her own lifetime that she was suggested as a candidate for the Poet Laureateship when Wordsworth died in 1850 Yet today we have only a limited knowledge of her considerable life's work as a poet in part because of a lack of representative but accessible editions of her work Readers will find here not only her well-known sonnet sequence of love poems Sonnets From the Portuguese but also lesser known sonnets some in praise of the cross-dressing bohemian writer George Sand others to contemporary poets & artists Her religious & spiritual poetry echoes that of the Metaphysical poets A different voice emerges in her social & political protest poems such as The Cry of the Children' & The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim's Point' Her experimental ballads allowed her to develop a distinctive way of writing about women within an apparently conventional form In the outstanding work of her maturity Aurora Leigh the woman's voice takes centre stage This novel-poem' is full of verve & interest with a female poet-hero who casts a caustic eye on life & on her fellow men
- & women We all think we know the story of Elizabeth Barrett Browning
- the mysterious illness which enclosed her in her room her over-loving but imperious father & her romantic secret marriage to the poet Robert Browning & their life together in Italy But this comprehensive selection of her poetry tells the real story of her sustained creative life as a poet which began with her childhood poetic ambitions & ended only with her death All the major aspects of her poetry are represented in this accessible edition which is well-annotated & contextualised with a wide-ranging introduction which covers Barrett Browning's poetic & intellectual life as well as her personal one Recent critical re-readings including major feminist reassessments of her poetry are covered in the introduction with helpful suggestions for further reading