Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Born on March 6, 1806, Elizabeth Barrett Browning grew up in England and became one of the most admired poets of the Victorian era. She published poetry from a young age and built a reputation for work that combined lyric feeling with serious thought, helping make her widely read in Britain and the United States during her lifetime.

She is especially remembered for Sonnets from the Portuguese, inspired by her courtship with fellow poet Robert Browning, and for Aurora Leigh, a long poem that is often noted for its bold treatment of a woman's artistic life. Her writing also engaged with public issues, including slavery and social injustice, which gave her poetry a moral force as well as a personal one.

After marrying Robert Browning, she settled in Italy, where she continued to write until her death in Florence on June 29, 1861. Interest in her work has remained strong, with later readers and scholars recognizing both her literary influence and her importance as a major woman poet in English.