Robert Browning

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that Robert Browning's peerless reputation among Victorian poets is linked primarily to four volumes of poetry he published over a period of twenty years during the mid-19th century. The author points out that Browning's most famous poetic form of choice is the dramatic monologue, which is a poem that is written in the voice of another person, as exemplified in poems such as "My Last Duchess" . The paper relates that Browning's poems are portraits of individuals, rather than searching self-explorations; however, these portraits tackle critical issues, which concerned the poet, such as political corruption, religious intolerance and outmoded conceptions about women.

From the Paper:

"Interestingly enough, although "the central problem in Browning's love poetry is invariably one of communication between the sexes", Browning's own marriage to a fellow poet was quite happy. He married the (at the time) more famous Elizabeth Barrett Browning, after admiring her poetry, and encouraging her to elope from what was an oppressive relationship with a domineering father. The two of them escaped to Italy, making the words of one of Browning's few lyrics, "Home," written in the voice of an evident expatriate, ironic and poignant."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Houston, Natalie M. "Affecting Authenticity: Studies in the Portuguese and Modern Love." Studies in the Literary Imagination. Fall 2002.
• Johnson, E.D.H. The Alien Vision of Victorian Poetry: Sources of the Poetic Imagination in Tennyson, Browning, and Arnold. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1952.
• Langbaum, Robert. The Poetry of Experience. 4th Edition. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1985.

More papers on Robert Browning:

• Poem Review # 136101 : "Robert Browning's "Porphyria's Lover"
• Poem Review # 90083 : " Robert Browning's "Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister"
• Analytical Essay # 83559 : "Robert Browning's "Pippa Passes"
• Analytical Essay # 55056 : "Robert Browning's Poetry"

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