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Robert Browning's Poetry Term Paper

¶ … English literature. Robert Browning. Before providing the details and evidences of the poetry of Browning, the paper would introduce a short biography so that the background information regarding the poet's nature and his attitude towards life can be noted. The characteristics and the personality traits of Browning will be included in the study. Special attention to the various aspects of Robert Browning's poetry would be emphasized and elaborated in the paper. Robert Browning was born in Camberwell, London, the son of a well-educated bank clerk. He was taught privately by his father but also studied for two terms at London University. He wrote poetry from an early age and was strongly influenced by the Romantic poets, particularly Shelley, and by historical events. In 1846 he secretly married Elizabeth Barrett, with whom he had started an enthusiastic literary correspondence two years earlier and they eloped to Florence. Browning returned to England following her death in 1861." http://www.englishverse.com/poets/browning_robert

The background and details of Robert Browning signifies the fact that he was the son of a clerk. He developed his interest in writing from an early age and later on he developed his talent, and finally he became known for the collection of his poems, which are still remembered and appreciated by the readers all around the world. As soon as he grew up he wrote immense books and poems and at a point of time, he, met lady Elizabeth with whom he worked for almost two years and finally got married with her. After his marriage he went to France and he continued writing there also. He came back to England after the death of his wife.

Robert Browning is known to the general public as the writer of "The Pied Piper," the hero of the play, The Barretts of Wimpole Street -- and little more. However, he is buried in London's Westminster Abbey among the very greatest figures in British history. Who then was this Robert Browning who at his death at age 77 had risen to the heights of English literary society from his comparatively modest beginnings in the south London village of Camberwell" http://www.browninglibrary.org/rbrowning.htm

The poetry "Pied paper" is Robert's most famous works and the people know him as the writer of this poem. History and the researches regarding the life of Robert Browning declares that he became immensely popular amongst the masses, and he gained the highest regard from the English literary society just because of his writings and creative abilities.

Indeed, most of the poet's education came at home. He was an extremely bright child and a voracious reader (he read through all fifty volumes of the Biographies Universelle) and learned Latin, Greek, French and Italian by the time he was fourteen. He attended the University of London in 1828, the first year it opened, but left in discontent to pursue his own reading at his own pace. This somewhat idiosyncratic but extensive education has led to difficulties for his readers: he did not always realize how obscure were his references and allusions." http://www.scholars.nus.edu.sg/landow/victorian/authors/rb/rbbio.html

Robert's talent was enhanced and groomed because since his childhood he was an excellent reader and he knew many languages. Robert made use of these languages in his poetry due to which his poetries became popular as compared to the poets of his age. The audiences and readers widely appreciate Robert's poetry because of the quality and content and the ideas, which the poet has put into his poems.

Evidences and details prove that Robert had a desire and an ambition to become a poet and therefore, he made every attempt to make his dream come true. It was all an inspiration, which he followed, and this inspiration became the source of Robert's development as a poet. The number of Browning's poetry is more than the number of poetries of any other poet of his age. This clearly shows that Robert Browning desired to become a poet and he worked hard to achieve the status of recognized and renowned poet of the English literary society.

ANALYTICAL ASPECTS OF ROBERT'S POETRY:

The importance of Robert Browning's poetry can be identified by the fact that even today articles are written on his poetry and his characteristics."The two longer studies published this year are books in series. Stefan Hawlin's admirable Complete Critical Guide to Robert Browning appears in the Routledge Critical Guide Series (London, 2002). Sarah Wood's Robert Browning:...

This coincidence further confirms that the market for monographs is increasingly shaped by the reluctance of university presses to take on single-author studies" http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5000673664
The poems of Robert Browning are an example of his excellent creative writing abilities. These poems reflect the poet's vision, ideas and thoughts. Almost all his poems show the degree of optimism, which the poet had. Although there were many criticism made on the writing style of the poet yet he managed to escape out from these criticisms and always provided his best in each and every poem, which he wrote.

In 1835, Browning published the lengthy dramatic poem Paracelsus, essentially a series of monologues spoken by the Swiss doctor and alchemist Paracelsus and his friends. Published under Browning's own name, in an edition financed by his father, the poem was a small commercial and critical success and marked his induction into London literary society. Around this time the young poet was very much in demand in literary circles for his ready wit and flamboyant sense of style, and he embarked upon two ill-considered ventures: a series of plays for the theatre, all of which were dismally unsuccessful and none of which are much remembered today

Pauline: A Fragment of a Confession (1833)

Paracelsus (1835)

Strafford (play) (1837)

Sordello (1840)

Bells and Pomegranates No. I: Pippa Passes (play) (1841)

Bells and Pomegranates No. II: King Victor and King Charles (play) (1842)

Bells and Pomegranates No. III: Dramatic Lyrics (1842) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Browning

Robert Browning was amongst those poets who managed to write longer and lengthy poems and these poems were also appreciated by the readers in the same spirit as the shorter poems were. The readings and analysis of these poems reveals that Robert had used his creative and flamboyant writing style to develop these poems and due to such writing style he became very famous and renowned amongst the other poets in the literary society. Robert also possessed a versatile nature and according to this nature he also stepped in the field of writing plays for the theaters but he became unsuccessful in this task. The above piece of information has included a list of some of the most renowned poems of Robert Browning, which are still read and understood by the students, and readers of the English literature.

Melancholia, mourning, narcissism, religious belief, the poet's power. This year's essays on Robert Browning's poetry have returned to the territory that so fascinated the late Victorians. What lies beyond death? How do art, eros, and theology shape our notions of the infinite and the finite, of the life in time and something else beyond or within it? Although this has been the thinnest year in many for Robert Browning studies, yielding a clutch of articles, many of them limited in scope, the essayists of Browning's work have returned as if by coincidence to central questions of art and the spiritual and physical life." http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5000943946

The analytical aspects of Robert Browning's poetry are broadly discussed in the articles of the present day, these aspects points out towards the notion that Robert was a poet who made use of logic in his poetries and this logic was further presented to the readers and audiences so that they could gain information on various topics. Robert's poetry consists of a distinguished and creative style of writing. His poems were based on both sentiments and expression these aspects are mostly liked and understood by the readers and hence, the writings of Robert became popular amongst the masses.

Metrical composition, and his ease and grace in the use of the heroic couplet are the most important analytical aspects of Robert's poetry, due to these aspects Robert's poem acclaimed wide appreciation and praise. These attributes, aspects and characteristics were uniquely found in the poems of Robert Browning.

The historical evidences regarding the life and poems of Robert shows that he was also helped by us wife in his writing and "Barrett and Browning certainly seem to have been made for each other. Both born studious and talented, they prodigies: mastering certain areas of knowledge years in advance of there supposed peers. The situations in which they learned, however, could not have been more different. Barrett studied under house arrest. Seldom leaving the comfort of her room, she learned Greek, Latin, French, Italian and Portuguese. In each of these languages she found numerous books to read for pleasure. She also studied Hebrew in order to read the Old Testament in its original language. Her father is historically regarded as an over-bearing prison warden who forbade Elizabeth a normal life in favor of the Emily Dickinson method-isolation." http://caxton.stockton.edu/browning/stories/storyReader$8

Barret made use of…

Sources used in this document:
Works Cited

As retrieved from Robert Browning 1812-1889

http://www.browninglibrary.org/rbrowning.htm. On 18 April, 2004

As retrieved from Robert Browning's Biography The Best Is Yet to Be http://caxton.stockton.edu/browning/stories/storyReader$8On 18 April, 2004

As retrieved from The Life Of Robert Browning: A Critical Biography
http://www.cswnet.com/~erin/rb4.htm. On 18 April, 2004
As retrieved from Robert Browning From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia On http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Browning18 April 2004
http://www.englishverse.com/poets/browning_robertOn 18 April, 2004
http://www.firstscience.com/SITE/poems/browning1.aspOn 18 April, 2004
http://www.scholars.nus.edu.sg/landow/victorian/authors/rb/rbbio.html. On 18 April, 2004
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