Summary: <p><strong>Robert Browning</strong> (7 May 1812 – 12 December 1889) was an English poet and playwright whose <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dramatic_monologue" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">dramatic monologues</a> put him among the foremost <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victorian_literature" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Victorian poets</a>. His poems are noted for <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irony" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">irony</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Characterization" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">characterization</a>, dark humour, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_commentary" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">social commentary</a>, historical settings and challenging <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vocabulary" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">vocabulary</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syntax" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">syntax</a>. His career began well, but shrank for a time. The long poems <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pauline:_A_Fragment_of_a_Confession" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Pauline</em></a> (1833) and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paracelsus_(poem)" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Paracelsus</em></a> (1835) were acclaimed, but in 1840 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sordello_(poem)" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Sordello</em></a>was seen as wilfully obscure. His renown took over a decade to return, by which time he had moved from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percy_Bysshe_Shelley" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Shelleyan</a> forms to a more personal style. In 1846 Browning married the older poet <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Barrett_Browning" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Elizabeth Barrett</a> and went to live in Italy. By her death in 1861 he had published the collection <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Men_and_Women_(poetry_collection)" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Men and Women</em></a> (1855). His <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dramatis_Person%C3%A6_(poetry_collection)" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Dramatis Personae</em></a> (1864) and book-length <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_poetry" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">epic poem</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ring_and_the_Book" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>The Ring and the Book</em></a> (1868–1869) made him a leading British poet. He continued to write prolifically, but his reputation today rests mainly on his middle period. By his death in 1889, he was seen as a sage and philosopher-poet who had fed into Victorian social and political discourse. Societies for studying his work formed in his lifetime and survived in Britain and the United States into the 20th century.</p><br><p><strong>Bio via Wikipedia</strong></p><br><hr><p style="color:grey;font-size:0.75em;"> See <a style="color:grey;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://acast.com/privacy">acast.com/privacy</a> for privacy and opt-out information.</p>
