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Aurora Leigh and Other Poems
Aurora Leigh (1856), Elizabeth Barrett Browning's epic novel in blank verse, tells the story of the making of a woman poet, exploring 'the woman question', art and its relation to politics and social oppression. The texts in this selection are based in the main on the earliest printed versions of the poems. What Edgar Allan Poe called 'her wild and magnificent genius' is abundantly in evidence. In addition to Aurora Leigh, this volume contains poetry from the several volumes of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's published poetry from 1826 to 1862, including Casa Guidi Windows (1851), Songs for the Ragged Schools of London (1854) and the British Library manuscript text of the 'Sonnets from the Portuguese' (1846) which records her courtship with Robert Browning.
For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
544 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1856
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About the author
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
985 books699 followersElizabeth Barrett Browning was one of the most respected poets of the Victorian era.
Born in County Durham, the eldest of 12 children, Browning was educated at home. She wrote poetry from around the age of six and this was compiled by her mother, comprising what is now one of the largest collections extant of juvenilia by any English writer. At 15 Browning became ill, suffering from intense head and spinal pain for the rest of her life, rendering her frail. She took laudanum for the pain, which may have led to a lifelong addiction and contributed to her weak health.
In the 1830s Barrett's cousin John Kenyon introduced her to prominent literary figures of the day such as William Wordsworth, Mary Russell Mitford, Samuel Taylor Coleridge; Alfred, Lord Tennyson, and Thomas Carlyle. Browning's first adult collection The Seraphim and Other Poems was published in 1838. During this time she contracted a disease, possibly tuberculosis, which weakened her further. Living at Wimpole Street, in London, Browning wrote prolifically between 1841 and 1844, producing poetry, translation and prose. She campaigned for the abolition of slavery and her work helped influence reform in child labour legislation. Her prolific output made her a rival to Tennyson as a candidate for poet laureate on the death of Wordsworth.
Browning's volume Poems (1844) brought her great success. During this time she met and corresponded with the writer Robert Browning, who admired her work. The courtship and marriage between the two were carried out in secret, for fear of her father's disapproval. Following the wedding she was disinherited by her father and rejected by her brothers. The couple moved to Italy in 1846, where she would live for the rest of her life. They had one son, Robert Barrett Browning, whom they called Pen. Towards the end of her life, her lung function worsened, and she died in Florence in 1861. A collection of her last poems was published by her husband shortly after her death.
Browning was brought up in a strongly religious household, and much of her work carries a Christian theme. Her work had a major influence on prominent writers of the day, including the American poets Edgar Allan Poe and Emily Dickinson. She is remembered for such poems as "How Do I Love Thee?" (Sonnet 43, 1845) and Aurora Leigh (1856).
Born in County Durham, the eldest of 12 children, Browning was educated at home. She wrote poetry from around the age of six and this was compiled by her mother, comprising what is now one of the largest collections extant of juvenilia by any English writer. At 15 Browning became ill, suffering from intense head and spinal pain for the rest of her life, rendering her frail. She took laudanum for the pain, which may have led to a lifelong addiction and contributed to her weak health.
In the 1830s Barrett's cousin John Kenyon introduced her to prominent literary figures of the day such as William Wordsworth, Mary Russell Mitford, Samuel Taylor Coleridge; Alfred, Lord Tennyson, and Thomas Carlyle. Browning's first adult collection The Seraphim and Other Poems was published in 1838. During this time she contracted a disease, possibly tuberculosis, which weakened her further. Living at Wimpole Street, in London, Browning wrote prolifically between 1841 and 1844, producing poetry, translation and prose. She campaigned for the abolition of slavery and her work helped influence reform in child labour legislation. Her prolific output made her a rival to Tennyson as a candidate for poet laureate on the death of Wordsworth.
Browning's volume Poems (1844) brought her great success. During this time she met and corresponded with the writer Robert Browning, who admired her work. The courtship and marriage between the two were carried out in secret, for fear of her father's disapproval. Following the wedding she was disinherited by her father and rejected by her brothers. The couple moved to Italy in 1846, where she would live for the rest of her life. They had one son, Robert Barrett Browning, whom they called Pen. Towards the end of her life, her lung function worsened, and she died in Florence in 1861. A collection of her last poems was published by her husband shortly after her death.
Browning was brought up in a strongly religious household, and much of her work carries a Christian theme. Her work had a major influence on prominent writers of the day, including the American poets Edgar Allan Poe and Emily Dickinson. She is remembered for such poems as "How Do I Love Thee?" (Sonnet 43, 1845) and Aurora Leigh (1856).
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
November 25, 2021
Certainly an accomplished poet, and an important Victorian exemplar, and a very interesting life and epic love for Robert Browning, yet I don't find myself blown over by her work. Admiration but more like the marble effigy on my cover, I admire without emotional connection.
December 9, 2023
For all I know, there might be many works by women poets that compare in size with John Milton’s epic poem, Paradise Lost. As it is, I can only think of one such poem, and that is because I have just read it.
The poem is Aurora Leigh by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. While the poem compares in length to Paradise Lost, it is to Milton’s detriment when viewed on that scale. Aurora Leigh is in fact longer than Paradise Lost. It is longer than The Odyssey, for that matter. The poem is so long that it occupies almost two-thirds of this volume of EBB’s poetry.
Nonetheless, despite some classical imagery, I would not say that Aurora Leigh is an epic poem – just a very long one. It does not deal with war (The Iliad), a long journey around many sights (The Odyssey), the foundation of Rome (The Aeneid) or the fight between God and Satan (Paradise Lost).
Instead the subject matter of Aurora Leigh is more modest in scope. There are two main strands to Aurora Leigh. The first is that of a woman struggling to become a poet in a world dominated by men who do not think that women have the talent to write good poetry.
The second strand is that of Aurora’s relationship to her cousin Romney Brown. Romney Brown is a political idealist with a social conscience. Aurora may or may not love Romney, but she refuses a marriage because he is too bound up in his political causes, and he does not respect her as a writer.
Aurora watches while Romney prepares to marry the lower-class Marian Erie, more or less as a point of principle rather than for true love. There is another rival for Romney’s attention, the aristocratic Lady Waldemar. She does not wish to see Romney marry beneath him, but only because she wants Romney for herself.
I first came across Aurora Leigh at university more than 30 years ago, when it was praised by an academic establishment who saw all books in terms of Marxist and feminist criteria. Aurora Leigh deals with social issues, and with women’s issues, but is it really a poem that ticks the right boxes for the socialist or feminist? Let’s look at the evidence.
EBB certainly cared about social issues. Some of the other poems in this volume reflect her concerns. ‘The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim’s Point’ and ‘Hiram Powers’ Greek Slave’ both show EBB to be an abolitionist. I am not sure that ‘Cry of the Children’ really influenced legislation to protect against child labour, but it was certainly written at an opportune time when the government was about to act against children forced to work in mines.
Overall EBB is sympathetic enough to social and even socialistic concerns, but not overly supportive or understanding of them. She over-idealises Marian Erie. She makes Romney her hero, but only on condition that he is ultimately proven wrong.
At every turn Aurora’s criticisms of Romney’s social crusading proves justified. He wishes to marry beneath him, but the attempt ends in failure and almost tragedy. When the wedding falls through, the very working men whose cause he has espoused seem ready to threaten him.
When Romney turns his home into a refuge for the poor, a mob burns his home to the ground, mistaking it for a prison. Romney is then blinded by the father of the poor woman he wished to marry.
What does EBB think of all this? She clearly imagines that such crusading is a waste of time because the world is corrupt. Here her religious views get in the way of her beliefs, as they will do throughout this volume.
EBB was highly spiritual, and drenches her poetry in religious sentiment, something that would eventually cause divisions in her marriage to Robert Browning. She is essentially bigoted against other religious views and atheism (which hardly endears me to her) and cannot write plainly about any issue without bringing her god into it.
In the case of Aurora Leigh, it would appear that EBB thinks it is presumptuous of Romney and other reformers to try to vastly improve the world because God has left it so. Lady Waldemar’s reputation for ‘goodness’ must be false because nobody is good. Romney is doomed to fail because he is concentrating on the material good of poor people, and not their spiritual welfare.
Such an argument could hardly please a Marxist in truth. I am not a Marxist, but I would agree with the Marxist view that you have to deal with people’s material shortages before you can get them to consider any higher aims: “Food is the first thing; morals follow on,’ as Bertolt Brecht could have told her. Indeed religion here is an excuse for doing very little to help poor people.
Still EBB is not totally in the wrong in her critique of Romney Leigh. He is a man influenced by principles and ideals rather than someone who is following his heart and doing what he wishes. That level of fanaticism is unhealthy and does not lead to good decisions, or to genuine warmth and humanity.
Onto the feminist critique of Aurora Leigh. There are some interesting ideas here that will please the feminist. Aurora refuses marriage to a man who will not respect her writing as a woman. She struggles throughout the poem with her place as a female poet in a man’s world, not thought to have the depth or the talent to write poems that are equal to those of a man.
We must also note the presence of Marian Erle. She begins as a satellite to Romney, but after she refuses to marry him, her life goes in a different direction. She is raped and impregnated, left with the stigma of an illegitimate child. It is Aurora who comes in to help Marian, and together they form a family unit free of any man. When Marian has the chance to marry Romney again, she refuses the opportunity.
Here are some aspects that might not seem to match a feminist reading of Aurora Leigh. Firstly the poem revolves around the man, Romney Leigh, and the relationship of the three women to him. All we learn about Aurora Leigh is her poetry, and how she stands in relationship to Romney and the other women who vie for his attention. She does not have much of a life outside of this.
Aurora is also limited in her views towards Marian. Marian can only be forgiven because she was impregnated against her will. If Marian had become pregnant through her own actions then Aurora would have felt it was ok to condemn her.
It is true that Aurora resists Romney’s attentions until he has been humbled (he accepts the quality of her poetry, and admits the wrongness of his ideals) and emasculated (like Rochester in Jane Eyre, he has been blinded). Nonetheless it still seems to be the case that Aurora can only be completed when she has a man. She is dissatisfied with her poetry, and it is only at the end when she agrees to marry Romney that she believes she will be able to write great poetry.
So much for the social content. Is Aurora Leigh great poetry? EBB uses it as a manifesto to describe her style of poetry. She wishes to write about her own concerns. She does not wish to be limited by mere artifices of form, which may explain why Aurora Leigh is a teasing 9 books instead of something tidier like 10. She does not want to write poems about a classical past that seems out of date when she could write about contemporary issues (sorry, Tennyson).
This is admirable, but Aurora Leigh has its flaws. There is some turgid moralising. EBB often expresses herself in a roundabout manner that is drawn out and difficult to read. As a result large sections of Aurora Leigh seem to float off in vague abstractions.
This is all the worse when it involves dialogue by the main characters. It seems hard to imagine, Aurora, Romney, Lady Waldemar and even the working-class Marian all speaking in this high-flown manner.
Overall though Aurora Leigh is a remarkable piece of writing. Whatever the limits of EBB’s thinking, the poem was socially progressive for its day. Whatever the limits of its writing, Aurora Leigh is a fascinating poem that bears re-reading.
The other poems in this collection are somewhat mixed. I am not too enthusiastic about poems that praise individuals. EBB’s long poems espousing liberation in Italy contain too many classical allusions, thereby rendering them a little dull.
I liked EBB’S socially aware poems, but wished she would tone down the religiosity of them. She seems to be aware that slaves and children who work down mines are likely to be alienated from a belief in a god, but does not have much to say about the god that failed to protect them.
The best of the shorter poems here is her sonnet cycle, ‘Sonnets from the Portuguese’. Despite the title the poems are not translations. This is to throw people off the scent from realising just how personal the poems are. Perhaps there is some wish to cover up the fact that they come from the inspiration of a female poet. Even Robert Browning thought that women could not write sonnets.
There are one or two justly famous sonnets here, including perennial favourite ‘How do I love thee, let me count the ways’. The sonnets describe the courtship of the Brownings, and give us a good insight into EBB’s mind.
It would seem that EBB was a melancholic figure who only had death to look forward to until she met Robert. She did have many illnesses in her life, and was to die young, notably at a point when her marital relations were no longer as good as they had been.
Robert seems to have been her salvation for a while, the man who gave her something to live for. While EBB’s god is never far from any of her poetry, the message of the sonnet cycle is curious. EBB seemed to feel that with Robert in her world, her life was worth living again. She rejects the comforts of going to heaven or having other-worldly consolations. For all her piety, even EBB ultimately chose the happiness offered by this world.
EBB wrote few truly great works but she did write some very decent poetry. This selection is a good sample of her works. I would add that the introduction and notes at the end are not especially helpful to anyone hoping to understand more about the poems. Then again perhaps that will give you the chance to enjoy her poetry without any intermediary.
The poem is Aurora Leigh by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. While the poem compares in length to Paradise Lost, it is to Milton’s detriment when viewed on that scale. Aurora Leigh is in fact longer than Paradise Lost. It is longer than The Odyssey, for that matter. The poem is so long that it occupies almost two-thirds of this volume of EBB’s poetry.
Nonetheless, despite some classical imagery, I would not say that Aurora Leigh is an epic poem – just a very long one. It does not deal with war (The Iliad), a long journey around many sights (The Odyssey), the foundation of Rome (The Aeneid) or the fight between God and Satan (Paradise Lost).
Instead the subject matter of Aurora Leigh is more modest in scope. There are two main strands to Aurora Leigh. The first is that of a woman struggling to become a poet in a world dominated by men who do not think that women have the talent to write good poetry.
The second strand is that of Aurora’s relationship to her cousin Romney Brown. Romney Brown is a political idealist with a social conscience. Aurora may or may not love Romney, but she refuses a marriage because he is too bound up in his political causes, and he does not respect her as a writer.
Aurora watches while Romney prepares to marry the lower-class Marian Erie, more or less as a point of principle rather than for true love. There is another rival for Romney’s attention, the aristocratic Lady Waldemar. She does not wish to see Romney marry beneath him, but only because she wants Romney for herself.
I first came across Aurora Leigh at university more than 30 years ago, when it was praised by an academic establishment who saw all books in terms of Marxist and feminist criteria. Aurora Leigh deals with social issues, and with women’s issues, but is it really a poem that ticks the right boxes for the socialist or feminist? Let’s look at the evidence.
EBB certainly cared about social issues. Some of the other poems in this volume reflect her concerns. ‘The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim’s Point’ and ‘Hiram Powers’ Greek Slave’ both show EBB to be an abolitionist. I am not sure that ‘Cry of the Children’ really influenced legislation to protect against child labour, but it was certainly written at an opportune time when the government was about to act against children forced to work in mines.
Overall EBB is sympathetic enough to social and even socialistic concerns, but not overly supportive or understanding of them. She over-idealises Marian Erie. She makes Romney her hero, but only on condition that he is ultimately proven wrong.
At every turn Aurora’s criticisms of Romney’s social crusading proves justified. He wishes to marry beneath him, but the attempt ends in failure and almost tragedy. When the wedding falls through, the very working men whose cause he has espoused seem ready to threaten him.
When Romney turns his home into a refuge for the poor, a mob burns his home to the ground, mistaking it for a prison. Romney is then blinded by the father of the poor woman he wished to marry.
What does EBB think of all this? She clearly imagines that such crusading is a waste of time because the world is corrupt. Here her religious views get in the way of her beliefs, as they will do throughout this volume.
EBB was highly spiritual, and drenches her poetry in religious sentiment, something that would eventually cause divisions in her marriage to Robert Browning. She is essentially bigoted against other religious views and atheism (which hardly endears me to her) and cannot write plainly about any issue without bringing her god into it.
In the case of Aurora Leigh, it would appear that EBB thinks it is presumptuous of Romney and other reformers to try to vastly improve the world because God has left it so. Lady Waldemar’s reputation for ‘goodness’ must be false because nobody is good. Romney is doomed to fail because he is concentrating on the material good of poor people, and not their spiritual welfare.
Such an argument could hardly please a Marxist in truth. I am not a Marxist, but I would agree with the Marxist view that you have to deal with people’s material shortages before you can get them to consider any higher aims: “Food is the first thing; morals follow on,’ as Bertolt Brecht could have told her. Indeed religion here is an excuse for doing very little to help poor people.
Still EBB is not totally in the wrong in her critique of Romney Leigh. He is a man influenced by principles and ideals rather than someone who is following his heart and doing what he wishes. That level of fanaticism is unhealthy and does not lead to good decisions, or to genuine warmth and humanity.
Onto the feminist critique of Aurora Leigh. There are some interesting ideas here that will please the feminist. Aurora refuses marriage to a man who will not respect her writing as a woman. She struggles throughout the poem with her place as a female poet in a man’s world, not thought to have the depth or the talent to write poems that are equal to those of a man.
We must also note the presence of Marian Erle. She begins as a satellite to Romney, but after she refuses to marry him, her life goes in a different direction. She is raped and impregnated, left with the stigma of an illegitimate child. It is Aurora who comes in to help Marian, and together they form a family unit free of any man. When Marian has the chance to marry Romney again, she refuses the opportunity.
Here are some aspects that might not seem to match a feminist reading of Aurora Leigh. Firstly the poem revolves around the man, Romney Leigh, and the relationship of the three women to him. All we learn about Aurora Leigh is her poetry, and how she stands in relationship to Romney and the other women who vie for his attention. She does not have much of a life outside of this.
Aurora is also limited in her views towards Marian. Marian can only be forgiven because she was impregnated against her will. If Marian had become pregnant through her own actions then Aurora would have felt it was ok to condemn her.
It is true that Aurora resists Romney’s attentions until he has been humbled (he accepts the quality of her poetry, and admits the wrongness of his ideals) and emasculated (like Rochester in Jane Eyre, he has been blinded). Nonetheless it still seems to be the case that Aurora can only be completed when she has a man. She is dissatisfied with her poetry, and it is only at the end when she agrees to marry Romney that she believes she will be able to write great poetry.
So much for the social content. Is Aurora Leigh great poetry? EBB uses it as a manifesto to describe her style of poetry. She wishes to write about her own concerns. She does not wish to be limited by mere artifices of form, which may explain why Aurora Leigh is a teasing 9 books instead of something tidier like 10. She does not want to write poems about a classical past that seems out of date when she could write about contemporary issues (sorry, Tennyson).
This is admirable, but Aurora Leigh has its flaws. There is some turgid moralising. EBB often expresses herself in a roundabout manner that is drawn out and difficult to read. As a result large sections of Aurora Leigh seem to float off in vague abstractions.
This is all the worse when it involves dialogue by the main characters. It seems hard to imagine, Aurora, Romney, Lady Waldemar and even the working-class Marian all speaking in this high-flown manner.
Overall though Aurora Leigh is a remarkable piece of writing. Whatever the limits of EBB’s thinking, the poem was socially progressive for its day. Whatever the limits of its writing, Aurora Leigh is a fascinating poem that bears re-reading.
The other poems in this collection are somewhat mixed. I am not too enthusiastic about poems that praise individuals. EBB’s long poems espousing liberation in Italy contain too many classical allusions, thereby rendering them a little dull.
I liked EBB’S socially aware poems, but wished she would tone down the religiosity of them. She seems to be aware that slaves and children who work down mines are likely to be alienated from a belief in a god, but does not have much to say about the god that failed to protect them.
The best of the shorter poems here is her sonnet cycle, ‘Sonnets from the Portuguese’. Despite the title the poems are not translations. This is to throw people off the scent from realising just how personal the poems are. Perhaps there is some wish to cover up the fact that they come from the inspiration of a female poet. Even Robert Browning thought that women could not write sonnets.
There are one or two justly famous sonnets here, including perennial favourite ‘How do I love thee, let me count the ways’. The sonnets describe the courtship of the Brownings, and give us a good insight into EBB’s mind.
It would seem that EBB was a melancholic figure who only had death to look forward to until she met Robert. She did have many illnesses in her life, and was to die young, notably at a point when her marital relations were no longer as good as they had been.
Robert seems to have been her salvation for a while, the man who gave her something to live for. While EBB’s god is never far from any of her poetry, the message of the sonnet cycle is curious. EBB seemed to feel that with Robert in her world, her life was worth living again. She rejects the comforts of going to heaven or having other-worldly consolations. For all her piety, even EBB ultimately chose the happiness offered by this world.
EBB wrote few truly great works but she did write some very decent poetry. This selection is a good sample of her works. I would add that the introduction and notes at the end are not especially helpful to anyone hoping to understand more about the poems. Then again perhaps that will give you the chance to enjoy her poetry without any intermediary.
September 23, 2018
I've always loved her sonnets, but some of her 'other' works are just as beautiful. We easily see professions of affection as love, but EBB's ideas of social change embody her poetry as much as that. The feeling in her poems about the evils of slavery, the ragged children of the poor, and other social problems easily reflect the poetic spirit.
I find myself disagreeing with her idea that poets should stick with the present world, rather than writing of 'castles and kings.' When we read or write of the past, we are able to reflect on the past and find the enduring values that need to remain in the present and in the future. We also see evidences of moral wrong that serve as examples for our own hearts, as in Achille's desire for revenge, when he dragged Hector's dead body around the city. We are motivated by these ideas to change our own hearts. I think they serve as good sources for poetic ideas as those in the modern day and future will.
She is one of the best poets I've read though.
I find myself disagreeing with her idea that poets should stick with the present world, rather than writing of 'castles and kings.' When we read or write of the past, we are able to reflect on the past and find the enduring values that need to remain in the present and in the future. We also see evidences of moral wrong that serve as examples for our own hearts, as in Achille's desire for revenge, when he dragged Hector's dead body around the city. We are motivated by these ideas to change our own hearts. I think they serve as good sources for poetic ideas as those in the modern day and future will.
She is one of the best poets I've read though.
February 14, 2013
Firstly, I only read Aurora Leigh, not the additional pieces in the book.
EBB begins Aurora Leigh with the posit that epic poetry isn't dead. While I (a) agree that epic poetry is still wonderful to read and (b) see how the form of poetry allowed her to be more emotive than prose might, I have to say that I think the experiment is a failure. Epic poetry is given to action - to battles, hero racing against foe, to Odysseus and Beowulf. It's not given to modern stories like Aurora Leigh, and in particular it's not a good form to periodically go off on tangents (however much their moral explorations are relevant to the main character's narrative) as EBB does.
So while I appreciated EBB's storyline and, to a degree, her storytelling, the main premise of her book - and the resulting slog through what could otherwise have been an enjoyable, easy read - caused me more frustration than anything else. I love poetry - but like all art forms, it needs to be used well by the artist.
EBB begins Aurora Leigh with the posit that epic poetry isn't dead. While I (a) agree that epic poetry is still wonderful to read and (b) see how the form of poetry allowed her to be more emotive than prose might, I have to say that I think the experiment is a failure. Epic poetry is given to action - to battles, hero racing against foe, to Odysseus and Beowulf. It's not given to modern stories like Aurora Leigh, and in particular it's not a good form to periodically go off on tangents (however much their moral explorations are relevant to the main character's narrative) as EBB does.
So while I appreciated EBB's storyline and, to a degree, her storytelling, the main premise of her book - and the resulting slog through what could otherwise have been an enjoyable, easy read - caused me more frustration than anything else. I love poetry - but like all art forms, it needs to be used well by the artist.
February 20, 2021
I'm in awe. This is like a piece of heaven, a book-shaped window to have a peak of heaven, that left me speechless
March 3, 2024
hi hello i’d like these words put in an IV drip straight into my veins please thanks
February 21, 2024
Aurora Leigh is an epic poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Published in 1856, it tells the story of a young woman poet, Aurora Leigh, who rejects the marriage proposal of her cousin, Romney Leigh, and pursues her artistic and social aspirations in England, Italy, and France. Life happens, as life often does, and her views on art, love, society, and gender are challenged. In the end, it reads to reflect Browning’s own life experiences, such as her love for Robert Browning, her illness, and her interest in social reform. The poem is written in blank verse and consists of nine books, each with a different theme and tone and is considered one of her most ambitious and original works. This is poetry at its finest. A fun fact, or lore, the poem Aurora Leigh is claimed to have influenced many writers and artists, such as Virginia Woolf, George Eliot, Emily Dickinson, and Christina Rossetti…and yours truly!
May 23, 2023
3.5
This is my first time actually writing down a review. Browning’s sonnets are simply stunning. Aurora Leigh is an interesting take on the epic genre and is filled with its moments. I liked Lady Geraldine’s Courtship as well.
However, I just can’t connect with her other poems and especially Casa Guidi Windows. Her verses in a lot of her poems are well crafted, but they just fail to provoke an emotional response from me. Excessive allusions to mythology and historical figures also just take me out of the reading — I guess that’s the limitation with her poems, and maybe that’s why a lot of them didn’t stand the test of time (or maybe I’m just ignorant). Her poetry is also too religious at times.
This is my first time actually writing down a review. Browning’s sonnets are simply stunning. Aurora Leigh is an interesting take on the epic genre and is filled with its moments. I liked Lady Geraldine’s Courtship as well.
However, I just can’t connect with her other poems and especially Casa Guidi Windows. Her verses in a lot of her poems are well crafted, but they just fail to provoke an emotional response from me. Excessive allusions to mythology and historical figures also just take me out of the reading — I guess that’s the limitation with her poems, and maybe that’s why a lot of them didn’t stand the test of time (or maybe I’m just ignorant). Her poetry is also too religious at times.
June 1, 2023
For my PhD thesis, I read Browning's poem, 'The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim's Point', which is also included in this collection. The poem was a difficult read; however, I applaud the braveness of Browning due to how she took risks with, not only exposing the brutality of slavery, but the sexual exploitation of female slaves during a period in which both topics were taboo. This poem was highly emotional, powerful, and well worth a read for those interested in Victorian poetry, and nineteenth-century race, gender, and class issues.
February 11, 2023
Fascinating poem, the edition is fine. I haven't read much of the other poetry in the collection yet. Once again, Goodreads here groups wildly different books with the title "AL and other poems" together. Only the Penguin editions are identical, all the others don't have the editorial matter (introduction, notes &c) of the Penguin and also presumably different selection of the poems. It doesn't make a lot of sense to group these together.
October 18, 2023
This is one of the greatest books I have ever read, I don't think a book has ever moved me so much to tears because of how beautiful the prose is. One of those rare, life-altering books, I'm writing my thesis on it.
December 27, 2024
Elizabeth Barrett Browning is one of my favorite poets. While I'm not a huge fan of her verse novel "Aurora Leigh," her short form poems are particularly impactful. I especially enjoyed Sonnets from the Portuguese.
February 26, 2018
I was only assigned to read Aurora Leigh for class, but I hope to go back and read the other poems sometime in the future.
June 19, 2021
Aurora Leigh read 28th Feb 2021 - 4.5*
Sonnets From the Portuguese read 19th May 2021 - 3.5*
Sonnets From the Portuguese read 19th May 2021 - 3.5*
April 19, 2022
2.5 stars
May 25, 2012
I really enjoyed Aurora Leigh, but was not so keen on some of the other poems. All the same, it's not what I expected and definitely worth reading. From the point of view of study, the notes were pretty helpful too.
May 30, 2009
Beautiful poetry by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. I think the story is somewhat autobiographical. Both an interesting story and a beautiful read.
Read
February 2, 2018dear mittens,
i think i'm in love.
i think i'm in love.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews