This semester in Major Author has really been an a great learning experience for me. Throughout all my years of school, I have not become familiar with much poetry and it was very interesting for me to be able to have a class that focused on not one but two major Victorian poets. The fact that these two poets happened to be married was definitely icing on top of the cake. It was so interesting to see a both a husband and a wife's perspective on different issues and to read both their styles of poetry almost side by side.
Out of the two poets, Elizabeth Barrett Browning and her husband Robert Browning, I was captivated by Elizabeth's poems. Her Sonnets from the Portuguese has touched my soul in a way that I feel like poetry is supposed to touch one's soul. The series of poems shows EBB's personal struggle with herself as she battles her own feelings and the feeling of the man who was courting her, Robert Browning. Throughout the sonnets, the reader is able to see her progression from denying Browing's love for her, her gradual acceptance, and how she eventually allows herself to return his love in a very powerful way. Before this class, I had never even heard of EBB and after reading this particular series of sonnets, I felt as if I was connected to her in some way. So when I read other poems of hers, like The Cry of the Children and The Runaway Slave, I couldn't help but be moved by them as well. I really feel like EBB pours her heart and soul into her writing and I love the fact the she used her talent and popularity to speak out for people who might not be able to speak out for themselves. In Cry of the Children she practically pleads with her country to see how the children of England suffer and berates those who do not actively participating in the effort to relieve children of their heavy burden. I also loved how she speaks up for people who are not from her native land. In The Runaway Slave, EBB talks about the rape of a young slave woman and her resulting pregnancy. The slave tries and fails to escape and eventually kills her young infant. Because of EBB's passionate writing, we as readers are almost forced to sympathize with something we think to be completely unnatural. Through her novel poem Aurora Leigh, EBB also makes a statement for the rights of woman of the era by creating a heroine much like herself. A Victorian herself, Aurora fights against the norms of her society as well as her inner female in order to make her way as a poet. This story reminds me a lot of Sonnets from the Portuguese, where EBB also struggles with both her poetic and womanly nature. Finally, both Aurora and EBB give in and are able to be both great poets and wives.
Although I really enjoyed Robert Browning's work, I can definitely see why his poetry was, and still is, out-shined by his wife's. Through her poetry, I can see her deep passion for what she did and how she wanted to make a difference by doing something she was great at. I think this is a lesson we can all learn form.
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