As Elizabeth Barrett Browning lay dying, clasped in the arms of her great love Robert Browning, her last word was ‘beautiful’.
Their love story certainly was. By the age of forty, Elizabeth Barrett was already a remarkable and celebrated poet; but she was also an invalid, a mysterious illness (some contemporary critics now suggest anorexia) preventing her from leaving the house, or even the chaise-longue on which she famously lay. Under the control of an overbearing father, her seclusion seemed unending.
Enter the young Robert Browning, who, if Elizabeth had been able to stand on her feet, seemed determined to immediately sweep her off them.
A fan of her poetry, he wrote her a letter: ‘I love your verses with all my heart, my dear Miss Barrett…’ so starts one of the most famous romances in English literary history.
An exchange of letters progressed to Robert walking under her window (he said he did not look up in deference to her!); to weekly meetings…
Then, one night, with the help of her young admirer, she not only stood upright, but climbed out of a window, ran down the street to St Marylebone Church, married, honeymooned in Paris and finally settled in Italy!
I end with this video by the band ‘Bleachers’ – nothing to do with Elizabeth Barrett and a 19th century love affair, but everything to do with how someone can flourish under love’s gaze!
A bit of contemporary poetry:
