Poet Background

Robert Browning (born 07 May 1812 in Chamberwell, England) is considered to be one of the greatest poets of the Victorian period. Browning was extremely gifted and already excelled at reading and writing by the age of five. Most of Browning’s education took place in his father’s expansive library, and he dropped out of university because he wanted to learn at his own pace. Robert Browning married Elizabeth Barrett (a fellow poet) in 1846, and they had a son named Robert “Pen” Browning in 1849. Coincidentally, the date in 1889 that Browning died is the same date that his final volume of verse was published.¹