Monday, March 16, 2009

Aurora Leigh!

Aurora Leigh

Biography of Elizabeth Barrett Browning
b. 1806 -- d. 1861. Her mother died when she was 20, and she published first book of poetry at age 22. She was so famous that in 1850 when Wordsworth died she was considered as a potential poet laureate. She was also very politically radical. She developed a dependence on morphine due to her sickly condition, hugely controlling father. In 1846 she eloped with Robert Barrett Browning. They loved each other deeply, and she wrote some of the most famous English love poetry about him. Ex: "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways..." After she eloped she lived in Italy with Robert and had a child before her death.

Aurora's life is radically different than Elizabeth's. Aurora's mother takes away her aunt's right as lady of the house. Her father meets her mother in Italy and falls madly in love and marries her but she dies only four years later. He is bereft and shiftless following that.

The story develops a sense of God as the "outer infinite." As if babies come from the divine with the touch still on them. Her mother would tell her to be quiet, while her eyes told her the opposite. "Mothers love foolishly, they love best" She hungers for that unconditional love after her mother died. Mothers have an ability to communicate with children that fathers lack. They notice the nuances of emotion and empathy that men miss.

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