What was browning famous for

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Find Poets. Poetry Near You. Jobs for Poets. Read Stanza. Privacy Policy. Press Center. Though the volume contained many of the dramatic monologues that are best known and loved by modern readers, it was not popular with Browning's contemporaries. But it did receive several favorable critical reviews and made Browning the idol of Dante Gabriel Rossetti and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. After gradually declining in health for several years, Elizabeth Browning died on June 29, Browning found that he could no longer remain in Florence because of the memories it evoked.

He resolved to "go to England, and live and work and write. Though some of the dramatic monologues in the collection are complex and difficult or overlong, this was the first of Browning's works to be popular with the general reading public. His popularity increased with the publication of The Ring and the Book in This long poem is based on a murder and subsequent trial in Rome in In a Florentine bookstall Browning had found an "old Yellow Book" that contained records of these events.

The poem is composed of 12 dramatic monologues, in which the major characters give their interpretations of the crime. The accounts contradict each other, but eventually the truth emerges from behind the tangled web of deceit and self-justification. The Ring and the Book was enthusiastically received by the public, and Browning became a prominent figure in London society.

He was a frequent guest at dinners, concerts, and receptions. In the next 10 years Browning wrote with great energy, publishing a volume almost every year. But none of these works match the quality of Men and Women, and they are little read today. Though in the early stages of his career Browning's poetic reputation was far less than that of his wife, by he had achieved equal status with Tennyson, the poet laureate. The energy and roughness of Browning's poetry, however, contrast sharply with the melancholy and polish of Tennyson's.

He was also inspired by the works of Percy Bysshe Shelley. So, he turned toward poetry at the age of twelve. That is why he received less formal education and developed his literary ideas largely at home under the supervision of his parents.

Despite this secluded development, he won an honorary Doctorate of Civil Law from Oxford University in Robert met Elizabeth Barrett in London, in They started corresponding and gradually discovered their love for each other. Elizabeth Barrett gave wings to his poetic imagination. Browning lived with his parents and sister until , when he married the poet Elizabeth Barrett, an admirer of his writing.

The couple moved to Florence, Italy. During his married years, Browning wrote very little. In , the Brownings had a son, whom Browning educated. Elizabeth died in , and Browning and his son returned to England. Browning only began to attain popular success when he was in his 50s. In the s, he published Dramatis Personae , which had both a first and second edition. In , he published the volume The Ring and the Book , which some critics believe to be his greatest work, and which earned the poet popularity for the first time.

Browning secured his place as a prominent poet with dramatic monologue, the form he mastered and for which he became known and influential.