Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Oh my gosh, Browning's stuff was so beautiful. Before I get into her work I first have to make a few comments about her life prior to meeting Robert Browning. It really bothered me while reading her biography that her father was so overprotective and I really wonder why. With 11 children it really makes me wonder what he was so afraid of. Like the fact that he did not want ANY of his child to get married. This woman was 40 years old when she met Robert and she had to hide her relationship from her father and eventually elope so that he wouldn't find out. That is unbelievable. I know it was a different time and things were done quite differently than they are now but I refuse to believe that a woman who is old enough to be my mother has to hide her relationship from her father. I mean at this point what can the man really do to her?

"Sonnets from the Portuguese" was the most beautiful thing I think I have ever read, no lie. I loved it so much because the love that she had for Robert and the love he had for her really saved her life, "Straightway I was 'ware, so weeping, how a mystic Shape did move behind me, and drew me backward by the hair; And a voice said in mastery, while I strove,--"Guess now who holds thee?"--"Death," I said. But, there, The silver answer rang,--"Not Death, but Love"" (pg. 530). At 40 years old and not in the best of health this woman was still able to find love and the best love she could ever have. She really expressed that in this sonnet and it's an example to all that you are never to young or to old to find true love.