Robert Browning

(1812-1889)
English Poet

He was born in Camberwell, a suburb of London England. He attended boarding school in the same town and later travelled to Russia and Italy. He attended the University of London, however, Browning opted to resume his education at home instead. He was tutored in foreign languages; he learned Latin, Greek, French, Italian, and music in the comfort of his home. He had a wonderful and warm relationship with his learned parents; and being an avid reader, he acquired a great deal of knowledge for a man his age. He remained at home until he met and married Elizabeth Barret years later at the age of thirty-four. Browning was an active writer for a number of years but his most memorable volume of poetry, "Men And Women" really personifies his love for Italy and how he enjoyed reflecting on the esthetic of the landscapes as well as the romantic energies of the Renaissance era. In 1864, he wrote " Dramatis Personae," and in 1868, he published his well received poem, "The Ring and the Book." Robert Browning died in 1889, on the same day that his final volume of verse, "Asolando," was published.
He was buried in Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey.

He was quite taken by Elizabeth Browning's "Sonnets from the Portuguese" and urged her to have them published. Although the verses were written for him - he wanted the world to witness her extraordinary talent for words:
"I dare not reserve to myself, the fines sonnets written in any language since Shakespeare's."

“Progress is the law of life; man is not man as yet.”
-Robert Browning