ABSTRACT
In 1851, from her vantage-point in Florence at the windows of Casa Guidi, Elizabeth Barrett Browning looked towards an England that was confident and powerful, an ‘Imperial England’ (Casa Guidi Windows, II.578) 1 that had come through the Hungry Forties, and was embarking on the new decade with a Great Exhibition. Instead of rejoicing, however, she issued accusations: no light Of teaching, liberal nations, for the poor Who sit in darkness when it is not night? No cure for wicked children? Christ, —no cure! No help for women sobbing out of sight Because men made the laws? (II.634–9)
