ABSTRACT
Elizabeth Barrett Browning emphasizes her distance from the tradition of sensibility, when she argues that there must be a movement away from an understanding of poetical sincerity that is centred on the expressiveness of the physical body and grounded in its material sufferings. Barrett Browning's rather high-handed comments to Mitford make it quite clear where she placed herself on the versifier/poet continuum. Barrett Browning's literary reputation was established in large part by her popular ballads and sentimental poetry and, like Landon, she made good use of the opportunities opened up by publication in the popular literary annuals. Barrett Browning was also interested in revolutionary era politics and poetics. Hemans's poetry is pious and refined, but it is perhaps a little stiff and it soon becomes clear that Barrett Browning believes that 'fineness' is no substitute for genuine poetical and emotional power.
