ABSTRACT
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (EBB), poet, essayist, letter-writer, born in 1806, was the eldest of 12 children of Edward Moulton-Barrett, English gentleman and Jamaican landowner, and his wife, Mary, who died when Elizabeth was 22. Most of her childhood was spent at Hope End, the luxurious family home (from 1809) in idyllic rural surroundings in Herefordshire. Intellectually precocious, she began writing verse at an early age, encouraged and helped to publication by her parents. She devoted herself also to classical studies, learning Latin and Greek from her brother’s tutor, and later taught herself Hebrew. By 13 she had written an imitative epic, ‘The Battle of Marathon’ (priv. pr. 1820). Her reading was prodigious, while her writing continued to develop as her main focus. Not unusually for a young woman poet, Byron was a strong early influence, along with the other Romantics. Yet she also enjoyed the outdoors, riding her beloved pony and exploring the family estate.
