Robert Browning 

(1812 – 1889)

Browning is an English poet and playwright whose mastery of the dramatic monologue made

him one of the foremost Victorian poets. His poems are known for
their irony, characterization, dark humour, social commentary, historical settings, and
challenging vocabulary and syntax.

Browning's early career began promisingly, but collapsed. The long

poems Pauline and Paracelsus received some acclaim, but in 1840 the difficult Sordello,
which was seen as willfully obscure, brought his poetry into disrepute. His reputation took
more than a decade to recover, during which time he moved away from the Shelleyan forms
of his early period and developed a more personal style.

In 1846, Browning married the older poet Elizabeth Barrett, and went to live in Italy. By the
time of her death in 1861, he had published the crucial collection  Men and Women. The
collection Dramatis Personae and the book-length epic poem The Ring and the
Book followed, and made him a leading British poet. He continued to write prolifically, but
his reputation today rests largely on the poetry he wrote in this middle period.

When Browning died in 1889, he was regarded as a sage and philosopher-poet who through
his writing had made contributions to Victorian social and political discourse. Unusually for a
poet, societies for the study of his work were founded while he was still alive. Such Browning
Societies remained common in Britain and the United States until the early 20th century.