Introduction


Robert Browning

The poet Robert Browning had a flair for the dramatic. Perhaps more than any other nineteenth-century writer, he was able to fuse the aesthetics of drama and poetry into a truly theatrical verse. In fact, some of his most famous poems (“Porphyria’s Lover” and “My Last Duchess”) are structured like dramatic monologues, and storytelling was also an integral part of Browning’s poetry, as evidenced by his verse adaptations of classic tales such as The Pied Piper of Hamelin. Although his reputation swung between popularity and obscurity during his lifetime, his works are now considered classics and have influenced writers as diverse as T. S. Eliot and Stephen King, whose epic Dark Tower series was even inspired by one of Browning’s poems. Take a bow, Robert.

Essential Facts

  1. Robert Browning was married to the poetess Elizabeth Barrett Browning, who wrote the famous sonnet beginning, “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.”
  2. Although a British citizen, Browning spent nearly a fourth of his life (and writing career) abroad in Italy. Its culture was incredibly influential upon his work. “Italy was my university,” he would often say.
  3. Browning’s most popular work during his lifetime was the dramatic poem The Ring and the Book, which comprises an astonishing 20,000 lines.
  4. Browning died on the same day that Asolando, his final volume of verse, was published—December 12, 1889.
  5. Though Browning has influenced countless poets in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, perhaps his most obscure connection is to the film remake of Get Carter, starring Sylvester Stallone. The movie opens with a quote from Browning\'s The Ring and the Book.