I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace...
Elizabeth Barrett wrote Sonnets from the Portuguese (44 sonnets in all, the most well known being number 43 above) about her love affair with Robert Browning. At the time of their meeting, she lived with her father on Wimpole Street, Marylebone, about 100m from where I sit right now.
At 38, she rejected Browning's first offer of marriage (who was 32) because she had reconciled herself to spinsterhood (she was also reclusive, sickly and addicted to morphine). She finally accepted his offer, contrary to her father's wishes (who never forgave her), and they married secretly at Marylebone Parish Church on September 12, 1846.
The following week they left for 'the continent' and settled in Italy where they remained, passionately in love, until she died in 1861.
Happy Valentines Day!
Read Sonnets from the Portuguese
Read Aurora Leigh (my favourite Barrett-Browning poem).
Watch The Barretts of Wimpole Street (this is the original - it has been re-made 3 times).
(In writing this I have realised that my very scary primary school headmistress was also an Elizabeth Barrett. Although she went by Betty. I think she modelled herself on Margaret Thatcher - she was the Iron Lady of Drouin PS).
