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370 ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING.
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
¦ I» » .¦ Death Thebe Of Are Elizab Few ...
_ProJDhet and philosopher truly , and yet a priest also should be every true poet ; to _" offer sacrifice for the . people" to be martyr or
, witness to the holiness of suffering , even if they have to _" learn in suffering " itself , the glorious lessons which it is their mission to
< c teach in song . " There has been no woman in this country— -we think we may say
In any country—who has possessed , not only the poetic faculty , but the true poetic consecrationso fully and so entirely as Elizabeth
, Barrett Browning . The reverence for what is high , and the scorn for what is base , have seldom rung and echoed in grander strains
than came froni her pen . If we look back at the events of her life , it is with no prying or
morbid curiosity , but rather to trace , in the slender thread of external circumstances so much of the influence which made her what
she waSj as can ever be seen in that smallest and slightest part of God ' s dealing with a soul which we are apt to call " their life . "
From various sources we quote a short relation of facts , all of which she has indeed in a manner recorded herself ; because all together
have had their influence , and left their trace in her writings , and have been indeed turned to " divinest uses " both for herself and
for others . Miss Mitford , an old and valued friend of hers , wrote in 1852 : —
"My first acquaintance with Elizabeth Barrett commenced fifteen years ago , and she was then certainly one of the most interesting
persons I had ever seen . Of a slight , delicate _Hig-axe , with a shower of dark curls falling on either side of a most expressive face—large ,
tender eyes , fringed with dark lashes—a smile like a sunbeam , and such a look of youthfulness , that I had some difficulty in persuading
a friend that the translatress of the < Prometheus' of JEschylus , the author of the Essay on Mind / wasin technical language' out . '
, , * * * * The next year was a painful one to herself and all who loved her ; she broke a blood-vessel in the lungs . If there
had been consumption in the family , that disease would have supervened ; but , happily , she escaped this fatal English malady . The
vessel , however , refused to heal ; and affcer attending her for a year at her father ' s house in Wimpole StreetDr . Chambers , on
, the approach of winter , ordered her to a milder climate . Her eldest brother—a brother in heart and talent worthy of such a
sister—together with other affectionate relatives , accompanied her to Torquay ; and there occurred that fatal event which saddened her
bloom of youth , and gave a deeper hue of thought and feeling to her poetry . Nearly a year had passedand the invalidstill attended
by her companions , had derived much , benefit from , the mild seabreezes of Devonshire . One Biie summer morning , her favorite
brother , together with two other fine young men , his friends , embarked on board a small sailing * vessel for a trip of a few hours .
Excellent sailors all , and familiar with the coast , they sent back
t 3 ie boatmen , and undertook themselves the management of their
370 Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
370 ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Aug. 1, 1861, page 370, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01081861/page/10/
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