Biography of Elizabeth Bennett Browning

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Elizabeth Barrett Browning was born on March 6th in a place called Coxhoe Hall in Durham, England. Her mother, Mary Graham-Clarke , gave birth to 12 children of which Elizabeth was the oldest. Her father, Edward Moulton Barrett, was a strict man who believed that his children shouldn’t be married. Edward made a lot of money from his family sugarcane plantations . Three years after Elizabeth was born, Edward bought the 500 acre estate called `Hope End' near the Malvern Hills in Hertfordshire. Educated at home, Elizabeth learned Greek, Latin, and several modern languages at an early age. Elizabeth apparently had read passages from Paradise Lost and a number of Shakespearean plays, among other great works, before the age of ten. By her twelfth year she had written her first so called epic poem, which consisted of four books of rhyming couplets. In 1819, her father arranged for the printing of one of her poems.

This work that was published by her father was called The Battle of Marathon. She wrote and published this work in 1820, at the age of 13. This work was about the first Persian war . She later referred to this poem as "Pope's Homer done over again, or rather undone." She called it this because it was in the style of Pope's Homer.

At a young age, Elizabeth had many health problems. She was diagnosed with a lung ailment that plagued her for the rest of her life. Doctors began treating her with morphine, which she took for the rest of her life. It is also believed by some sources that she had an addiction to Opium , which was first used for medical purposes. Since many people disagree with the fact that she actually did Opium, it is still in debate whether or...