1.
Elizabeth barrett browning, formerly known as Elizabeth Balek, was born in a very rich family in England. They live a manor life of "the sound of music"-12 big family of brothers and sisters.
Of all the brothers and sisters, little Elizabeth likes reading best. Before she was ten years old, she had read many Shakespeare's plays, Paradise Lost and several chapters of English, Greek and Roman history. When she was a child, she read Homer's epic translated by alexander pope, which made Pope the first writer in English history to get rid of poverty by poetry. In almost every respect, she is self-taught. When she was ten years old, she read the works of major Greek and Latin writers and Dante's Hell-all these works were her original works.
Little Elizabeth learned to write poetry like Pope. She will use Popper's famous heroic couplets to praise the heroes in ancient Greek mythology and the Golden Goma Iron. At the age of 13, Elizabeth has her own collection of poems, which is a four-volume epic, singing the marathon battle of ancient Greece in the style of the Pope. Poetry has beautiful binding and exquisite wool cover, just like all great poets' poems. This is printed by her father. He likes the serious way she writes poems, although he doesn't know whether the poems are good or bad.
Everyone likes this quiet little poet, watching her gallop inside and outside the manor on a pony, like a little angel. If it weren't for her 15 years old riding a pony and breaking her spine.
2.
Little Elizabeth can only be paralyzed in bed from now on.
At the age of 20, her fascination with classical works and pure philosophy of ancient Greece and Rome was compensated by a religious obsession, which she later described as "not a profound persuasion of polite Christ, but a foolish fantasy of religious fanatics." She and her family attended the recent prayer service in the non-Anglican church.
When the news of mother's death came, her body was not even allowed to cry. Day after day, she locked herself in her bedroom, either reading and writing poems or looking up at the unchanging river outside the window.
She moved to Torquay on the Devon coast. Accompanied by my favorite brother Edward. They have a lot to talk about. They can learn Greek together, read Homer's epic together, and talk and laugh until another accident happens.
Edward fell into the water and drowned in the river outside Elizabeth's window. She almost went crazy, as if she looked up and saw the river wrapped around her favorite brother drifting away. Every breath in this room is filled with laughter and the echo of ancient Greek poetry.
Her family didn't dare to leave her in the country manor any more, so they took her to live in London. In the dense fog in London, she is like an apple on a tablecloth. After the painter left, under the carving knife of time, she slowly accumulated dust and oxidized and rotted.
After a long time, she picked up a pen, wrote poems, translated poems, and contributed to literary magazines. She moves slowly and her eyes are distracted, like a hibernating animal, looking forward to winter without expectation.
Unconsciously, Elizabeth has become a little celebrity in English poetry.
3.
1844 in English poetry, Wordsworth, the poet laureate, is dying, and Tennyson is the most dazzling star. The only thing that can be compared with it is this poetess who is as hazy as a hibernating calf. Her poems made her one of the most popular writers in Victorian England. She knows she is famous, but what can she do? Can she stand up by herself? Can you help yourself pull out the smog in London and let the oxidized and rotten apples shine? Only she knows the beauty of the soul in other people's mouths. She is still the girl who fell off a horse at the age of 15, waiting for a pair of gentle and powerful hands to hold her.
Maybe there will be. These gentle hands.
1845 65438+1October 10, Elizabeth received a "letter from readers", which said that he loved her poems so much that it was impossible not to fall in love with the person who wrote them more enthusiastically.
The person who wrote this letter is Robert Browning. A young man with only truth and love in his heart, a poet who published the long poem Pauline and is now unknown. She wrote him a long letter. She read his poems and praised his talent. She said that they have many common interests to discuss and share.
This year, Elizabeth was 39 years old.
Robert browning's little Elizabeth was six years old, and they started a warm and naive correspondence. Elizabeth vaguely heard Edward standing by her bed, talking about the grammar of ancient Greece and the melody of Homer's original epic, and smelling the flowers on the grass of the country manor. However, the rhythm of heartbeat and pulse seems to be somewhat different from the past.
4.
In a recent letter, Robert asked to see her. She refused, but he insisted; If she refuses again, he will insist. She hardly sees outsiders and is isolated from the world. She doesn't seem to belong to human beings, but a plant in a greenhouse. She only needs a little water and sunshine every day, and then returns a little faint breath and a little flowers to the world.
But you can come to me if you want. Seeing me like this, will you write to me as before? Otherwise, you will leave politely and soon forget my address. ...
In late spring and May, Robert came. John kenyon arranged for Robert Browning to visit her in May.
This opened a page of the most famous courtship in the history of literature.
What he saw was a really fragile woman, curled up on the sofa in the ward, her eyes drooping over her bloodless face from time to time. Her voice is like the last gossamer in the air in late spring and May, trembling slightly in the sunset. And he, standing, sitting and watching, deliberately lowered his voice for fear of scaring her. His eyes sparkled in this slightly dim ward, but he smiled a little silly. They were talking, and maybe no one knew what they said later. Then, in the next letter, he begged her to marry her.
At the age of 39, Elizabeth's unexpected first love.
She's a little overwhelmed. My heart is pounding like a poem. She finally knew that she should refuse him. She couldn't believe this noble sympathy for a moment. She was afraid of losing him, so she had to refuse him. She even wrote this doubt in her Portuguese sonnets.
It's like the mythical hero rescued the princess who was sacrificed to the sea monster at the edge of the cliff and opened the chain around her for the princess; Bronte also helped her get rid of panic, her doubts and her sadness, and helped her step by step to the sunshine.
She wrote to him and told him to stop saying those careless words for the sake of mutual friendship. He quickly wrote to apologize, but he would soon bring up the past again.
She refused, she hesitated, but most importantly, she was in love.
They correspond more frequently and write longer and more touching letters. He comes to see her once a week with flowers. That day, he received a marigold from her envelope, which she picked in the forest. After 24 years of illness, she can stand up and walk out of the ward by herself.
If you believe in love, why do you doubt miracles?
5.
Their wedding was held in secret because Elizabeth had to elope with her stubborn father in secret. She wore his ring in the church alone, with no relatives or friends around to bless her. However, she doesn't feel sorry at all. "Because I am so happy, I don't need any happiness," she said.
Robert, like the poetic hero Shelley, mysteriously took his sweetheart away. They crossed the English Channel, crossed Paris, entered Italy, and went from Pisa to Florence. Elizabeth, now elizabeth barrett browning, saw the outside world for the first time. He excessively guided and cared for her, and she was amazed at every house in Paris and every stone in the streets of Florence. Can be so beautiful that she didn't know it before.
In a letter to her sister, Elizabeth spoke angrily about her husband: "I told him never to show off that his wife has been here with him and playing there, as if her two-legged wife were the strangest clown in the world." Now almost all the people who pity Elizabeth are jealous of her, jealous that their husband and wife love is the first love.
In the third year of marriage, 43-year-old Elizabeth became a mother. They have a son. This is simply a miracle among miracles! No one can believe that she was paralyzed in bed for 24 years.
6.
One day in Pisa, after breakfast, Browning stood by the window alone, overlooking the street view. He suddenly felt that someone was walking softly behind him and was about to turn around when his wife gave him a push from behind. She wouldn't let him look back. She shyly stuffed a volume of poetry into her pocket and tore it up when she said she didn't like it.
She hurried upstairs, but before long, he rushed up excitedly and said to her, this is the best sonnet since Shakespeare. "It was a love poem she wrote to him before marriage, but she kept it from him. She sang to him in the tune of a sonnet.
He dare not hide these incomparable poems, but she doesn't want to publish these intimate love songs. She is willing to waste her first-class talent on him alone. She just wants to be nice to him, even if she wastes her first-class private love songs.
Finally, a friend of Elizabeth privately printed several books, the cover was unmarked, and the inside page simply read "Sonnets Written by E.B.B"
This group of sonnets was first published in 1850, with a total of 43 sonnets. Elizabeth named them "Portuguese Sonnets", deliberately making people think that they are foreign poems translated by foreign countries. At that time, only a few people knew that "Portuguese" was actually Elizabeth, and Robert always affectionately called her "my little Portugal" because Elizabeth once wrote a poem about the love of a pair of Portuguese people, which Robert liked very much.
7.
It's a pity that Elizabeth brought it after all. She has been expecting the world to realize her husband's poetic talent. She knows that he is a first-class poet, not only because she loves him, but also because she really knows him.
Until today's literary history, robert browning is still the most dazzling poet in Victorian England, tied with poet laureate Tennyson.
1889, robert browning was a 78-year-old man and Elizabeth had passed away. Robert reluctantly gave his son a beautifully carved wooden box and died in Venice the same year, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. Son Gbegbeni opened the wooden box, which contained all the letters from robert browning and elizabeth barrett browning. They wrote millions of words and didn't finish their love story until they died.
8.
I like the forty-third sonnet best. The frankness and sweetness in poetry, like sunshine and candles, are indispensable in an instant.
How do I love you? Let me count it carefully.
I love you? Depth, width and height.
My soul can touch it, when I feel invisible.
For the purpose of existence and ideal elegance.
I love you to the level of everyday.
The quietest demand, under the sunshine and candlelight.
I love you freely, just as people fight for their rights.
I love you purely, just as they burn from Paris.
……
How on earth do I love you? Let me count it carefully.
I love you to the depths of my soul,
Width and height, where my eyesight is poor.
Explore the ultimate existence and the ideal of love.
I love you like the simplest daily need,
It's like unconsciously needing sunshine and candles
I love you freely, just as people choose the path of justice,
I love you purely, as people avoid praise and praise.
(flying white? Translation)