Robert Browning, 1812 - 1889
1865 photo by Julia Margaret Cameron
Born: 7 May 1812, Camberwell, London, England, UK
Died: 12 December 1889, Venice, Italy
The son of a wealthy clerk at the Bank of England, Browning spent much of his youth unsupervised in his father's private library of 6,000 volumes, which served as his primary education. He learned several language and wrote his first poetry by age twelve. He entered several private schools, disliked each of them, and was provided with tutors. He entered University College of London but left after a year. His family published his early poetry, some of which earned critical success. In 1844 he began a correspondence with Elizabeth Barrett, a well-known poet but a semi-invalid living with her father. They married secretly in 1846 and moved to Pisa for a year, then took up residence at Fiorenza. The Brownings had one son, known as "Pen", and Robert largely devoted himself to caring for his wife, writing some but publishing nothing until Elizabeth's death in 1865. Browning left Italy for seventeen years and traveled extensively but returned to Italy and died at his son's home at Venezia. The day he died his last book, Asolando, was published and the city council of Venezia approved his purchase of a home there. No room was available in the cemetery where Elizabeth was buried, he is interred Poet's Corner at Westminster Abbey, adjacent to Alfred Tennyson.
Biography from Wikipedia and Poets.org
Additional quotes from Wikiquote. Wikiquote entries are often "sourced" and may include items longer than those included here, particularly for poets, lyricists, and dramatists.
Robert Browning quotes:
Quotes found : 71 — (15 per page, this is page 1 of 5) 1 2 3 4 5 Next
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- A minute's success pays the failure of years. permalink
Robert Browning - "Apollo and the Fates" (1887) - Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp
or what's a heaven for? permalink
Robert Browning - "Andrea del Sarto", Men and Women (1855) - All June I bound the rose in sheaves,
Now, rose by rose, I strip the leaves. permalink
Robert Browning - "One Way of Love" - All will be gay when noontide wakes anew
The buttercups, the little children's dower. permalink
Robert Browning - "Home-Thoughts, from Abroad", Dramatic Romances and Lyrics (1845) - And gain is gain, however small. permalink
Robert Browning - Paracelsus (1835) - And the muttering grew to a grumbling;
And the grumbling grew to a mighty rumbling;
And out of the houses the rats came tumbling. permalink
Robert Browning - The Pied Piper of Hamelin (1842) - Autumn wins you best by this, its mute Appeal to sympathy for its decay. permalink
Robert Browning - Paracelsus (1835) - But there are times when patience proves at fault. permalink
Robert Browning - Paracelsus (1835) - But what if I fail of my purpose here? It is but to keep the nerves at strain, to dry one's eyes and laugh at a fall, and baffled, get up and begin again. permalink
Robert Browning - Earth changes, but thy soul and God stand sure. permalink
Robert Browning - "Rabbi Ben Ezra", Dramatis Personae (1864) - Every one soon or late comes round by Rome. permalink
Robert Browning - The Ring and the Book (1868) - Fail I alone, in words and deeds?
Why, all men strive and who succeeds? permalink
Robert Browning - God is the perfect poet,
Who in his person acts his own creations. permalink
Robert Browning - Paracelsus (1835) - Grow old along with me!
The best is yet to be,
The last of life, for which the first was made:
Our times are in his hand
Who saith, "A whole I planned,
Youth shows but half; trust God: see all, nor be afraid!" permalink
Robert Browning - "Rabbi Ben Ezra", Dramatis Personae (1864) - He said, 'What's time? Leave Now for dogs and apes!
Man has Forever.' permalink
Robert Browning
Quotes found : 71 — (15 per page, this is page 1 of 5) 1 2 3 4 5 Next
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