WOMANKIND
The greatest love of all In telling the story of one of the greatest romances of all times – that between Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning – MARY GALEA DEBONO also reflects on the fact that the digitalisation of communications was a revolution that killed the art of letter writing of which the Victorian poetess was a master.
“H
ow do I love thee? Let me count the ways.” This is the opening verse of a sonnet written by Elizabeth Barrett and published in an anthology of her poetry in 1850. The object of her love was Robert Browning, also a poet. Had this been the only poem that Elizabeth Barrett wrote in her entire life, it would still have made her one of the great poets of the Late Romantic Period. For many decades after its publication – in the days when intimate relationships took time to mature and savouring the thrill of falling in love was still the first phase in the ‘getting-to-know-you’ process; when sentimental feelings could still be expressed by spontaneous quotations from poetry without the fear of being laughed at as an insufferable pedant – the lines from this poem were often recited or written on cards and letters dedicated to loved ones. Elizabeth was born in 1806 in an affluent family, whose wealth had been made in the slave plantations in the West Indies. She was the eldest of 11 children. When her mother died, an aunt moved in to replace her, but Mr Barrett, the archetypal Victorian father – affable in society but tyrannical in discharging his domestic responsibilities – remained in command. The family lived in a lavish country mansion, but was forced to move to a more modest house in London, at No. 50, Wimpole Street, when slavery in the colonies was abolished and the family’s wealth diminished considerably.
Pink December 2016 ∫ 51