Robert Browning

Robert Browning

By Kathi Mitchell

Romantic has meant many things as we've worked our way through the history of British literature.​

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​Beowulf? The Tempest? Les Miserables?

​Romantic? Depends what you mean...

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​One of the most famous romances in history, Robert fell in love with his future wife's poetry. It wasn't until after her death that he became really well known as a poet.

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Romance in real life

Multiple Choice

Who was Browning's famous wife?

• Mary Shelley

• Mary Wollstonecraft

• Christina Rossetti

• Elizabeth Barrett

Multiple Choice

Where did they go to live to improve her health?

• Greece

• Italy

• France

• The lake country

​When you tell a story alone on the stage, you're monologuing. It can be done well or poorly. Browning got that and made his work be revealing character through his poems.

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Dramatic monologues

Multiple Choice

Who tells the story of "My Last Duchess"?

• a visitor to the estate

• the duke who ordered her death

• a grieving lover

• her firstborn son

Browning's early works were book length poems. Pauline and Paracelsus didn't sell well when they were published.​

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​What do we like that's long?

​Super long poems are a hard sell.

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Multiple Choice

What form powered Browning's later success?

• sonnet

• dramatic monologue

• pantoum

• blank verse