Her Fifth Husband? by Dixie Browning5/24/2023 ![]() ![]() Pardon me, if I doubt whether you will ever produce a great poet from your choirs, or a Mozart, or a Phidias, or a Michael Angelo, or a great scholar. Thomas De Quincey had expressed the attitude of the age when he wrote: "'Woman, sister, there are some things which you do not execute as well as your brother, man no, nor ever will. The arrival of Elizabeth Barrett on the poetic scene created special problems, for critics of this age were convinced that full poetic power simply could not exist in a woman. A poetess was particularly dependent on good reviews, for even a single bad review could damn her work to an undeserved obscurity. Yet no author, least of all a poet, could afford to alienate the critics totally, for critics were the shapers of the Victorian audience they were the gateway to that audience. These lines from Aurora Leigh express Elizabeth Barrett's determination to remain true to a personal vision of her poetic art regardless of the critical response. To step into his sunshine of free thoughtĪn inch-long swerving of the Holy lines. ![]() In the following essay, Moser surveys the challenges Browning faced in being accepted as a woman and poet in the Victorian era. "The Victorian Critics' Dilemma: What to Do With a Talented Poetess?" Victorians Institute Journal 13 (1985): 59-66. ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING: GENERAL COMMENTARY KAY MOSER (ESSAY DATE 1985) ![]()
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