Today I want to talk about a poet named Robert Browning. Honestly, I wasn’t very familiar with this guy before, but I stumbled upon his name when I was researching some historical stuff related to the Victorian era.
So I started digging. Turns out, Robert Browning was a pretty big deal back in the 19th century. He was a poet and playwright, and people really loved his dramatic monologues. I’m not a huge poetry guy, but the idea of a dramatic monologue got me interested. I read that he was known for his irony, dark humor, and social commentary, which sounds kind of cool.
I tried to find some of his works. The amount of stuff he created was huge, so it was a little overwhelming at first. I found out that he was born in 1812 and lived until 1889. That’s a long life, especially for that time period. He also spent some years in Italy, which apparently had a big influence on his writing. I guess he was really inspired by the Renaissance.
- I started with some of his famous poems, like “My Last Duchess” and “Porphyria’s Lover.”
- These are dramatic monologues.
- Honestly, his language was a bit tough to get through at times. It’s definitely not light reading!
- But I started to see why people were so into his stuff.
- The way he creates these characters and tells their stories is pretty captivating, even if it’s a little dark and twisted.
I also found something interesting when I searched him online. There is also another guy named Robert Browning Hamilton, but he is a different person who lived in New York City. He wrote a poem called ”Along the Road”.
I also learned that he didn’t become super famous until later in his life. Apparently, he was kind of obscure for a while. It’s interesting how some artists only get recognized after they’re gone or much later in their careers.
I’m still working my way through his poems. It’s not easy going, but I’m starting to appreciate his style.
In the end, I went from knowing nothing about Robert Browning to having a decent grasp of his life and works. I even started to enjoy some of his poems, which I didn’t expect. It just goes to show that you can discover some really interesting things when you just start digging around.
It is still amazing that somebody managed to record his voice back in 1889, I would love to find that recording and hear him speak!