wrote _Prometheus Bound_ (1835). After her removal to London she fell
into delicate health, her lungs being threatened. This did not, however,
interfere with her literary labours, and she contributed to various
periodicals _The Romaunt of Margaret_, _The Romaunt of the Page_, _The
Poet's Vow_, and other pieces. In 1838 appeared _The Seraphim and Other
Poems_ (including "Cowper's Grave.") Shortly thereafter the death, by
drowning, of her favourite brother gave a serious shock to her already
fragile health, and for a time she hovered between life and death.
Eventually, however, she regained strength, and meanwhile her fame was
growing. The _pub._ about 1841 of _The Cry of the Children_ gave it a
great impulse, and about the same time she contributed some critical
papers in prose to R.H. Horne's _New Spirit of the Age_. In 1844 she
_pub._ two vols. of _Poems_, which comprised "The Drama of Exile,"
"Vision of Poets," and "Lady Geraldine's Courtship." In 1845 she met for
the first time her future husband, Robert Browning (_q.v._). Their
courtship and marriage, owing to her delicate health and the
extraordinary objections entertained by Mr. B. to the marriage of any of
his children, were carried out under somewhat peculiar and romantic
circumstances. After a private marriage and a secret departure from her
home, she accompanied her husband to Italy, which became her home almost
continuously until her death, and with the political aspirations of which
she and her husband both thoroughly identified themselves. The union
proved one of unalloyed happiness to both, though it was never forgiven
by Mr. Barrett. In her new circumstances her strength greatly increased.
Her husband and she settled in Florence, and there she wrote _Casa Guidi
Windows_ (1851)--by many considered her strongest work--under the
inspiration of the Tuscan struggle for liberty. _Aurora Leigh_, her
largest, and perhaps the most popular of her longer poems, appeared in
1856. In 1850 _The Sonnets from the Portuguese_--the history of her own
love-story, thinly disguised by its title--had appeared. In 1860 she