Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning were both English poets. The story of how they met, fell in love, and married is one of the most famous love stories in history. This love story is famous for its purity, its poetry, and its passion. But most of all, it is famous because their romance took place primarily by mail. For the two years before they married, they wrote to each other almost every day.
Elizabeth Barrett lived a quiet life in the house of her father. She rarely left the house because she was very weak and sick with a lung disease. From childhood she spent her time reading, studying Greek, and writing poetry. Her poems were published and became popular both in England and in America. Elizabeth's father, Mr. Barrett, supported his daughter's writing. However, he was very strict and also eccentric ---- he refused to let any of his three daughters marry. He wanted them all to stay with him. When Elizabeth was thirty-seven, she still lived with her father and her two unmarried sisters. She had never married or even been in love. She lived in a dream world. She knew Robert Browning only by name. However, she read his poetry and admired it greatly. She even put his name in a poem that she wrote.
Robert Browning's childhood was similar to Elizabeth's. He studied Greek, read a great deal, and wrote poetry at a very young age. As a young adult, he continued to read and write, and struggled to publish his work. By the age of thirty, he was not yet married.
One day, Robert was reading some of Elizabeth's poems. He admired her poetry very much. Suddenly, he saw his name in one of her poems. He was so surprised and pleased that he decided to write her a letter. The year was 1844.
With this letter, Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning began a secret correspondence. They wrote to each other almost every day. At first, their letters were formal and impersonal. They discussed poetry and literature. Slowly, the letters became more personal. A friendship developed as they discovered their common interests and ideas. They read and criticized each other's poetry and began to discuss their friendship. They seemed to be perfectly compatible, both intellectually and spiritually. After one year, Robert wrote to Elizabeth that he loved her. They still had never met each other.
Finally, Elizabeth and Robert arranged to meet while Elizabeth's father was not in the house. They were nervous, and even shocked, to see each other face to face at last. They continued meeting and talking secretly once or twice a week for the next year. They also continued to write each other letters every day. Elizabeth wrote: "... You cannot guess what you are to me ---- you cannot ---- it is not possible ... It is something to me between dream and miracle." Robert answered that he had never kept a journal before, but he had started one now. In it he wrote the date of every visit with her and how long it lasted. He even wrote the number of minutes they had been together and said that they added up to two full days in length.
Then, in September, 1846, in a secret marriage ceremony, Elizabeth Barrett became Elizabeth Barrett Browning. A week later, without telling Elizabeth's father, the happy couple eloped to Italy. The shock was terrible for Mr. Barrett, but his anger could not diminish their happiness. In 1849, they succeeded in having a son. They lived in Italy, extremely happy, for fifteem years, until Elizabeth's death in 1861.
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Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Robert Browning
Italy
ceremony
childhood
compatible
correspondence
criticize
diminish
eccentric
elope
formal
impersonal
intellectually
journal
lung
married
miracle
passion
poetry
purity
romance
secretly
spiritually
unmarried
a great deal
add up to
face to face
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The title of unit8 is Romantic Stories.
The main idea of writing and translation of unit8 is 词义增补(2)——其他词类增添：1.增加形容词或副词 2.增加量词