Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861)
Filed under the name Elizabeth · August 27, 2026
Elizabeth Barrett Browning spent a good part of her life as an invalid, largely confined indoors, which is about as far from my life on the interstate as you can get, and yet she still managed to travel further in her writing than most people do in a lifetime of moving. I've driven through a lot of small towns that remind me of quiet, overlooked corners of a person's life, and her early years feel like one of those — years that could have stayed hidden if she hadn't kept writing anyway. She's best remembered now for 'Sonnets from the Portuguese,' including that line everybody knows, 'How do I love thee? Let me count the ways,' but she also wrote hard, clear-eyed poetry against the social injustices of her day. Funny thing about the road — you learn that the people who never seem to be going anywhere sometimes cover the most ground. Browning proved that from a sickbed. I've got no better way to put it than that.