Friday, May 07, 2010

That's her picture on the wall


The homely fellow above is one Robert Browning born this day 1812, in London, England. He was born the son of a bank clerk for the Bank of England, and a musician. There was some family money, but it was held by the grandfather, a wealthy slave owner in the West Indies. However, Browning father was revolted by slave owning, and moved to England, where he met, and married Browning mother. In 1845, he met, courted, and later married the poetess Elizabeth Barrett ( a previous heroine of the day), and I am pretty sure they have become the first man and wife to both be selected as heroes of the day. I am always breaking new ground with this blog, first I actually edited a post, then I tried to used paragraphs, and now I am having the first husband/wife team as heroes. There are two poems that I greatly admire by Browning they are "The Last Duchess," and "Porphyria's Lover." Both are lovely poems, and I highly recommend reading them if you haven't already. Of course, being favourites of mine means they are not the most uplifting, optimistic, poems in the world, but I never claimed to be little Mister Sunshine. He also a wrote a version of a work that more people are familiar with titled "The Pied Piper of Hamelin." So, for those three works, and many other that I am sure if I bothered to read them, I would also admire, Robert Browning (May 7th, 1812-December 12th, 1889, at the age of 77) you are my (255th) hero of the day.

1 comment:

chall said...

wonder what they talked about at home.... love?