Browning's collection of fifty dramatic monologues (with a fifty-first poem in his own voice and addressed to his wife, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, dedicating the volume to her) appeared in two volumes in 1855. He had been working on the poems since moving to Italy after his marriage in 1846, and many of them reflect this context. Browning's newly stimulated interest in Italian art resulted in a number of the most famous short poems of the Victorian age (“Fra Lippo Lippi”, “Andrea del Sarto”, “Pictor Ignotus”); similarly, his passion for keyboard music is articulated in “A Toccata of Galuppi's” and “Master Hughes of Saxe-Gotha”. His continuing interrogation of religious questions (from a position of personal religious faith) finds expression in the subtle sophistries…
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Citation: Roberts, Adam. "Men and Women". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 10 March 2001 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=3635, accessed 26 November 2024.]
