A Biography of Robert Browning Robert Browning's response to Victorian readers was his motivation to write poetry. Early Victorian readers were fascinated by themes of sex, madness and violence. His poem "Porphyria's Lover" was a poem about a man who relives the night he killed his wife. Victorian readers fell in love with poetry and helped Robert Browning become a famous poet. Today he is considered one of the greatest English poets. Robert Browning was born in Camberwell, England, to Robert and Sarah Browning during the Victorian age. He learned much of his education from his parents. It is believed that by the age of 14 he had learned Latin, Greek and French. He was inspired to write poetry after reading the poetry of Percy Shelley and declared himself a devotee of the poet. All his daily needs and the cost of his first poetry publications were all met by his mother and father. He wrote dramatic poems with controversial verse, rhyme and symbols. In "Poetry for Students" the author states that "the poem's themes, sex, violence and madness, were of particular interest to Victorian readers, who reveled in sensational tales of horror and depravity despite the social condemnation of all things immoral". (Hact 150) This shows that people in Robert Browning's time period were fascinated by the themes of madness, sex, and violence that Browning used in his poetry. A poet named Elizabeth Barrett read and admired his poetry, going so far as to link him to Alfred Tennyson and William Wordsworth as one of the great poets of his era. He continued to write poetry, but not as much as he was busy making arrangements for his frail wife who fell ill and then died in 1849, 3 years after the wedding. Robert took account of his so...... middle of paper ...... in the Victorian era. She is self-taught and uses her education when writing her poems. “Porphyria's Lover” is an example of the themes of madness, love and violence in which the Victorians loved him and proclaimed him one of the greatest English poets. Uma Kukathas has great comments on Browning and his motivation to write poetry for the Victorians. Robert Browning's motivation to become a poet is evident throughout his poetry and life as he is considered one of the greatest poets to ever grace the earth. Works Cited Browning, Robert. “Porphyia's lover”. Poetry Hunter npnd Web. February 20, 2014."Porphyria's lover." Poetry for students. Ed. Anne Marie Hacht. vol. 15. Detroit: Gale Group, 2002. 149-168. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Network. 21 February 2014.Uma Kukathas, Critical essay on “Porphyria's Lover”, in Poetry for Students, The Gale Group, 2002.