Robert Browning, born on May 7, 1812, the son of a wealthy clerk. The poet had access to a wealth of literary texts at a young age and mastered French, Italian, Greek, Latin as well as English. However, he began as a hugely unsuccessful writer who relied immensely on his family in his early adulthood life.

Browning's early writing influence was thought to be the poet Shelley. Browning adopted that author's confessionalist style of poetry. He also adopted the atheist principles of the time.

From the mid-1830's to the mid-1840's, Browning would also make acquaintances with the likes of Carlyle, Dickens, and Tennyson. Then in 1846, Browning married the poet Elizabeth Barrett, settling with her in Florence, Italy.

Browning's greatest work, "The Ring and the Book," written in 1869, was based upon a murder trial held in Rome in 1698. The convoluted case resulted in 12 volumes, each providing narrative from the point of view of a different character. The master of dramatic monologue, his strength was an ability to craft numerous ideas and in-depth meaning into the fewest of words.

Browning died on December 12, 1889.

Love in a Life
Room after room,
I hunt the house through
We inhabit together.
Heart, fear nothing, for, heart, thou shalt find her--
Next time, herself!--not the trouble behind her
Left in the curtain, the couch's perfume!
As she brushed it, the cornice-wreath blossomed anew:
Yon looking-glass gleamed at the wave of her feather.
Yet the day wears,
And door succeeds door;
I try the fresh fortune--
Range the wide house from the wing to the centre.
Still the same chance! she goes out as I enter.
Spend my whole day in the quest,--who cares?
But 'tis twilight, you see,--with such suites to explore,
Such closets to search, such alcoves to importune!