The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-05-19
INTIMATE VIEWS
 OF POETS WIVES
 GIVEN BY SPEAKER
Mrs. George Gives Delightful Informal Glimpses Into Lives of Elizabeth Barrett Brown ing and Lady Tennyson At Lecture For Fresh Air As sociation.

sOciation.
 The second of the course of lectures the works of English poets, which Mrs. J. A. George is giving under the aus pices of the Bridgeport Fresh Air as- sociation, was held yesterday after noon at the home of Mrs4 William D. Bishop. 199 Court1and street. 1 Mrs. George. in her delightfully."- in formal way. talked of t.Elizabeth Bar rett Browning and Lady Tennyson.'' z giving intimate little g1impses into the lives of these women which made l them seem very real to all who heard l her.
 The case of Mrs Browning was al- most the reverse of that of Dorothy l Wordsworth of which Mrs. George 1 told last week.
 Mrs. Browning's story is that of a terrible physical depression from which she was rescued Sby a great love
 All the world loves a lover said Mrs. George. but when each of the two levers is a poet. the story is much 1 more Interestingly
 Elizabeth Barrett Browning was born March 6. 1906, and was several years older than her gifted husband She spent her gIrIhood in lovely Here fordshire and Worcestershire and in l this quiet, beautiful region, she gath cred much of the material which was 1 afterward woven into her poems One of the best illustrations Of this is her s"The Lost Bower which Mrs. George, 1 read with much expression. As child, the poetess was preco- cious. and had written verses at the age of seven. She read Greek when wrote an epic on Marathon, which her father, himself a scholar, considered good enough to have fifty copies of it printed.
 Her life was greatly influenced by an old blind friend and teacher, a great scholar, Hugh Stuart Boyd, who lived near the girl poet.
 Elizabeth Barrett used to read to him and talk with him, and it is largely due to his influence that this precocieus young girl was not, over come by coneeit but was taught to be pays tribute to this teacher in. her poem, The Wine Of Cyprus. Her. good sense of humor was also an other factor which prevented her from becoming eonceitedd.
 When she was quite still young, an valid for many years, and it was on her sick-bed that many of 41er beau- tffuI poems were written.
 At the age of 19 she was a contrib utor to the best periodicals of the day and when she was twenty her first volume of poems was published-
 It was after the second volume of her poems were published in 8A4 that she first met Robert Browning,s a ris- ing young poet about whom every one was talking. but whom no one was praising very much
 It was by the power of his great love that she was later released from
 
 beth Barrett's parents did not favor the suit. of the young poet and in fact, most people looked upon their elope ment with rather dubious eyes.
 Among her intimate friends Mrs. Browning was know by the pet name of .sThe Portuguese, because of herI dark, foreign completion and her e.Sonnets from the Portuguese are records of her great love and how this l great love unfo1ded her woma1ss life.
 With the exception of Shakespeare's soanets,s they are the most charmin g love sonnets which have been written. I and are unique since they are the only ones giving the woman ssview.
 The fact that these, and that four thousand lines of Aurora Lee' were | written before her husband had a sight of them proves how perfectly and talents of the other, and how each had their own way in their writings. 1
 The two poets lived for many years in Italy and Nn their 4rooms in Flor l enca that grateful city has placed a tablet inA their honor.
 Mrs Browning" said the lecturer. twas not out of the world because of | her limitations, but was very much in | the world of action. She was so very l little out of doors that her accuracy of observation was really extraordi-i nary. She had a boundless sympathy H.. IL. s. poems
 The lecturer read one of the best of these, Mother and Poet,
 The poetess is described as having a .quaint little face with profuse of soft brown hair and rel rnarkable soft eyes. "
 To show the variety of her poems. .sThe Cry of the Children" was read. This poem has been used as war-cry by those who oppose child labor and as a result of it the first legislation for the relief of child labor was made.
 In conclusion to the story of Eliza beth Barrett Browning, a number of her husbands perfect tributes to her were read. Many of them were written after her death, and one of them was thirty years after she had passed to the life beyond.
 Turning to Lady Tennyson, the lec- turer told how sTennyson had once re- ferred to her as My lifelong and truest critic.'' and how their son had termed her "a perfect mother and 8 very woman of very women"
 She had a great influence on Ten nyson, shielding and protecting his po- etic nature, sustaining and reforcing his spirit and thus giving to the world a remarkable poet. She answered the numerous letters which came to him from all parts Of the world, and read and transcribed for him.
 To her the poet ascrtbed his beau tiful tribute, Dear, Near and True-''
 The story of their courtship, of the of the stern parents of the young girl and of the long years of waiting because of a lack Of funds