The Lost Leader is a poem written by Robert Browning that was first published in his book Dramatic Romances and Lyrics in 1845. It criticizes William Wordsworth for what Browning saw as his abandonment of the liberal cause and slip from his great idealism. The poem has been interpreted by several critics as a personal attack on Wordsworth, who was then living near London but had recently moved to rural life near Grasmere. Browning's father was an attorney who supported the political views of Thomas Paine and became friends with Wordsworth when both men lived in England. When Richard Browning died, his son followed Paine's example and became one of the leading radicals in Britain. But he also fell out of favor with the government and had to flee England. He went to Germany where he met up again with some former friends from England including Wordsworth. In 1842, after being denied entry into England, Browning crossed the border into Wales where he spent the rest of his life. He died at the age of forty-nine. Browning's mother was English but his father was German and Catholic. This made him an outsider in Victorian-era England. His father died when Robert was still young so he had to help support his family by working as a law clerk. In 1836, at the age of twenty-one, he married Elizabeth Barrett who was three years younger than he was.