POETS IN PAIN
Robert
Browning (1812 – 1889), was a
renowned English poet and play-wright, one of the foremost Victorian poets, known for his great
works such as ‘The Pied Piper of Hamelin’. Elizabeth Barret (1806
– 1861),
daughter of Edward Moulton Barrett was one of the most prominent English poets
of the Victorian era,
popular in Britain and the United States during her lifetime.
She started writing poems at
the young age of six. At the age of fifteen she became sick with immobility and
intense pain in her head and spine following a riding accident and later
developed severe lung problems, possibly due to tuberculosis. She was
administered pain-killers derived from opium such as morphine which intensified
her illness. She was mostly bedridden. Still she wrote excellent poems. She was
the eldest of twelve children. Her father had forbidden his children to marry.
Impressed by the quality of her poetry and out of sympathy for her disability,
Robert Browning loved her intensely. They used to correspond regularly through
letters. As her father would not approve their marriage, they married secretly
in 1846 and migrated to Italy. Her father was angry at her and refused to
communicate with her forever. He rejected her only son and cut her from his
will. But
she used to
write to her father frequently, begging his pardon. But he refused to open or
read her letters.
On the day of their 11th
wedding anniversary, she received a packet from her father. Hoping that her
father had finally forgiven her and sent her a loving gift, she gladly opened
the packet. She was shocked to find in that packet all the letters she had sent
him during the last ten years, begging his forgiveness, returned, still
unopened. Robert Browning read those letters and remarked painfully, “Had he
opened and read at least one of these loving letters, he would definitely have
forgiven us and loved us.” Elizabeth Barrett died in Florence, in her
husband's arms.
Jesus taught us to pray, “Forgive
us the wrongs we have done, as we forgive the wrongs that others have done to
us” {Matthew 6: 12}. He added, “If you forgive others the wrongs they have done
to you, your Father in heaven will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive
others, then your Father will not forgive the wrongs you have done” {Matthew 6:
14, 15}.
St. Paul advises, “Get rid of
all bitterness, passion, and anger. No more shouting or insults, no more
hateful feelings of any sort. Instead, be kind and tender-hearted to one
another, and forgive one another, as God has forgiven you through Christ”
{Ephesians 4: 31, 32}.
When God forgives us, He casts our sins into
the sea of everlasting forgetfulness. Billy Graham said that many of the patients
in hospitals would be healed if they were ready to forgive and forget the
errors of others. Alexander Pope, in his work, ‘An
Essay on Criticism’, wrote: “To err is human; to forgive divine.”
…………………………………………………………………..
©
By: Prof. Dr. Babu Philip, Former Professor, Cochin University
of Science & Technology, Fine Arts Avenue, Kochi-682016, Kerala,
India, Prof. Mrs. Rajamma Babu, Former Professor, St.
Dominic's College, Kanjirappally, Leo. S. John and Neil
John, Alfeen Public
School, Kanjirappally, Kerala, India. For more moral
stories, parables and anecdotes for students, catechists, teachers and
preachers, kindly visit our web-sites:
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