It's the anniversary of the day that poets Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning eloped in 1846. She was the better-known poet; he had come across her poems two years before and wrote her a fan letter. Over the next 20 months, Elizabeth and Robert exchanged 574 letters. They met for the first time in 1845.
Elizabeth (books by this author) was a semi-invalid under the care of a very overprotective father, and he didn't want her to marry, so they courted in secret and eloped to Florence the following year, where they spent the rest of their married life. Elizabeth's father never spoke to her again.
Robert and Elizabeth read and critiqued one another's poetry, and they both began writing the best poetry of their lives after their marriage. Robert (books by this author) often called Elizabeth "my little Portuguese" because of her dark complexion. In 1850, she published her most famous work, a collection of poems called Sonnets from the Portuguese. It contains the famous line, "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways." Elizabeth's health continued to decline and in 1861 she died in Robert's arms.
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