Browning and Wordsworth

Wordsworth's poetry was far more influential upon that of Robert Browning than has hitherto been supposed. Browning read Wordsworth from an early age, and became an admirer of much of his work. In particular, Wordsworth's aesthetic beliefs about the poet's role in the world were as important to Browning's own conception of this role as those of Shelley, whose relationship with Browning has been far more extensively discussed. relationship, which can usefully be seen as a struggle on Browning's part to throw off the burden of influence imposed upon him by his Romantic predecessor. It also puts forward more historical and biographical explanations for some of the relationship's complexities, including Browning's awareness of Wordsworth's rising reputation in the late Victorian period and the responsibilities imposed upon him in his later career by his own position as a literary lion. John H. Baker teaches for the Open University and the University of Westminster in London.