Elizabeth Barrett Browning (6 March 1806 29 June 1861) was one of the most prominent poets of the Victorian

n era. Her poetry was widely popular in both England and the United States during her lifetime.[1] A collection of her last poems was published by her husband, Robert Browning, shortly after her death.

Success
At Wimpole Street Elizabeth spent most of her time in her upstairs room, and her health began to improve, though she saw few people other than her immediate family.[3] One of those she did see was Kenyon, a wealthy friend of the family and patron of the arts. She received comfort from her spaniel named Flush, a gift from Mary Mitford.[11] (Virginia Woolf later fictionalised the life of the dog, making him the protagonist of her 1933 novel Flush: A Biography). Between 1841 and 1844 Elizabeth was prolific in poetry, translation and prose. The poem "The Cry of the Children", published in 1842 in Blackwoods, condemned child labour and helped bring about child labour reforms by raising support for Lord Shaftesbury's Ten Hours Bill (1844).[3] At about the same time, she contributed critical prose pieces to Richard Henry Horne's A New Spirit of the Age. In 1844 she published two volumes of Poems, which included "A Drama of Exile", "A Vision of Poets", and "Lady Geraldine's Courtship" and two substantial critical essays for 1842 issues of The Athenaeum. "Since she was not burdened with any domestic duties expected of her sisters, Elizabeth could now devote herself entirely to the life of the mind, cultivating an enormous correspondence, reading widely".[12] Her prolific output made her a rival to Tennyson as a candidate for poet laureate in 1850 on the death of Wordsworth.[ The Battle of Marathon is a rhymed, dramatic, narrative-poem by Elizabeth Barrett (later Browning). Written in 1820, when Barrett was just 12, it retells powerfully The Battle of Marathon: during which the Athenian state defeated the much larger invading force during the first Persian invasion of Greece. When Darius the Great orders his immense army march west to annex additional territories; no-one in the Persian court predicted that some fractious, independent Greek city-states stood any chance against the Persian super-power. And yet at Marathon in 490BC, Darius' plans received a decisive check in the brilliant Athenian offensive overseen by the aged but hardy Miltiades: who overran the Persian army just landed upon their coasts, cutting their opponents down to the last man.[1] But some of the Greeks' enemies are more than mortal: Aphrodite herself swears vengeance for the actions of their forebears in destroying her beloved Troy generations ago.[2]

Can Miltiades continue successfully guiding his fellow Athenians to future greatness; when rival factions led by Themistocles and Aristides grow only stronger day by day?

Can even Jove himself protect the Athenians he loves from the whimsical - but fatal - wiles of his daughter, the goddess of love?