Casa Guidi Windows: A PoemIn 1847, Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-61) moved with her new husband to an apartment in Florence, in the wake of perhaps the most famous literary courtship of the nineteenth century. She soon took to calling their home the Casa Guidi. From there, she observed the events of the early Risorgimento. It was at this time that she produced some of her finest work, including Aurora Leigh and Casa Guidi Windows. An impressionistic and thoroughly atypical landmark in the Romantic canon, the latter was written in two parts, separated by several years. Beginning with the memory of a singing child and a lush description of Florence's beauty, the first part explores the air of optimism that permeates both the city and the narrator. By the second, disillusionment is rife: Florence has become the scene of demonstrations and broken political promises. This reissue of the 1851 first edition includes Barrett Browning's own introduction. |
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angels apophthegm Austria beatific Behold bella libertà beneath better bless blind breath bring brows Brutus burn Cæsar Cambridge Library Collection Casa Guidi windows child Christ's church Cimabue found civic cursed Dante dare dead despair door dream Duke's ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING eucharistic eyes face fair feet Florence Florentine foes gaze Giotto glory God's Grand-duke Grand-duke's graves hand heads heart heaven holy hope Italy kerchief king knees laugh leave Live the Duke Lombard look Lorenzo the Magnificent man's marble Margheritone nations neath night Niobe noble Novara passion patriots peace Petrarch piazzas Pitti Pius poets poor pope popular prince proved purple Rome's Savonarola shout sigh sight silence sing smile snow songs stand stir stone stood strikes sweet sword thank thee thine things thou thought thy soul true truth turned Tuscan twixt Urbino Vallombrosa violets voice wrong