England / UK: Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806 – 1861) was one of the most prominent poets of the Victorian era. She was also addicted to laudanum or tincture of opium

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (6 March 1806 – 29 June 1861) was one of the most prominent poets of the Victorian era. Her poetry was widely popular in both England and the United States during her lifetime. A collection of her last poems was published by her husband, Robert Browning, shortly after her death.

She began to take opiates to relieve pain, laudanum (an opium concoction) then morphine, commonly prescribed at the time. She would become dependent on them for much of her adulthood; the use from an early age would have contributed to her frail health. Biographers such as Alethea Hayter have suggested that this may have contributed to the wild vividness of her imagination and the poetry that it produced.

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Pictures From History

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OPIUM