Robert Browning was an English poet and playwright born in 1812 in London, England. He wrote dramatic monologues and is considered a master of the form. Browning married fellow poet Elizabeth Barrett in 1846 against her father's wishes and they lived in Italy until her death. Some of Browning's most famous short poems are "Porphyria's Lover" and "My Last Duchess" and his most ambitious work was the long blank verse poem "The Ring and the Book". Browning died in 1889 in Venice, Italy and was buried in Westminster Abbey.