Her mother died suddenly in 1828, which really shook Elizabeth. She pulled even further away from society. In 1832, when the family finances sank too low, Hope End had to be sold and the family moved to Sidmouth, Devonshire. This house was along the seashore, which tempted Elizabeth into walking, which improved her health noticeably. She also published (again at family expense, which couldn't have been easy to manage) a translation of Aeschylus' Prometheus plus 19 more short poems of her own. When, in 1835, the Barretts moved to London, Elizabeth saw her chance. She began meeting (with great nervousness) several of the literary giants of the day, such as Wordsworth and Mary Russell Mitford. A year later, Elizabeth read Paracelsus by the distinctly un-famous Robert Browning. She loved it, but was too shy to even think of meeting him.
The Seraphim and Other Poems was printed in 1838, the first volume to have Elizabeth's name on it, and it was generally well received. Elizabeth's health had taken a turn for the worse, and she was ordered to winter someplace warm. Bro and Henrietta went with her to Torquay that same year. In 1840, brother Sam died of fever in Jamaica, followed a few months later by Bro's death in a boating accident. Elizabeth was devastated. It took about a year, but it was eventually the prospect of writing that pulled her out of her depression. She returned to London in 1841 and took up literary criticism.
In August 1844, the two-volume Poems was published, containing a work in which Elizabeth paid homage to those she considered the great poets of her time: Wordsworth, Tennyson, and Robert Browning. He was in Naples when the book was published, but as soon as he could, he wrote to Elizabeth to thank her. Well, you can guess the rest. Robert eventually got her to agree to a visit, which was soon followed by another, which was soon followed by a proposal of marriage, which Elizabeth turned down cold. Robert soon figured out that the surest way to Elizabeth's heart was through her work, so that was the way he went. They were married, secretly, on 12 September 1846, and acted like nothing had happened until they set off for Italy a week later.