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At the age of twelve he wrote a volume of Byronic verse entitled Incondita, which his parents attempted, unsuccessfully,
to have published. In 1825, a cousin gave Browning a collection of Shelley's poetry; Browning was so taken with the book that
he asked for the rest of Shelley's works for his thirteenth birthday, and declared himself a vegetarian and an atheist in
emulation of the poet. Despite this early passion, he apparently wrote no poems between the ages of thirteen and twenty. In
1828, Browning enrolled at the University of London, but he soon left, anxious to read and learn at his own pace. The random
nature of his education later surfaced in his writing, leading to criticism of his poems' obscurities.
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