RELIGION
Religion is another recurrent theme in this poetry. Elizabeth Barrett Browning was known for her religious poetry, a fact that makes her poetry very Victorian in nature. Her poetry often deals with religion in all its shades. In A Musical Instrument, she deals with the idea of what true religion is, narrating a tale about the fall of the old order and inevitable rise of the new.
NATURE
Browning has written poems in an extensively natural setting. Nature is a theme that surfaces time and again in her poetry, sometimes as the central setting and sometimes as the background. In A Musical Instrument, a very prominent theme is that of nature. The older order is dismissed because of the way it treats nature. Pan is considered the representative
ROLE OF ARTIST IN SOCIETY
Browning's poetry also deals with the role of artist in the society as well as the kind of position the artist holds. It explores themes of isolation of the artist as well as creation as an artistic process. In A Musical Instrument, Nature is used as a backdrop in which Browning explores the isolation of the artist as a creator and destroyer.
SOCIAL INJUSTICE
One of the most prominent themes in the poetry of Elizabeth Barrett Browning is that of social injustice. Her poetry centres on a myriad of social themes ranging from the evils of industrialization to slave trade. One such poem that covers these social themes is Runaway Slave at Pilgrim’s Point, which addresses the atrocity of slave trade.