In the poem, sonnet 43 and the letters of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett, it talks about love in one story. In the other, it talks about how her life affected her writing. Due to this, she was not as happy as others would normally be. Her husband Robert Brown was a fellow, loyal craftsman. It was dedicated to her husband, poet Robert Browning. Elizabeth felt as if he had rescued her from her desperate lifestyle she had in London. She was very sick and spent most of her life upstairs. Her only method to solve the pain was writing poetry.
In sonnet 43, the speaker tells us many things in this poem clearly. The speaker confesses how big her love is and tells about her husband. The phrase “I love thee” is repeated many times throughout the poem which emphasizes the idea that Browning’s love is true. In terms of death, Elizabeth is determined to carry her "love for thee" beyond the grave, if God allows her. In the sonnet she says, “I love thee to the level of every day’s / most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.” This means that she wants to be with her love at all hours of the day.
…show more content…
In the poem she suggests that this love has now returned and will be given to her husband. In the beginning of the poem, Elizabeth captures the reader's attention by asking, "How do I Love Thee? The poet takes us back to that childhood of hers after falling in love with her soul-mate. In the poem she is trying to describe the abstract feeling of love by measuring how much her love means to her. In the second line she says, “I love thee to the depth & breath & height”, she tries to measure something that cannot be measured. However, no one can really tell you the true meaning of love, because everyone has different points of views about
The two Robert Browning poems, ‘Porphyria’s Lover’ and ‘My Last Duchess’ were written in the infamous Victorian Era whereas the two Shakespearean Sonnets were written in the Elizabethan Era. The styles of the poems differ in accordance to the difference of the time in which they were written. Pre-Romantic Era poems moved away from the idealistic concept of love towards a more realistic consideration of it, taking into account the social crisis of the time.
In “Trout” by David Marlatt and “Sonnet 130” by William Shakespeare, both describe their loves in unusual, more complex ways then what is usually written in poetry. “Trout” describes a day where the speaker swims next to his love, and explains to her that she is as beautiful as a trout. Throughout the poem, however, there seems to be a tone of admiration, and the audience cannot hellp but feel that the speaker is giving his love one of the highest praises he can possibley think of. In “Sonnet 130”, the speaker juxtaposes his love to certain elements found in poetry, such as red and white roses, goddesses, and music, and says that in comparison to these she is but average and plain. Yet, at the very last line of the poem the speaker claims that his love is “but rare”, and no one else can compare. Throughout the poem Shakespeare gives the reader a tone of realism, in that he doesn’t need to love a beautiful goddess but instead would love a plain, down to earth girl. Although “Trout” uses more imagery, both poets utilize paradox...
Elizabeth Barrett Browning follows ideal love by breaking the social conventions of the Victorian age, which is when she wrote the “Sonnets from the Portuguese”. The Victorian age produced a conservative society, where marriage was based on class, age and wealth and women were seen as objects of desire governed by social etiquette. These social conventions are shown to be holding her back, this is conveyed through the quote “Drew me back by the hair”. Social conventions symbolically are portrayed as preventing her from expressing her love emphasising the negative effect that society has on an individual. The result of her not being able to express her love is demonstrated in the allusion “I thought one of how Theocritus had sung of the sweet
It speaks about not allowing anything to break the marital bond not even old age or sickness. The united couple must stand together and not allow their hearts to wander. In the beginning of the poem, the first question asked of the bride and groom is if there are any admitted impediment that would hinder or corrupt this union. Shakespeare even allows the reader to understand that he truly believes the words that he writes by stating, “If this be error and upon me proved, I never writ, nor no man ever loved” (Sonnet 481). Shakespeare interjects his personal beliefs by telling the reader that if this poem is not true, then he was never was a writer, and that no man has ever
...onsidered to be a huge romantic gesture; it allowed the writers thoughts and feelings to be spoken through words. It was a way to tell their lovers how they truly felt, in what was at the time one of the most romantic ways to do so. It allowed both poets to create dramatic effects when needed, explore their emotions and declare their love as everlasting. This was all done in 14 lines, usually following the structure of an iambic pentameter. The structure of Sonnet 43 can be differentiated from the more traditional Shakespearean sonnet as it follows the structure of an Italian sonnet (also known as the Petrarchan sonnet) rather than the structure of a Shakespearean sonnet. The first 8 lines which are known as the octave imposes a problem of some sort, the first four lines (quatrain) typically introduce the problem; the next quatrain is where the problem is developed.
The word choice in Sonnet 43 and Sonnet 116 can be compared as well as contrasted, based on the way the words are used, and also the types of words the authors both Browning, as well as Shakespeare have chosen. In Sonnet 43, Browning uses words similar to the words Shakespeare chose. For example in line two "I love Thee to the depth and breadth and height" the words "Thee" and "breadth" are not common words used in everyday English. "Thee" used here seems to mean 'you', and "breadth" to mean 'width'. This would make the line translate to "I love you to the depth and width and height." The words Browning chooses to use help express exactly how deep and long the love is. In sonnet 116 by William Shakespeare the word choice, as in Browning's Sonnet 43, also uses words that are not common to everyday conversations in the English language. For example Shakespeare uses "impediments" and "tempests" in place of the common words "obstructions" and "disturbances" or "flaws" his choice or words for his sonnet help to show the serious tone, and show that his lesson on love is important.
Love is the ubiquitous force that drives all people in life. If people did not want, give, or receive love, they would never experience life because it is the force that completes a person. Although it often seems absent, people constantly strive for this ever-present force as a means of acceptance. Elizabeth Barrett Browning is an influential poet who describes the necessity of love in her book of poems Sonnets from the Portuguese. In her poems, she writes about love based on her relationship with her husband – a relationship shared by a pure, passionate love. Browning centers her life and happiness around her husband and her love for him. This life and pure happiness is dependent on their love, and she expresses this outpouring and reliance of her love through her poetry. She uses imaginative literary devices to strengthen her argument for the necessity of love in one’s life. The necessity of love is a major theme in Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s “Sonnet 43” and “Sonnet 29.”
Elizabeth Barrett Browning 's "Sonnet XLIII" speaks of her love for her husband, Richard Browning, with rich and deeply insightful comparisons to many different intangible forms. These forms—from the soul to the afterlife—intensify the extent of her love, and because of this, upon first reading the sonnet, it is easy to be impressed and utterly overwhelmed by the descriptors of her love. However, when looking past this first reading, the sonnet is in fact quite ungraspable for readers, such as myself, who have not experienced what Browning has for her husband. As a result, the visual imagery, although descriptive, is difficult to visualize, because
"Was this what it all meant--utter, intact separateness, obscured by the heat of living?" Elizabeth is questioning the reason for living. Particularly, she is wondering at her own existence. Her life seems to have no meaning and she does not connect with any one, especially her husband.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning is an English Poet of the Romantic Movement who read various number of Shakespeare’s plays and many different passages from Paradise Lost before the age of 10. As a child, Elizabeth suffered from lung ailment and spinal injury that had plagued her for the rest of her life, but that didn’t stop her from completing her education, and writing numerous amount of sonnets and poems. When she was living under her father’s tyrannical rule, she bitterly opposed slavery and her siblings being sent away to Jamaica by writing the poem, The Seraphim and Other Poems, that expresses the Christian sentiments in the form of Greek tragedy. In 1846, the couple, Elizabeth and Robert, eloped and settled in Florence, Italy, in which helped
A sonnet is a lyric poem of fourteen lines, following one of several set of rhyme-schemes. Critics of the sonnet have recognized varying classifications, but the two characteristic sonnet types are the Italian type (Petrarchan) and the English type (Shakespearean). Shakespeare is still nowadays seen as in idol in English literature. No one can read one of his works and be left indifferent. His way of writing is truly fascinating. His sonnets, which are his most popular work, reflect several strong themes. Several arguments attempt to find the full content of those themes.
In Elizabeth Browning’s poem ‘Sonnet 43’, Browning explores the concept of love through her sonnet in a first person narrative, revealing the intense love she feels for her beloved, a love which she does not posses in a materialistic manner, rather she takes it as a eternal feeling, which she values dearly, through listing the different ways she loves her beloved.
She says “writing can be an expression of one 's innermost feelings. It can allow the reader to tap into the deepest recesses of one 's heart and soul. It is indeed the gifted author that can cause the reader to cry at her words and feel hope within the same poem. Many authors as well, as ordinary people use writing as a way to release emotions.” She makes plenty points in her review that I completely agree with. After reading the poem I think that Elizabeth Barret Browning is not only the author of her famous poem, but also the speaker as well. She is a woman simply expressing her love for her husband in a passionate way through poetry. In the 1st Line it reads “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.” A woman drunk in love she is, and next she begins to count the numerous ways she can love her significant
Shakespeare's sonnets are a romantic and charming series of poems. His use of rhyme and passionate, eloquent language serve to illuminate his strong feelings. These techniques were probably the most fluent way for such a writer as him to express the immeasurable love that he obviously felt for his mysterious lady. Examining the numerous ways Shakespeare found to describe it, the reader believes that this love was undoubtedly lasting and authentic. He often made heart-felt comments about his emotions that could also suit lovers in the present day. Because of this, and the fact that people read them yet, Shakespeare's sonnets are timeless and universal, just like the concept of love itself.
Sonnet 73 is about a speaker who is trying to break it gently to his beloved the news that he’s going to die, that he’s in the last stages of his life, the fall of his life, and that the beloved, the loved one, will have to go on alone. He starts out this way: