sonnet 29 - 'i think of thee'

Question 1

summary

Answer 1

• a poem about the speaker’s borderline obsessive thoughts about their lover.
• the idea
  of vines encircling a tree is used as a metaphor for the speaker’s growing love.
• eventually they
  realise that it is better to be physically present rather than thinking about him

Question 2

context

Answer 2

• wrote this whilst courting robert browning
• wasn’t intended to be published but robert browning published it
• written in a collection of 44 sonnets
• during this era, women were not expected to experience or express strong emotions

Question 3

structure and form

Answer 3

• written in the form of a petrarchan sonnet - about prospective love froma distance
• iambic pentameter - suggesting the traditional nature of her love. at times she breaks from that meter, showing the unconventionality of their love. the love she feels is so intense that she cannot be hindered by rigid guidelines
• volta in line 5
• repetition of ‘thee’ portrays her obsession

Question 4

sonnet 29/love’s philosophy

Answer 4

+ shelley and barrett browning both use natural imagery as a metaphor
for romantic love. shelley states that “she winds of heaven mix for ever”
and that “the waves clasp one another”. barrett browning similarly
attributes physical intimacy to nature in her comparison of her thoughts to “wild vines, about a tree” and “bands of greenery”.
+ both poems are short and concise, showing the speaker’s emotions to be
highly intense. the two stanzas used in both could represent two people as a couple.

• in typical sonnet form, sonnet 29 ends with a feeling of resolution, created by the manipulation of the first line, “I think of thee!”, in the last line “I do not think of thee – I am too near thee.”. contrastingly, in “Love’s philosophy”, the poem ends in the same tone with which it began. the first stanza ends with the speaker asking “why not I with thine?” and the
  second and final stanza ends with “what are all these kisses worth, // If
  thou kiss not me?”, this shows how there has been no progression in his romantic pursuit.

Question 5

sonnet 29/porphyria’s lover

Answer 5

+ unhealthy fixation on the object of their affection. sonnet 29 shows this through active verbs of ‘twine’ and ‘bud’ which imply that her love is smothering and browning objectifies porphyria - “her smooth white shoulder bare” and “spread o’er all her yellow
hair”
+ there is natural imagery used in “porphyria’s lover” in the pathetic fallacy used in “sullen wind”, “tore the elm-tops down
for spite” and “to vex the lake”. in “sonnet 29”, barrett browning uses the extended metaphor of nature. her love is symbolised
by “wild vines, about a tree” and “the straggling green”
+ in both poems, the speaker is unfulfilled and then they eventually become fulfilled in their relationship. In “porphyria’s lover”, initially, the speaker is unsettled by porphyria’s autonomy which is shown in “too weak, for all her heart’s endeavour, // to set its struggling passion free”. eventually the speaker
is shown to be satisfied in the exclamatory “and I, its love, am gained instead!”. likewise, in “sonnet 29”, the speaker is initially desperate to be with her lover and this is shown by the poem beginning with “i think of thee!”, a repetition of the title, which shows how she is only able to think of
her lover rather than be with him. The turning point in the sonnet however, leads to a subverted repetition of the opening line in “i do not think of thee – I am too near thee.”, this shows the speaker’s change in situation from disillusionment to satisfaction.

• In “sonnet 29”, the speaker recognises that her obsession is unhealthy for
  their relationship. at the turning point in the sonnet, she states that “i will
  not have my thoughts instead of thee” showing how she admits that
  thinking constantly about her lover will ruin their relationship. the speaker
  in “porphyria’s lover” does not have the same self awareness and this is
  shown by the final hubristic line “and yet god has not said a word!” which demonstrates the speaker’s lack of remorse.
• which demonstrates the speaker’s lack of remorse.
• In “sonnet 29”, barrett browning employs the rigid sonnet form whilst
  browning’s poem is continuous and not separated into stanzas. this
  shows that “sonnet 29” is a more conventional depiction of love than
  “porphyria’s lover” which also sporadically employs iambic tetrameter.

Question 6

“i think of thee! - my thoughts do twine and bud” / “i do not think of thee - i am too near thee”

Answer 6

• cyclical structure but also reversal - he is near her now so he longer needs to think about him
• exclamative shows excitment at the thought of him
• immediate direct address of her
  lover creates a personal and intimate tone

Question 7

“wild vines”, “broad leaves” “straggling green”

Answer 7

• extended metaphor of the lover as a strong tree, and the narrator’s obsessive thoughts as vines that grow around him. her ‘wild vines’ ‘hides the wood’.
• the word straggling suggests she is overpowering him - overgrown
• vines = strangling, suffocating, protection, obsessive

Question 8

“renew thy presence; as a strong tree should / rustle thy bough and set thy trunk all bare”

Answer 8

• imperatives reveal her longing and urgency. she demands his presence
• sexual innuendo - subverting gender roles
• wants to stop thinking about him and have the real him instead
• sibilant sounds create the rustling sound of her ‘thoughts

Question 9

“drop heavily down”
“breathe within thy shadow”

Answer 9

• passionate restlessness
• ’ conveys the weight of her
  obsessive thoughts, and her desire to shed them
• needs him to breathe live and survive, as vines do
• patriarchal society - she will continue to be inferior to him. he is so superior to her that she cannot comprehend it