Sonnet 43 Flashcards
Who is Sonnet 43 written by?
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Sonnet 43:
What context do you know about Elizabeth Barrett Browning?
-had a controlling father
-suffered from a life long illness
-Robert browning and her exchanged 500+ letters
-they eloped in 1846 so her father disinherited her
-the penultimate sonnet marks the intensity of their love before marriage
What is Sonnet 43 about?
A love poem showing the strength and intensity of Elizabeth and Roberts love
List the 8 quotes for Sonnet 43…
‘How do I love thee?’
‘Depth and breadth and height’
‘I love thee freely’
‘freely//purely//praise’
‘i love thee//i love thee’
‘in my old griefs’
‘breathes// smiles, tears, of all my life’
‘better after death’
Sonnet 43:
What does this quote show….
‘How do I love thee?’
This direct and personal rhetoric question makes the poem theme clear also foreshadowing the obvious and clear love shown throughout the poem between Elizabeth and Robert
Sonnet 43:
What does this quote show….
‘Depth and breadth and height’
This spacial metaphor portrays the scale of her love and the iambic pentameter used stresses the nouns showing that love knows no bounds
Sonnet 43:
What does this quote show….
‘I love thee freely’
The use of the adjective freely emphasises the unconditional love in their relationship which opposes her live when she was under her dads dictatorial rules
Sonnet 43:
What does this quote show….
‘freely//purely//praise’
Iambic pentameter underlines these religious elements used by Browning to further portray the purity and god made relationship
Sonnet 43:
What does this quote show….
‘I love thee’ x4
Anaphora shows the strength within the relationship this is similarly reflected through the fact they exchanged 573 letters between themselves
Sonnet 43:
What does this quote show….
‘breath,// smiles, tears of all my life’
This quote shows how love remains although a multitude of emotions are experienced e.g when they eloped it was a very happy moment yet she lost her father due to being disinherited.
Furthermore the enjambment shows passion and how the love between them overflows
Sonnet 43:
What does this quote show….
‘Better after death’
This quote shows how love is eternal and hints at Elizabeth’s long life illness and therefore she shows that he will forever be her love due to the idea that they are seen together in gods eyes .
What structural techniques are seen in Sonnet 43?
The poem is obviously a sonnet therefore there is a octave and sestet.
The octave celebrates the intensity of love through the use of anaphora and spacial metaphors
The sestet changes volta by change in rhyme and the use of dashes also creates a sense of breathlessness
