Sonnet 43

Question 1

What year was Sonnet 43 published in?

Answer 1

1845

Question 2

Who wrote Sonnet 43?

Answer 2

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Question 3

What is the plot of Sonnet 43?

Answer 3

The speaker is proclaiming her unending passion for her beloved.

Question 4

What are the themes of Sonnet 43?

Answer 4

-Love
-Faith/Hope
-Passion

Question 5

What is the context of Sonnet 43?

Answer 5

-Speaker is catholic
-Brother drowned when she was 32, she became recluse
-Sonnet-> traditional love poetry
-Lifelong illness-> lends itself to the passionate appreciation she has of love for her husband

Question 6

What is the form & structure/ concepts of Sonnet 43?

Answer 6

-Sonnet-> flexible rhyme scheme
-‘Love’ repeated for emphasis-> compared to holiness of ‘lost saints’
-Autobiographical
-Sonnet-> love, death

Question 7

“How do I love thee? let me count the ways!”

Answer 7

“Let me count the ways!”- What is love?/in what ways does she love him?

Question 8

“I love thee freely, as men strive for Right.”

Answer 8

“I love thee”- anaphora
“Right”- her love is free and chosen, this is the person she wants to and should be with, indicated ‘good’

Question 9

“I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.”

Answer 9

“I love thee”- anaphora
-Christian virtue of humility

Question 10

“Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight.”

Answer 10

“sun”- he’s always there for her
“candlelight”- chooses to love him/intimate, love, hope, faith

Question 11

“I shall love thee for better after death”

Answer 11

-Faith is shaken but not lost

Question 12

What main theme does Sonnet 43 fall under?

Answer 12

Love-> “better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.”