Sonnet 43 Flashcards
Poet
Elizebeth barrett browning
Vehicle statement / what is poem about
Browning uses sonnet 43 as a vehicle to represent her intense and passion for her relationship with her husband. The sonnet uses a passionate tome to convey the all-encompassing nature of love, and how love endures beyond the constraints of time
Themes
Love
Devotion
Passing of time
Quotes for love
“How do i love thee”
“Let me count the ways”
“In my old griefs, and with my childhood faith”
“How do i love thee”
The poem centres around a first person speakers expressions of intense love. The speaker implies a listening with whom they are intimate. The rhetorical question and answer may suggest that the poem is a reply. The posing of question may also make seem poem as controversial as perhaps Robert uas posed the question to her.
“Let me count the ways”
The act of counting suggests love is so immense that it cannot be easily defined, but the speaker is determined to express it, once again linking to controversy. It can also represent how there are many varied ways of love and it is mot immediately quantifiable
“In my old griefs, and with my childhood faith”
Juxtaposing passionate love with past griefs and childhood faith, speaker conveys the intensity and purity of her love. Comparison siggests her love is as powerful as her deepest sorrows and pure as her childhood beliefs. Loos, at two sides of love. One of power and strength of love but one also about innocence and finding different experiences with the loved ones
Devotion quotes
“I love thee to the depth and breadth and height”
“My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight”
“I love thee freely, as men strive for right”
“I love thee to the depth and breadth and height”
Hyperbolic language “depth and breadth and height” conveys the ceaseless nature of the speakers devotion. Constant and unending. The breadth height and depth could also be seen as a formula of volume suggesting that her devotion for him could also be overflowing
“My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight”
Spiritual phrasing allows us to see how devoted she is. Much like those devoted to relgion and God. The link to religious phrasing allows us to see just how devoted and how she worships roberts love for her. The metaphor can also suggest that her love extends beoynd physical limitations suggesting a spiritual level of devotion
“I love thee freely, as men strive for Right”
The simile compares the speakers love to the pursuit of moral righteousness: the capitalisation of “right” suggests her devotion is as pure and noble as the highest moral ideas. Quite patriotic towards him
Ao3: however could also juxtapose as her father had not approved of Robert yet she married him, going against her father which at the time was the wrong thing to do
Passing of time quotes
“I shall but love lee better after death”
“By sun and candlelight”
“I love thee with the breath, Smiles, tears, of all my life”
“I shall love but thee better after death”
Concludes with declaration that they speakers love will not only endure but will grow stronger after death. The paradox of loving “better after death” highlights the eternal nature of true love.could also link to religious tone as in the after life she will also love him
“By sun and candlelight”
Imagery of sun and candleight symbolises the passage of time from day to night. Suggesting the speakers love is constant and unwavering. Both images of light allows us to see that she only sees their love with joy and happiness, no negatives to love. Candleight also allows us to see how much she will love him. Candlelight burning usually lasts for a long time and usually is blown out by another force and in this case she is suggesting she will noever blow it away like her love
“I love thee with the breath, Smiles, tears, of all my life”
Stating she will love him for all her life. Allows him to know that she will always be there trough all the emotions and different parhways of life. Her time of love wont ever stop die to different events
