Sonnet 43

Question 1

Who was the poet and where were they born?

Answer 1

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861) - Victorian - 19th century poet

Question 2

When was the poem published?

Answer 2

1850

Question 3

CONTEXT

Where was the poem from? And who was it dedicated to?

Answer 3

• poem from sonnets from the Portuguese- (44 sonnets)

- poem dedicated to her husband (Robert Browning)

Question 4

STRUCTURE

Answer 4

• Italian Petrarchan sonnet- usually masculine- (pretended they were not her words..)
• whole poem is a hyperbole
• epitome lyrical poem

Question 5

ANALYSIS 1

What does ‘depth’ and ‘breadth’ suggest?(4)

Answer 5

• melodic assonant phrase
• like her soul is bigger than the Earth
• bursting passion
• enjambment

Question 6

ANALYSIS 2

‘by sun and candlelight’ ?(2)

Answer 6

• loves him all day and all night

- further expressing her love for him

Question 7

ANALYSIS 3

‘I love thee’?(3)

Answer 7

• repetition
• anaphora
• emphatic of her love

Question 8

ANALYSIS 4

‘In my old griefs and with my childhoods faith’?

Answer 8

• her father was horrible to her
• carol rumens quote - whole life in poem
  He is a god to her and he restored her faith

Question 9

ANALYSIS

‘I love thee with a love I seemed to lose’ What does this imply?

Answer 9

• through her Father-venerates him (worships)

Question 10

ANALYSIS

What quote implied eternal love?

Answer 10

‘love thee better after death’ - eternal love

Question 11

key themes:

Answer 11

love

Question 12

CONTEXT

What did Elizabeth Harding pretend?

Answer 12

Pretended they weren’t really her words

-not appropriate- (women were largely marginalised and oppressed at this time)- acting in an unconventional way

Question 13

What did Carol Rumen say about the poem?

Answer 13

“like her life is on the back of a postcard”

- talks about whole life in the poem