Sonnet 43

Question 1

Poet?

Answer 1

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Question 2

Context?

Answer 2

Browning was born with what is now suspected as HKPP (A rare muscle disorder), she married Robert Browning and wrote the poem about their love.

Question 3

Q - First line, personal

Answer 3

‘How do i love thee?’

Question 4

Q - Hyperbole, the intensity of her love

Answer 4

‘I love thee to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach,’

Question 5

Q - Repetition of …

Answer 5

‘I love thee’

Question 6

Q - Religion and childish faith

Answer 6

‘Praise’
‘ideal grace’
‘with my childhood’s faith.’
‘with my lost saints’

Question 7

Q - Last line, Religious connotations

Answer 7

‘if God choose, i shall but love thee better after death.’

Question 8

Q - Po3, Hyperbole, emotive

Answer 8

‘I love thee with all the breath, smiles, tears, of all my life!’

Question 9

Form:

Answer 9

• Petrarchan love sonnet
• Specific rhyme scheme and iambic pentameter
• First person

Question 10

Structure:

Answer 10

Octave and Sestet:
Octave = The intensity of their love is almost divine
Sestet = She loves him with the emotions of all her life, from childhood, through death, and even after death.