Sonnet 43

Question 1

What themes are explored?

Answer 1

Love
Religion (death)
Communication

Question 2

Love quotes

Answer 2

‘How do I love thee?’
‘I love thee to the depth and breadth and height / My soul can reach’
‘I love thee’
‘breath / Smiles, tears of all my life!’

Question 3

Religion (death) quotes

Answer 3

‘ends of Being and ideal Grace’
‘With my lost saints’
‘if God choose, / I shall but love thee better after death’

Question 4

Communication quotes

Answer 4

‘How do I love thee? Let me count the ways’
‘I love thee…’
‘…of all my life! – and, if God choose…’

Question 5

‘I love thee to the depth and breadth and height / My soul can reach’

Answer 5

Semantic field of measurement here illustrates how she is trying to measure her love. Is this possible? Personification of the soul almost sounds painful, like she is stretching to measure the love; it is too much.

Question 6

‘I love thee’

Answer 6

Anaphora/repetition of ‘I love thee’ foregrounds the intensity of her love.

Question 7

Context

Answer 7

EBB
Written for Robert Browning - husband to be - father didn’t agree with marriage so they eloped

Part of ‘Sonnets from the Portuguese’ - had 44 love sonnets for him

Death of her brother affected poetry and gave her depression

Grew up in a family where her father owned slave plantations but she didn’t agree with her fathers views

Question 8

Structure / Form

Answer 8

Sonnet 43 is a love poem in the form of a sonnet. A sonnet is a 14-line poem with a specific rhyme scheme and meter (usually iambic pentameter). This poetry format—which forces the poet to wrap his thoughts in a small, neat package—originated in Sicily, Italy.
iambic pentameter

Sonnet 43 is in iambic pentameter

Question 9

breath

Answer 9

‘breath / Smiles, tears of all my life!’

Question 10

death

Answer 10

‘if God choose, / I shall but love thee better after death’