Sonnet 43 Flashcards
Subject
- She expresses her intence love for her lover, counting all the ways she loves him
- She loves him so deeply she sees it as spiritual and sacred
Titler
“Sonnet 43” out of 44 - not that important
Imagery
she uses comparisons to describe her love, to include everything, she progresses from loving him to the “depth and breadth and height” to loving him as a constant thing
also “smiles, tears, of all her life” - she loves him with everything she has
She also uses the imagery of grief / loss of innoncence- “my lost saints” and “childhood’s faith” - not just a young girl but a maturer, older speaker
Language
- She uses no specific gender so anyone can use it
- She uses hyperbole to show the strength of her feelings - “depth and breadth and height”
- she uses religious language, he love is like a religion and affects her in every way
- she also uses religious language to show her love is morally right and that “God” supports it and its purity
- She also uses the anaphora of “How do I love thee” to emphasise the strength of her feelings, to express the depth of her love
- her love is unconditional like religious faith
Tone
- Deep and lasting love - the last line shows her love is everlasting
- Unselfish love - she asks for nothing in return
- She sounds breathless with her use of enjambment and of caesurae
Structure
This poem follows the tradition of a Petrarchan sonnet and its specific rhyme scheme and iambic pentameter. However, this is disrupted by pauses(caesurae) and repetition making the reader passionate and breathless
First-person also gives the poem a personal level
The first 8 lines introduce the poem’s theme - that her love is so intense, it is almost divine. And the next 6 develop this them by showing that she loves him with the emotions of an entire lifetime and after death
Themes
- Love and Relationship
- Faith and Worship
