Sonnet 43 - Elizabeth Barrett Browning Flashcards
Love in the form of spirituality
-Romantic love, for her, is ultimately closely linked to and perhaps even indistinguishable from love for God
-beginning; appears her love may be likened to the same extent as her love for god
-ongoing; more religious references and imagery used, displaying her utmost connection with God and how it has been implemented in her from a young age
Sonnet 43 collection
-From the collection ‘from the Portugese’ to her husband
-Element of secrecy - doesn’t directly use names, which may be assocciated with her father’s extremist conservative views and supposed disapproval at Elizabeth’s love
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways
Hyperphora - maybe mirrors her happiness and eagerness to talk about her love and share it with him
‘I love thee’
Anaphora - continued direct address - nothing can distract her from her unbreaking untarnished love
‘to the depth and breadth and height’
-assonance - mirrors rhythm and regularity her love gives her
-spatial metaphor - elongates the extent of her love
-semantic field of measurements- immeasurable
‘my soul can reach’
-soul - love has reached a new level - lives on eternally untarnished
‘for the ends of Being and ideal Grace’
close assocciation with spiritual and non-divine - God’s relatoionship with humans is similar? bc God loves us eternally?
Capitalised - love cannot be labelled and put into a specific category
‘by sun and candelight’
Juxtaposing artificial and natural light - how she loves him throguh their happy and tough times or how she loves their ordinary love too
‘I love thee freely’
Elopes because of extreme contempt from her father?
They don’t feel any constraints anymore
‘in my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith’
justxaposition - love is simultaneously equal to childhood naivety and love experienced in mourning
‘as they turn from praise’
AO3 - losing faith in God because of her illness?
‘smiles, tears’
Modal verbs outward symbol of her unwavering certainty
‘I shall but love thee better after death’
Ends with religious reference - significance - she may be trying to reinforce that her faith will always be a key part of her beliefs
Declarative - will continue and strengthen in the spiritual realm
Petrarchan sonnet
octave - love + religion
sestet = childhood + spiritual
Regular rhyme scheme, some slant
pure love but at a cost - no love fits the idealistic ‘perfect’ that people think
