Sonnet 43 - Elizabeth Barrett Browning Flashcards
when was this poem published?
1850
themes?
- power - the power of love
- love
- man - a man, Robert Browning and his relationship with Elizabeth
- religion - appears throughout the poem with religious language and references to God, and Elizabeth’s idolisation and worship of Robert
what is the meaning of this poem?
- writing to her eventual husband, Robert Browning, Elizabeth Barrett Browning lists the ways in which she loves him by using a sonnet
- she begins in general terms in the octet, before expressing herself in a more personal way - by relating her love for Robert to things from her past - in the poem’s sestet
what is the mood of the poem?
- the poem is overwhelming loving and devotional
- the repitition of ‘I love thee’ helps to establish this, whilst also hinting at a more obsessive or fragile aspect of love
what is the motivation for the poet to write this poem?
- writing this sonnet to him as she sent him a letter, Elizabeth Barrett Browning elevates Robert Browning to a god-like status, highlighting the importance he and his love have to her, especially considering the difficulties she has faced in life, including illness, the death of relatives, and a controlling father
- Barrett Browning emphasises the intensity of her emotions in this poem, suggesting how overwhelming love can be
title: ‘Sonnet 43’
LANGUAGE:
- a sonnet is a love poem
- ‘43’ is the 43rd sonnet out of the 44, written from Barrett Browning to Robert Browning
- shows she had deep and intense feelings of love for him
‘I’
‘me’
‘My’
LANGUAGE:
- first person pronouns make the poem more intimate
- autobiographical as it is written from Elizabeth’s view
‘How do I love thee’
LANGUAGE:
- question establishes the poem’s topic, if it must be counted, the amount of love must be very, very large
- conversational tone
- her love is not immediately quantifiable
- reflective
‘thee’
LANGUAGE:
- second person pronoun makes it clear that there is an intended audience - Robert Browning
‘depth and breadth and height’
LANGUAGE:
- emphatic list
- measurement imagery
- Barrett Browning has covered each of the three physical dimensions
- shows her love for Robert extends to the metaphysical extremes of this
- she loves Robert in a complete and total way
STRUCTURE:
- enjambment of these lines creates a sense of breathlessness, symbolising her passion and intense feelings for Robert
- suggests her love transcends the limitations of poetic form
‘I love thee’
STRUCTURE:
- repitition
- could show devotion and intensity and these lines emphasise this
- however it could show her desperation and insecurity, as she is worried that Robert does not know or understand her love for him
- for the first time in her life, Elizabeth met a man who truly loved her
‘sun and candlelight’
IMAGERY:
- the juxtaposition between daytime and night-time shows that Barrett Browning’s love for Robert is all-encompassing
- the reference to light could show that his love is a human requirement for her and she loves him continually
- nature imagery
‘Right’
‘Praise’
LANGUAGE:
- Barrett Browning compares her love for Robert to morally righteous behaviour, suggesting that her loving him is a good and right thing to do
- establishes a semantic field of morality
‘old griefs’
‘childhood’s faith’
‘lost saints’
LANGUAGE:
- autobiographical references
- suggests that Robert will be as important to her life as these key moments are
- ‘old griefs’ could reference the emotion she felt when her mother and brother died
- ‘childhood faith’ conveys how Barrett Browning was a religious enthusiast
- ‘my lost saints’ shows how she felt as it her faith lessened as she grew older and how Robert has replaced these saints; she idolises him
‘Smiles, tears’
LANGUAGE:
- the juxtaposition suggests that her love for Robert will last forever, throughout the good and the bad
- recalls traditional wedding vows: ‘For better, for worse’
’-‘
STRUCTURE:
- the caesurae break up the rhythm of the poem, which could symbolise her excitement and passion
- stream of consciousness
‘I shall but love thee better after death’
LANGUAGE:
- subversion of traditional wedding vows ‘til death do us part’
- Barrett Browning’s love for Robert will last longer than she does; immortal love
- looking for God’s approval of this, believes her love for Robert is pure
semantic field of religion
- Barret Browning uses a semantic field of religion to elevate Robert to a god-like status, which is somewhat blasphemous, showing the intensity of her feelings for him
- the semantic field of religion suggests that her love is pure and right, almost as if she is defending it (perhaps against her father)
- ‘soul’ suggests that this poem is metaphysical and there is a love that goes beyond
- ‘Being and ideal Grace’ the words are capitalised in the middle of the line, which shows how Barrett Browning is using them in a religious or spiritual sense - this suggests her love is equal to her desire to love and be close to God
- ‘candlelight’; candles have connotations of prayer which could suggest how Robert is her idol now
- ‘Right’ and ‘Praise’ are capitalised which suggests they are being used in a religious or spiritual sense
poet context
- alive in the early 1800s
- born into a reasonably wealthy family: her father owned plantations in Jamaica, however Elizabeth vocally opposed slavery
- devoutly Christian, describing her faith as ‘the wild visions of an enthusiast’ and general society was very pious at this time
- ill and frail for most of her life - the medication she took for this may have resulted in her wild imagination
- had many family deaths and difficult family relationships - felt guilty for the death of her second brother as he had been visiting her when he died in a sailing accident
- her father threatened to disown her when she got married
- married Robert Browning who was also a Victorian writer
- Robert began writing to Elizabeth in the 1840s, after some of her literary success
- they communicated in secret as Elizabeth knew her father wouldn’t approve
- amongst the correspondence, Elizabeth wrote Robert a series of sonnets, however she as opposed to the idea
- some critics view Browning as a romantic poet
form?
- Petrarchan sonnet
- autobiographical
structure?
- structurally, this poem is a pretty perfect sonnet which could symbolise the perfection of Barrett Browning’s love for Robert and could also show her dedication for him
- however, ‘Grace’ does not fully rhyme with ‘ways’ and ‘day’s’ which could suggest Barrett Browning is not used to this kind of perfection in love and is unable to fully comprehend this
sonnet form
- a sonnet is a type of love poem
- sonnets are 14 lines long (split into an 8 line octet and a 6 line sestet)
- usually written in iambic pentameter, which mirrors the rhythm of normal speech
- the octet usually introduces an idea or problem
- a volta occurs between the 8th and 9th lines - the rhyme scheme and line of argument are different after it
- the sestet usually solves the problem set out in the octet, or otherwise comments on the idea
- follows a set rhyme scheme: ABBAABBA CDCDCD (or a variation of it)
