Sonnet 43 (Love and relationships) Flashcards
Who wrote Sonnet 43?
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
What is the story of Sonnet 43?
-She states a question which she answers in the poem. Lists a number of different ways in which she loves her partner:
-Limitless -Freely -Eternal
-Passionately -Purely -Every day
-Title shows it’s a love poem
What does ‘How do I love thee?’ show? (first line)
-Rhetorical question
-Ponderous tone to introduce ways she loves him
-‘How’ shows Browning is questioning how she can prove her limitless love towards her fiance
-‘I’ shows this is an intimate conversation between lovers discussing love for each other
What does ‘Let me count the ways’ show? (first line)
-‘count’=endless amount of way in which she loves him/shows passionate nature of her love due to endless amount of ways- possibly too many to mention
-she is infatuated (possessed with intense short-lived admiration) and devoted (loyal/loving) to him
What does ‘I love thee to the depth and breadth and height/My soul can reach’ mean? (second line/third line)
-‘depth, breadth, height’ she loves everything about him and that there isn’t a time when she doesn’t love him
-repetition of ‘and’ conveys that her love is endless for him
-‘depth’=metaphor shows deeps/strong love for him
-metaphor of ‘soul’ links to eternal love for husband- both her physical body and soul love him
What does ‘I love thee with a love I seemed to lose/ With my lost saints’ show? (11th/12th line)
-Religious imagery with ‘saints’ and Christians worship saints so could imply she worships her husband/he is her saviour
-‘a love I seemed to lose’ implies the loss of her brother and the disinheritance from her father
-‘saints’ shows that the love she has lost for her family has returned in the form/presence of her husband
What does ‘I love thee with the breath,/Smiles, tears of all my life!’ mean? (12th/13th line)
-Oxymoron (two things next to each other that are opposites)of ‘smiles’ and ‘tears’ could link to extreme emotions felt by Browning towards husband
-She wants to share these emotions with him
-‘breath, smiles, tears’ show her emotions are full/she is overwhelmed that she can’t comprehend her love for her husband
-Wants to spend ‘all’ her life with him
-‘!’ expressing her immense adoration for him
What does ‘I shall but love thee better after death.’ illustrate? (Last line)
-Full stop could possibly show that she is so devoted to him that there is no place she won’t love him
-Religious imagery shows she is devoted to husband and will continue to love him in after life (heaven), possibly her idea of heaven is him
-Her love for him is eternal
What is the context of Sonnet 43?
-Browning’s brother died when she was young and as a result her father was very overprotective.
-She eloped against her father’s wishes and married Robert Browning showing how important love was to her.
-Her father disinherited her after this.
-Sonnets are love poems (14 lines).
-Sonnet 43 is a woman declaring her voice and opposing the tradition of the voice of sonnets being male.
Describe the structure of Sonnet 43 and what it represents
-14 lines due to it being a Sonnet (love poem)
-Usually 10 syllables (almost sounds/words) per line could possibly suggest that she needs him to function properly (Iambic pentameter- rhythm of heartbeat could show poem coming from heart)
-Has an AB rhyme scheme to show how she needs him and how her love is ongoing/never ending- the love is harmonious (pure/perfect) and rhythm reflects this
-Enjambment (when one line continues to the next) shows her love can’t be contained
-Anaphora- Repetition of ‘I love thee’ at start of several consecutive (one after other) lines- helps build rhythm of poem and gets her love across
-‘I love thee’ shows she is answering her rhetorical question at start
Who is Sonnet 43 from the perspective of?
A woman declaring the love for her husband
