“I have hated words and I have loved them, and I hope I have made them right.”…
In Sonnet 1, Browning conveys the Romantic idea of love and spirituality against the prudish rationalism of the Victorian era. Her Greco-allusion “How Theocractes had sung…” references the 3rd century BC Greek pastoral poet – mourning the lost ‘art’ of renaissance passion. The aural metaphor reflects how poetry as “a craft,” had been lost – the past tense reinforcing that love as spiritual and not materialistic is neglected by Victorian culture. This is echoed in the lines: “of the sweet years, the dear and wished for years”, in which Browning utilizes assonance to accentuate the repetition of “years”; rhymed in the line, “through my tears” to emphasize the Victorian’s shifting focus of love to a convention of marriage that relies upon dowries and status. The enjambment, “who by turns had flung / A shadow across me” is a metaphor illustrating her isolation and sadness in this context – the literal shadow cast…
Sonnet by bill Collins is a great example of modern day sonnets. The sonnet has everything that a sonnet should acquire to be considered a sonnet. In this sonnet Bill Collins seems to criticize the sonnet form of Shakespeare. Also, in the sonnet of Bill Collins he puts many allusions in his sonnets. For example, in the beginning of the sonnet where he mentions in an alliteration form in line 3 where you get the allusion of the story troy; to launch a little ship on love's storm-tossed seas. The next allusion when he mentions A famous sonnet writer named Petrarch in line 12, as well as the final last allusion motioned towards the end of the sonnet in line 13, where he mentions shake spears act called Twelfth night.…
The structure of ‘Sonnet 43’ reflects the typical conventions of a sonnet, in terms of the line number equalling fourteen. By writing in the form of a sonnet, Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s poetic skills can be seen because it restricts what can be said about love and at the same time also indicates to the reader that her relationship/feelings about her partner have been effectively worded…
This image also depicts the magnitude of love as the words "depth and breadth and height" show the immensity of Elizabeth Barrett’s love. In each stanza Barrett’s love is compared with many everyday things and ideas; as the poem progresses her love gains strength and reinforces her ideas. The repetition of, ‘I love thee,’ throughout the sonnet makes this proclamation of love even more convincing.…
Sonnet 43 is a great romantic poem that tells us in depth how much love Barrett had shed for her husband. This is shown in the metaphor she states in her poem “I love you enough to meet all your needs of day and night” A clever technique she used was Anaphora the repetition of “I love thee” at the beginning of the line is to enforce the already existing knowledge about the strength of her love, and that what she feels is love, nothing more and nothing less. In the poem she is trying to describe the abstract feeling of…
The sonnet has a definite sense of strophic development, and the frequent twists' in the narration necessitate a close examination of this. The sonnet begins with a "When" clause, launching the reader on a sentence of indeterminate length and subsequently leaving us with expectation, in suspense, at the end of the line. The woman is emphatic: she does not merely tell the truth, she is made of truth. Both the nature of this truth, and the reason for her swearing it, are unknown to the reader. The immediate thought is that the speaker has challenged her in some way, and whether or not this is correct, it is certainly an unconventional way to begin a love poem.…
Williams Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 29” is Shakespeare starts the first quatrain with himself talking of disgrace in his fortune and in the eyes of others. In the second quatrain, Shakespeare takes the inward thoughts and looks outward with coveting eyes and wishes he could be a different man. By the third quatrain, the poet thinks upon the young man to whom the poem is addressing, which makes him assume a more optimistic view of his own life. The speaker compares such a change in mood to a lark rising from the early morning darkness at sunrise. Finally, the speaker masterfully closes the sonnet by declaring an emotional remembrance of his friend's love which is enough for him to value his position in life more than a king’s friendship. Several poetic devices enhance his use of poetic imagery, figurative language, and sounds to create a unifying effect throughout his work, thus enabling him to express many intricate emotions in simply fourteen lines.…
As Christopher Morley once said ,“there is only one success - to spend your life in your own way”. Similarly, Elizabeth Barrett Browning and William Wordsworth both have successfully happy lives, although they are consoled in different ways. In both “How Do I Love Thee” by Elizabeth Browning and “I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud” by William Wordsworth, there is a common theme of happiness depicted through the use of diction, however, Browning presents reasons as to why she achieves happiness from a physical human companion, whereas in Wordsworth’s, he discusses how his happiness comes from the inanimate prospects of nature, both using similes and personification to relay this to the reader.…
‘Sonnet 43’ is a romantic poem, written by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. In the poem she is trying to describe the abstract feeling of love by measuring how much her love means to her. She also expresses all the different ways of loving someone and she tells us about her thoughts around her beloved. The tone of the poem is deep, in a loving way.…
A sonnet is a form of lyric poetry with fourteen lines and a specific rhyme scheme. (Lyric poetry presents the deep feelings and emotions of the poet as opposed to poetry that tells a story or presents a witty observation.)…
Although a time of great societal change, 1840’s England still held traditional values that are often associated with this period as being prudish, old fashioned and repressed. Elizabeth Barrett Browning pushed the boundaries of her time as it was previously unheard of that females would write about idealised love. With the increase of feminism Barrett Browning gained her popularity. The sonnets show her journey of accepting the love she has received. She states in sonnet thirteen “I cannot teach my hand to hold my spirits so far from myself—me-- that I should bring the proof…
Browning's sonnets emphasize a type of idealized love, one that she hopes and dreams of. A love that is not ordinary, that is not based on physical appearance or on a feeling of pity or concern but for “loves sake only…… through loves eternity” (Sonnet 14). This personified statement of which she repeats continually throughout the sonnet emphasizes her demands which seem extremely idealistic and hard to meet. The sonnets explore the idea that she has never experienced love, and has only read about it, hence the discussion of Theocritus and “the antique tongue” in Sonnet 1, specifically love in its idealistic and dreamt state. This demonstrates how this text explores the idea of aspirations.…
Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s sonnets of the portuguese represents love to be eternal. Love has a highly religious motive in Browning’s Sonnets and also that love is transformative. Elizabeth browning wants to be loved for who she is and nothing else. In sonnet fourteen she states “If thou must love me, let it be for nought, except for love's sake only. Her poetry can be reflected as a prayer like quality in sonnet 14, browning says “I love thee freely, I love thee purely, I love thee.” The high modality anaphora enhances the religious imagery and the idea of her love being sacred”. Browning's voice and her idealistic view on love is transcendent into her poetry, where her imperative tone is delivered in a commanding way “Neither love me for thine own pity wiping my cheeks dry”. She expresses her love for her lover that fulfils her, “I love thee to the depth and breadth and height” the technique…
Barrett Browning was one of the most prominent poets of the Victorian Era. She wrote a total of forty-four sonnets displaying her changing mentality on life which in turn conveys her changing representation of love and hope. As the sonnets progressed, she begins to portray love as a necessity and a requirement for her existence and due to her rough past, love has provided her with hope. Therefore, Browning’s illustration of love is directly proportional to that of hope.…