Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 39 “Because thou hast the power and own’st the grace”

Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 39 “Because thou hast the power and own’st the grace”

In sonnet 39 “Because thou hast the power and own’st the grace,” the speaker is crediting her belovèd with being able to see her true soul through all of the despair that the years have heaped upon her. 

Introduction and Text of Sonnet 39 “Because thou hast the power and own’st the grace”

In Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s sonnet 39 from Sonnets from the Portuguese, the speaker endeavors to leave her former diminished stature behind now that she is unconditionally loved by a wonderful man.  

The speaker is heaping all the credit upon her belovèd fiancé for her acquiring the ability to perceive her true nature despite all of the sorrow that years of pining away have left in her life.

Sonnet 39 “Because thou hast the power and own’st the grace”

Because thou hast the power and own’st the grace
To look through and behind this mask of me
(Against which years have beat thus blanchingly
With their rains), and behold my soul’s true face,
The dim and weary witness of life’s race,—
Because thou hast the faith and love to see,
Through that same soul’s distracting lethargy,
The patient angel waiting for a place
In the new Heavens,—because nor sin nor woe,Nor God’s infliction, nor death’s neighborhood, Nor all which others viewing, turn to go,
Nor all which makes me tired of all, self-viewed,—
Nothing repels thee, … Dearest, teach me so
To pour out gratitude, as thou dost, good!

Commentary on Sonnet 39 “Because thou hast the power and own’st the grace”

The speakers revealing the importance of the influence of her belovèd for her newly acquired, delicious ability to see her true soul through all of the despair that the years have foisted upon her.

First Quatrain:  Powers of Vision

Because thou hast the power and own’st the grace
To look through and behind this mask of me
(Against which years have beat thus blanchingly
With their rains), and behold my soul’s true face,

Addressing her belovèd, the speaker credits him with the ability to see through the veil she has drooped around herself for protection.  Throughout her life, the years of feeling sad and sorrowful have taken a tremendous toll on her physical beauty and mental attitude.

However, her new love is able to pierce through those superficialities to perceive the value of her soul.  The speaker implies that she has spent many hours crying; therefore, she metaphorically transforms the tears and years into “rains” that have “beat thus blanchingly.”

Second Quatrain:  A Forlorn Life

The dim and weary witness of life’s race,—
Because thou hast the faith and love to see,
Through that same soul’s distracting lethargy,
The patient angel waiting for a place

The speaker avers that her forlorn life has been witnessed by her soul, which has come to identify itself as “dim and weary.”   The melancholy speaker then reports and concludes that her new love has both the “faith and love” that enable him to intuit the true nature or her soul.  

Though the speaker’s soul has been abused in the senses as she experienced so much pain, doubt, and anguish and thus has grown dull with “distracting lethargy,” it remained a “patient angel,” biding its time for better things to come.

First Tercet:  A New Blossoming

In the new Heavens,—because nor sin nor woe,Nor God’s infliction, nor death’s neighborhood, Nor all which others viewing, turn to go,
Nor all which makes me tired of all, self-viewed,—
Nothing repels thee, … Dearest, teach me so
To pour out gratitude, as thou dost, good!

As the speaker’s heavy-burdened soul waited “for a place / / In the new Heavens,” she now realizes the extent to which she has become aware of a new blossoming through the love of her suitor.  The speaker then begins a catalogue of negativity that has not been able to impede her belovèd from sensing the face of her real soul. 

That list includes “nor sin nor woe.”   Furthermore, “God’s infliction” and “death’s neighborhood” could not hide her soul from him. And even other impediments of her personality that repelled others could not make her belovèd abandon her.

Second Tercet:  A Catalogue of Maladies

Nor all which makes me tired of all, self-viewed,—
Nothing repels thee, … Dearest, teach me so
To pour out gratitude, as thou dost, good!

Continuing the catalogue of maladies, the speaker includes “all which makes me tired of all, self-viewed.” When she judged herself most harshly, she had found so many imperfections that the accumulation of them weakened her will to live a productive life.    Yet even these worst qualities of character have not been able to route the speaker’s new love from her, and her final remark shows the nature of her true soul. 

The recovering melancholic speaker now commands her belovèd to offer her instruction in remaining and showing thankfulness. The speaker’s miserable life has made her feel that she hitherto had nothing for which to be thankful, and now she needs to learn how to show gratitude, instead of masking it behind a  veil of tears.

The speaker finally asserts that her belovèd has the ability to pour out “good” with such a spontaneous ease that she wants to learn to do so as well.   If her belovèd suitor is so generous with being “good,” then the speaker wants to become generous in being thankful.