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Category: Elizabeth Barrett Browning

  • Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 6  “Go from me. Yet I feel that I shall stand”

    Image: Elizabeth Barrett Browning – Getty Images

    Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 6  “Go from me. Yet I feel that I shall stand”

    Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s sonnet 6 is a clever seduction sonnet; as the speaker seems to be giving the suitor every reason to leave her, she is also giving him very good reasons to remain.

    Introduction and Text of Sonnet 6  “Go from me. Yet I feel that I shall stand”

    Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s sonnet 6 from Sonnets from the Portuguese may be thought of as the seeming reversal of a seduction theme.  At first the speaker seems to be dismissing her lover.  But as she continues, she shows just how close they already are.

    The speaker’s revelation that he will always be with her, even though she has sent him away from the relationship, is bolstered by many instances of intensity that is surely meant to keep the love attracted instead of repelling him.

    Sonnet 6  “Go from me. Yet I feel that I shall stand”

    Go from me. Yet I feel that I shall stand
    Hence forward in thy shadow. Nevermore
    Alone upon the threshold of my door
    Of individual life, I shall command
    The uses of my soul, nor lift my hand
    Serenely in the sunshine as before,
    Without the sense of that which I forbore—
    Thy touch upon the palm. The widest land
    Doom takes to part us, leaves thy heart in mine
    With pulses that beat double. What I do
    And what I dream include thee, as the wine
    Must taste of its own grapes. And when I sue
    God for myself, He hears that name of thine,
    And sees within my eyes the tears of two.

    Reading:  

    Commentary on Sonnet 6 “Go from me. Yet I feel that I shall stand”

    This sonnet is a clever seduction sonnet; as the speaker seems to be giving the suitor every reason to leave her, she is also giving him very good reasons that they should remain together.

    She is always trying to convince herself more than her suitor, for she already intuits that he believes their union is meant to be.  He knows the depth of his love for her. But she must convince herself that that depth is genuine.

    First Quatrain:  No Equal Partnership

    Go from me. Yet I feel that I shall stand
    Hence forward in thy shadow. Nevermore
    Alone upon the threshold of my door
    Of individual life, I shall command

    In Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s sonnet 6 from Sonnets from the Portuguese, the speaker is commanding her beloved to leave her.  As she has protested in earlier sonnets, she does not believe she is equal to his stature, and such a match could not withstand the scrutiny of their class society. 

    But the clever speaker also hastens to add that his spirit will always remain with her, and she will henceforth be “[n]evermore / Alone upon the threshold of my door / Of individual life.”

    That the speaker once met and touched one so esteemed will continue to play as a presence in her mind and heart.  She is grateful for the opportunity just to have briefly known him, but she cannot presume that they could have a permanent relationship.

    Second Quatrain:  Never to Forget

    The uses of my soul, nor lift my hand
    Serenely in the sunshine as before,
    Without the sense of that which I forbore—
    Thy touch upon the palm. The widest land

    The speaker continues the thought that her beloved’s presence will remain with her as she commands her own soul’s activities.  Even as she may “lift [her] hand” and view it in the sunlight, she will be reminded that a wonderful man once held it and touched “the palm.”

    The speaker has married herself so securely to her beloved’s essence that she avows that she cannot henceforth be without him.  As she attempts to convince herself that such a life will suffice, she also attempts to convince her beloved that they are already inseparable.

    First Tercet:  Metaphysically Together Always

    Doom takes to part us, leaves thy heart in mine
    With pulses that beat double. What I do
    And what I dream include thee, as the wine

    No matter how far apart the two may travel, no matter how many miles the landscape “doom[s]” them to separation, their two hearts will forever beat together, as “pulses that beat double.” 

    Everything she does in future will include him, and in her every dream, he will appear.  She is binding them together on the metaphysical level, where such bonds can never be broken, as they can on the physical level of being.

    Second Tercet:  Prayers That Include Her Beloved

    Must taste of its own grapes. And when I sue
    God for myself, He hears that name of thine,
    And sees within my eyes the tears of two.

    They will be a union as close as grapes and wine: “as the wine / / Must taste of its own grapes.” Her juxtaposition of wine and tears becomes symbolic of their liquid love, running together as any stream to the sea.

    And when she supplicates to God, she will always include the name of her beloved. She will never be able to pray only for herself but will always pray for him as well. And when the speaker sheds tears before God, she will be shedding “the tears of two.”  In her spiritual life, the two are already bound together.

    Her life will be so bound together with her beloved that there is no need for him to remain with her physically, and she has given reasons that he should depart and not feel any pangs of sorrow for her. 

    In fact, he will not be leaving her if they are so closely united already.  They can never be parted despite any measure of physical distance. While the speaker seems to be giving the suitor every opportunity to leave her by exaggerating their union, her pleadings also reveal that she is giving him every reason to remain with her. 

    If they are already as close and wine and grapes, and she adores him so greatly as to continue to remember that he touched her palm, such strong love and adoration would be difficult to turn down.

    Despite the class differences that superficially separate them, the speaker must somehow come to understand that their parting is not an option.  The metaphysical level of being must be explored for the sake of reality.

  • Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 3 “Unlike are we, unlike, O princely Heart!”

    Image:  Elizabeth Barrett Browning –  Getty Images

    Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 3 “Unlike are we, unlike, O princely Heart!”

    The speaker in Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s sonnet 3 muses on how unlikely it seems that a plain individual such as herself would begin a relationship with a person who has attracted royalty.

    Introduction and Text of Sonnet 3  “Unlike are we, unlike, O princely Heart!”

    The speaker of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s sonnet 3 from Sonnets from the Portuguese contemplates the differences between her belovèd and her humble self.  She continues her study of unlikely love employing the use of the Petrarchan sonnet form for the sequence.  

    The speaker thus is dramatizing her musings as they focus on her relationship with her belovèd partner. She explores her many doubts and self-deprecation seeming to be looking for a reason to change her mind about what seems to be an impossible liaison.

    Sonnet 3 “Unlike are we, unlike, O princely Heart!”

    Unlike are we, unlike, O princely Heart!
    Unlike our uses and our destinies.
    Our ministering two angels look surprise
    On one another, as they strike athwart
    Their wings in passing. Thou, bethink thee, art
    A guest for queens to social pageantries,
    With gages from a hundred brighter eyes
    Than tears even can make mine, to play thy part
    Of chief musician. What hast thou to do
    With looking from the lattice-lights at me,
    A poor, tired, wandering singer, singing through
    The dark, and leaning up a cypress tree?
    The chrism is on thine head,—on mine, the dew,—
    And Death must dig the level where these agree.

    Commentary on Sonnet 3:  “Unlike are we, unlike, O princely Heart!”

    The speaker in sonnet 3 is musing on how unlikely it seems that an unknown simple individual such as herself could attract and begin a relationship with a person who has attracted the attention and respect of royalty.

    First Quatrain:  Contemplating Differences

    Unlike are we, unlike, O princely Heart!
    Unlike our uses and our destinies.
    Our ministering two angels look surprise
    On one another, as they strike athwart

    The speaker begins with an excited utterance.  The humble speaker and her newly formed romantic partner perform very different roles in life; thus, they would naturally be on the road to very different “destinies,” one would assume, as the speaker seems to do.  The speaker then paints a fantastic image wherein a pair of angels look with surprise, “On one another, as they strike athwart / / Their wings in passing.” 

    This unusual pair of lovers possesses very different guardian angels, and those angels find themselves taken aback that such a couple with very differing stations in life should come together. Even more remarkable is that they seem to begin to flourish as they engaging in their new relationship.  The angels’ wings begin fluttering, as they questioningly peer upon the unlikely couple.

    Second Quatrain:  A Guest of Royalty

    Their wings in passing. Thou, bethink thee, art
    A guest for queens to social pageantries,
    With gages from a hundred brighter eyes
    Than tears even can make mine, to play thy part

    The speaker reports that her new belovèd has often been the guest of royalty at their social events—something this speaker could never have accomplished. The speaker is only a shy and retiring individual; she thus offers the contrast between her own social station and skills to that of one who has shined so brightly as to attract the acceptance into the company of kings and queens.

    The speaker assumes that the folks he surely meets at the spectacular affairs of royalty no doubt look at him with “a hundred brighter eyes” than her own.   Even her tears cannot be enough to render her eyes as bright as what he must experience at such high level social affairs.

    First Tercet:  Her Lowly Self

    Of chief musician. What hast thou to do
    With looking from the lattice-lights at me,
    A poor, tired, wandering singer, singing through

    The speaker then contends that unlike her lowly self, her new found love has played the role of “chief musician” at those gatherings of royalty.  She, therefore, must question the notion that he would even bother to give her a second thought, after encountering the glamor and glitz of upper class events. 

    The speaker then puts the question to her romantic partner in order to become informed as to why one such as he would be “looking from the lattice-lights” at one such as herself. 

    The speaker wants to know why one who can so easily attract and associate with royalty can at the same time seem to be like a commoner, as he “lean[s] up a cypress tree,” while peering up at her through her shaded-window.

    She seems to harbor a suspicion that her new relationship might be based on some frivolous curiosity instead of genuine interest and affection. Thus, she continues to muse and examines all aspects of this new liaison, until she feels comfortable in allowing herself to enjoy the relationship.

    Second Tercet:  A Precious Oil

    The dark, and leaning up a cypress tree?
    The chrism is on thine head,—on mine, the dew,—
    And Death must dig the level where these agree.

    Finally, the speaker declaims that her loved one sustains  “chrism” on his head, but she possesses only “dew.” The precious oil coming together with only plain dew boggles her mind; thus, she evokes the image, “Death must dig the level where these agree.”   

    On the earthly plane and in a definitely class based society, the speaker cannot reconcile the differences between herself and her beloved.  She therefore suggests that she will just allow “Death” to establish the meaning and purpose of this seemingly bizarre, but happy, occurrence.

  • Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 5  “I lift my heavy heart up solemnly”

    Image: Elizabeth Barrett Browning – NPG, London

    Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 5 from Sonnets from the Portuguese focuses on the speaker’s lack of confidence that her budding relationship will continue to grow.

    Introduction with Text of Sonnet 5 “I lift my heavy heart up solemnly”

    The speaker’s lack of confidence in her own value as a person and poet makes her doubt that  budding relationship will continue to blossom.  

    Her little dramas continue to exude her lack of self esteem, while she also makes it known the she holds her beloved in the highest regard.  Likely she feels unworthy of such an accomplished individual.

    Sonnet 5 “I lift my heavy heart up solemnly”

    I lift my heavy heart up solemnly,
    As once Electra her sepulchral urn,
    And, looking in thine eyes, I overturn
    The ashes at thy feet. Behold and see
    What a great heap of grief lay hid in me,
    And how the red wild sparkles dimly burn
    Through the ashen greyness. If thy foot in scorn
    Could tread them out to darkness utterly,
    It might be well perhaps. But if instead
    Thou wait beside me for the wind to blow
    The grey dust up,… those laurels on thine head,
    O My beloved, will not shield thee so,
    That none of all the fires shall scorch and shred
    The hair beneath. Stand further off then! Go.

    Reading  

    Commentary on Sonnet 5  “I lift my heavy heart up solemnly”

    The speaker in sonnet 5 focuses on her lack of confidence that her budding relationship will continue to grow.

    First Quatrain:  Dramatic Ashes

    I lift my heavy heart up solemnly,
    As once Electra her sepulchral urn,
    And, looking in thine eyes, I overturn
    The ashes at thy feet. Behold and see

    In the first quatrain of Sonnet 5 from Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnets from the Portuguese, the speaker likens her heart to the urn held by Electra, who thought she was holding the ashes of her dead brother Orestes in Sophocles’ tragic Greek play, Electra. The speaker is raising the “sepulchral urn” of her heart to her beloved, and then suddenly, she spills the ashes at his feet. She commands him to look at those ashes.

    The speaker has established in her opening sonnets that not only is she but a humble poet shielded from the eyes of society, but she is also one who has suffered greatly from physical maladies as well as mental anguish.  She has suffered thinking that she may never have the opportunity to love and be loved.

    Second Quatrain:  Dropping Grief

    What a great heap of grief lay hid in me,
    And how the red wild sparkles dimly burn
    Through the ashen greyness. If thy foot in scorn
    Could tread them out to darkness utterly

    The speaker continues the metaphor of her heart as filled with ashes by commanding her beloved to look and see, “What a great heap of grief lay hid in me.” She metaphorically compares the ashes held within the urn of her heart to her grief.

    Now she has dropped those ashes of grief at the feet of her beloved. But she notices that there seem to be some live coals in the heap of ashes; her grief is still burning “through the ashen greyness.”  She speculates that if her beloved could stomp out the remaining burning coals of her grief, that might be all well and good.

    First Tercet:  Burning Coals of Grief

    It might be well perhaps. But if instead
    Thou wait beside me for the wind to blow
    The grey dust up,… those laurels on thine head,

    If, however, he does not tread on those burning coals of grief and merely remains still beside her, the wind will stir up those ashes, and they may land on the head of the beloved, a head that is garlanded with laurels.

    It will be remembered that the speaker has, in the two preceding sonnets, made it clear that her beloved has prestige and the attention of royalty. Thus, he is as one who is declared a winner with the reward of laurels.

    Second Tercet:  In the Throes of Sorrow

    O My beloved, will not shield thee so,
    That none of all the fires shall scorch and shred
    The hair beneath. Stand further off then! Go.

    The speaker avers that even those laurels will not be able to protect his hair from being singed, once the wind has blown those live coals upon his head. She therefore bids him, “Stand farther off then! go.”

    In the throes of incredible sorrow, the speaker is awakening slowly to the possibility that she can be loved by someone whom she deems her superior in every way. Her head is bare, not garlanded with laurels as is his.

    She must give him leave to forsake her because she believes that he will do so after he fully comprehends who she really is.   Although she, of course, hopes he will protest and remain beside her, she does not want to deceive herself, falsely believing that he will, in fact, remain with her.

  • Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 4 “Thou hast thy calling to some palace-floor”

    Image: Elizabeth Barrett Browning – Getty Images

    Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 4 “Thou hast thy calling to some palace-floor”

    Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s sonnet 4 from Sonnets from the Portuguese continues with the speaker musing on her new relationship with her suitor, who seems too good to be true. 

    Introduction with Text of Sonnet 4 “Thou hast thy calling to some palace-floor”

    The speaker in Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s sonnet 4 “Thou hast thy calling to some palace-floor” seems to be searching for a reason to believe that such a match with a suitor  as distinguished as hers is even possible.  She continues to brood in a melancholy line of thought, even as she seems to be becoming enthralled with the notion of having a true love in her life. 

    The speaker’s past continues to cause her to brood and remain skeptical, as she has difficulty accepting her own accomplishments and poetic talent.   Likely, she is aware of her considerable ability, but when compared to her suitor, she feels that she cannot compete equally.

    Sonnet 4 “Thou hast thy calling to some palace-floor”

    Thou hast thy calling to some palace-floor,
    Most gracious singer of high poems! where
    The dancers will break footing, from the care
    Of watching up thy pregnant lips for more.
    And dost thou lift this house’s latch too poor
    For hand of thine? and canst thou think and bear
    To let thy music drop here unaware
    In folds of golden fulness at my door?
    Look up and see the casement broken in,
    The bats and owlets builders in the roof!
    My cricket chirps against thy mandolin.
    Hush, call no echo up in further proof
    Of desolation! there’s a voice within
    That weeps … as thou must sing … alone, aloof.

    Reading

    Commentary on Sonnet 4 “Thou hast thy calling to some palace-floor”

    Sonnet 4 marches on with the speaker’s musing on her new relationship with her suitor.  She seems to remain skeptical that such a relationship can endure, even as she obviously hopes that it will.

    She colorfully compares her lot with that of her suitor, by presenting an image of her dwelling juxtaposed with the image of the royal venue where her beloved is welcomed and where he performs.

    First Quatrain: Mesmerizing Kings, Queens, and Royal Guests

    Thou hast thy calling to some palace-floor,
    Most gracious singer of high poems! where
    The dancers will break footing, from the care
    Of watching up thy pregnant lips for more.

    In Sonnet 4 from Sonnets from the Portuguese, the speaker is addressing directly her suitor, as she continues her metaphorical comparison between the two lovers in a similar vain as she did with Sonnet 3.  Once again, she takes note of her suitor’s invitations to perform for royalty, as she colorfully remarks, “Thou hast thy calling to some palace-floor.” 

    Her illustrious suitor has been a “[m]ost gracious singer of high poems,” and the royal guests curiously stop dancing to listen to him recite his poetry.    The speaker visualizes her remarkable suitor at court, mesmerizing the king, queen, and royal guests with his poetic prowess.

    Second Quatrain:  Rhetorical Musings on Class Distinctions

    And dost thou lift this house’s latch too poor
    For hand of thine? and canst thou think and bear
    To let thy music drop here unaware
    In folds of golden fulness at my door?

    In the second quatrain, the speaker puts forth a rhetorical question in two-parts:

    1.  Being one of such high breeding and accomplishment, are you sure that you want to visit one who is lower class than you?
    2.  Are you sure that you do not mind reciting your substantial and rich poetry in such a low class place with one who is not of your high station?

    The questions remain rhetorical only in that the speaker entertains the deep hope that the answer to both parts of the question remains resoundingly in the affirmative.  Because readers of this sequence already know how the drama turns out, they must wonder if as she was writing these melancholy thoughts, she secretly held the sentiment of relief, knowing that her skepticism and doubt had been laid to rest.

    First Tercet:  Contrasting Visual and Auditory Images

    Look up and see the casement broken in,
    The bats and owlets builders in the roof!
    My cricket chirps against thy mandolin.

    The speaker then insists that her royalty-worthy suitor take a good look at where she lives. The windows of her house are in disrepair, and she cannot afford to have “the bats and owlets” removed from the nests that they have built in the roof of her house.  The final line of the first sestet offers a marvelous comparison that metaphorically states the difference between the suitor and speaker: “My cricket chirps against thy mandolin.” 

    On the literal level, she is only a plain woman living in a pastoral setting with simple possessions, while he is the opposite, cosmopolitan and richly endowed.  And he is famous enough to be summoned by royalty, possessing the expensive musical instrument with which he can embellish his already distinguished art.

    The lowly speaker’s “cricket” also metaphorically represent her own poems, which she likens to herself, poor creatures compared to the “high poems” and royal music of her illustrious suitor.   The suitor’s “mandolin,” therefore, literally exemplifies wealth and leisure because it accompanies his poetry performance, and it figuratively serves as a counterpart to the lowly cricket of the speaker.

    Second Tercet:  A Natural Mode of Expression

    Hush, call no echo up in further proof
    Of desolation! there’s a voice within
    That weeps … as thou must sing … alone, aloof.

    The speaker again makes a gentle demand of her suitor, begging him, please do not be concerned or troubled for my rumblings about poverty and my lowly station.   The speaker is asserting her belief that it is simply her natural mode of expression; her “voice within” is one that is given to melancholy, even as his voice is given to singing cheerfully.

    The speaker implies that because she has lived “alone, aloof,” it is only natural that her voice would reveal her loneliness and thus contrast herself somewhat negatively with one as illustrious and accomplished as her suitor.

  • Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 2 “But only three in all God’s universe”

    Image: Elizabeth Barrett Browning – NPG, London

    Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 2 “But only three in all God’s universe”

    Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s second sonnet from Sonnets from the Portuguese reports that her relationship with her life-mate is granted by God, and thus, it cannot be broken or disavowed.  

    Introduction and Text of Sonnet 2  “But only three in all God’s universe”

    Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s sonnet 2 focuses on her growing relationship with her beloved life partner, Robert Browning.  In this sonnet, the poet creates a speaker who insists that the relationship is the destiny of this couple; it is karmically determined, and therefore, nothing in this world could have kept them apart once God had issued the decree for them to come together.

    The speaker’s faith allows her to begin a healing process that had begun with the onset of the relationship that would result in permanent love and affection between the two. Still, she will continue to muse and ruminate on her lot; she will remain cautious until she can become totally enveloped in the notion that she is loved as much as she had longed for and hoped.

    Sonnet 2 “But only three in all God’s universe”

    But only three in all God’s universe
    Have heard this word thou hast said,—Himself, beside
    Thee speaking, and me listening! and replied
    One of us … that was God, … and laid the curse
    So darkly on my eyelids, as to amerce
    My sight from seeing thee,—that if I had died,
    The deathweights, placed there, would have signified
    Less absolute exclusion. “Nay” is worse
    From God than from all others, O my friend!
    Men could not part us with their worldly jars,
    Nor the seas change us, nor the tempests bend;
    Our hands would touch for all the mountain-bars:
    And, heaven being rolled between us at the end,
    We should but vow the faster for the stars.

    Reading 

    Commentary on Sonnet 2  “But only three in all God’s universe”

    In sonnet 2, the speaker reports that her relationship with her life-mate is granted by God, and thus, it cannot be broken or disavowed.  

    First Quatrain:   A Private and Holy Trinity

    But only three in all God’s universe
    Have heard this word thou hast said,—Himself, beside
    Thee speaking, and me listening! and replied
    One of us … that was God, … and laid the curse

    The speaker avers that in the couple’s relationship, there are only three beings who have been privy to “this word thou hast said.” When her partner first told her that he loved her, she senses that God was speaking His own love for her as well.

    As she excitedly but tenderly took in the meaning of the declaration of love, she realized what her lot might have become without this happy turn of events. She responds rather hesitantly, even awkwardly recalling her physical illnesses that she labels “the curse.”

    Second Quatrain:   The Curse of the Body

    So darkly on my eyelids, as to amerce
    My sight from seeing thee,—that if I had died,
    The deathweights, placed there, would have signified
    Less absolute exclusion. “Nay” is worse

    The speaker’s reference to the “curse” is an exaggeration of the earthly physical body’s many issues with the pain of having to exist in a physical body.   Additionally, it might be helpful for readers to know that the poet did suffer much physical illness during her lifetime. 

    Thus, she can rightly allow her speaker to focus on the inharmonious circumstances that have disrupted but also informed the dramatic issues infusing  her poetics. This  particular “curse” that was put “[s]o darkly on [her] eyelids” might have hampered her ability to see her beloved.  Even if she had died, her separation from him would have been no worse then her inability to see him in this life.

    First Tercet:  God’s No

    From God than from all others, O my friend!
    Men could not part us with their worldly jars,
    Nor the seas change us, nor the tempests bend;

    The speaker then truthfully responds that when God hands down a “no,” it has meaning beyond the kin of the human mind and heart, and regardless of what humanity thinks, what God assigns reigns.

    If God’s answer to a mortal’s most ardent prayer is a resounding no, then that supplicant will suffer more than being turned down by a mere fellow mortal.  The suffering is likely to continue until that deluded soul finally reaches emancipation, thereby understanding all. But by good fortune, God brought this pair together, and thus, nothing any person could do or say could alter that fact that God bestowed this love on this couple.

    The speaker is echoing the marriage vow: “what God hath joined together, let no man put asunder.”  Thus, the speaker is asserting that the bond that rendered her happiest on this earthly plane of being is the one with her beloved partner and future husband.

    Second Tercet:  Ordained by God

    Our hands would touch for all the mountain-bars:
    And, heaven being rolled between us at the end,
    We should but vow the faster for the stars.

    The speaker then reveals that she has confidence that the union with her beloved is ordained by God.  With such assurance, she knows that even if “mountain-bars” tried to separate them, their “hands would touch.” 

    So completely confident is she that she can declare that even if after death, if heaven tried to disrupt in any way or intrude in their union, the couple’s bond would become even tighter, protecting the love that is blessing them.  Not even the influence of astral movements could begin to intrude upon the God-given bond this couple has gained and nourished.

  • Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 1 “I thought once how Theocritus had sung”

    Image:  Elizabeth Barrett Browning – NPG, London

    Sonnet 1 “I thought once how Theocritus had sung”

    The first sonnet in Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnets from the Portuguese features a speaker who is expressing the futility of concentrating on death and the melancholy such musing too often may create.

    Introduction with Text of Sonnet 1 “I thought once how Theocritus had sung”

    Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnets from the Portuguese unveil a marvelous testimony to the love and respect that the poet fostered for her suitor and future husband Robert Browning. Robert Browning’s stature as a poet rendered him one of the most noted and respected poets of Western culture.  

    Robert Browning’s fame and influence in literary studies has spread over the globe, and his wife’s reputation has also been enhanced by his noteworthiness as well as her own mastercraftmanship as a sonneteer.

    In the dramatic renderings of the sonnet sequence, as the relationship between the poets continues to flower, Elizabeth worries that it might not long endure.  She thus has created a speaker who muses on and voices the insecurities experienced by the poet.

    Sonnet 1 “I thought once how Theocritus had sung”

    I thought once how Theocritus had sung
    Of the sweet years, the dear and wished for years,
    Who each one in a gracious hand appears
    To bear a gift for mortals, old or young:
    And, as I mused it in his antique tongue,
    I saw, in gradual vision through my tears,
    The sweet, sad years, the melancholy years,
    Those of my own life, who by turns had flung
    A shadow across me. Straightway I was ‘ware,
    So weeping, how a mystic Shape did move
    Behind me, and drew me backward by the hair,
    And a voice said in mastery, while I strove, …
    Guess now who holds thee?’—Death,’ I said. But there,
    The silver answer rang … Not Death, but Love.’

    Reading 

    Commentary on Sonnet 1 “I thought once how Theocritus had sung”

    Sonnet 1 “I thought once how Theocritus had sung” in Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s classic work, Sonnets from the Portuguese, opens as the speaker is musing on the pressure created by melancholy.

    First Quatrain:  The Bucolic Classical Poetry of Theocritus

    I thought once how Theocritus had sung
    Of the sweet years, the dear and wished-for years,
    Who each one in a gracious hand appears
    To bear a gift for mortals, old or young:

    The speaker begins the dramatization of her musing by reporting that she has perused the pastoral poetry of the ancient classical poet, Theocritus.  She reveals that that classical Greek poet put into song the nature of the time of life when the young are full of hope and wishes—such desire renders those years sweet.

    The speaker has garnered the notion from the poem’s insightful knowledge that every year bestows on each mortal “a gift”; the elderly and the youthful are both able to accept those magnificent and eternal blessings.

    The speaker’s own melancholy and sadness have prompted her to seek out answers for questions that have troubled her, answers to important issue such as the very purpose of life on this planet.

    The speaker appropriately and with gratitude has been turning to the ancient thinkers because she understand that they have bestowed wisdom and encouragement to each of the succeeding generations.

    Second Quatrain:  Finding Her Own Life in Poetry

    And, as I mused it in his antique tongue,
    I saw, in gradual vision through my tears,
    The sweet, sad years, the melancholy years,
    Those of my own life, who by turns had flung 

    After a significant period of time spent in musing on the words of Theocritus, the speaker has come to comprehend the important ideas presented by those words, and their gravity brings tears to her eyes.   It is, thus, through those emotional tears that the speaker seems to be able to view her “own life.”  

    She becomes well aware that her own years have not rendered to her any special  kindness.  Her own years have been filled with pain and sadness.  Those gifts presented by time are not always useful or pleasant ones to the recipient.   But that is how life is.

    Each person’s individual karma remains responsible for the specific events that occur in each life.  One can remain assured that one will always reap what one sows.   But each individual is not required to be happy or even satisfied with the results; thus, one becomes motivated to strive to change former karmic patterns by improving one’s thoughts and behavior.

    Barrett Browning’s ability to understand the original Greek text is critical in her ability to feel the profound emotional impact of those thoughts.   Fraudulent “translators” such a Robert Bly, who was not fluent in the languages of the texts he supposedly translated, could not faithfully render emotion expressed in the original.  

    As poet Stephen Kessler has averred:  “The major problem with [Robert Bly’s] translations (often from languages he didn’t know, by way of other English versions) was that he made every poet, from García Lorca to Mirabai, sound like Robert Bly.” But Barrett Browning was fluent in the languages which she read and studied, and thus she could translate accurately and render in her speaker unique, genuine emotion.

    First Tercet:  Life Beneath a Shadow

    A shadow across me. Straightway I was ‘ware,
    So weeping, how a mystic Shape did move
    Behind me, and drew me backward by the hair, 

    The speaker then reveals that her own life has been passed under a “shadow.”  A dark cloud has moved “across [her],” and she has suddenly become cognizant that she is weeping.  

    She feels as if she is being dragged backward by someone or something. Some being seems to be pulling her by the hair into some “mystic Shape.”   Unfortunately, she remains unable to ascertain just what that strange creature is who seems to be tugging at her.

    Second Tercet:  A Correcting Voice

    And a voice said in mastery, while I strove, …
    Guess now who holds thee?’—Death,’ I said. But there,
    The silver answer rang … Not Death, but Love.’

    As she tries to right herself, she then becomes aware of what seems to be a voice—a “voice of mastery.” That strange voice poses a question to her; it asks her to take a guess regarding who “holds [her].”  The speaker then suddenly responds fatalistically, “Death.” However, she is then relieved to hear a surprising retort, correcting her fatalism: “Not Death, but Love.”

    An Inspiring Love Story

    The love story of Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning has become and has remained a subject for research and exploration as well as admiration in the literary world, especially in the poetry branch of that world.

    In her Sonnets from the Portuguese, Mrs. Browning crafts and portrays a speaker who dramatizes the poet’s moments of sorrow and melancholy as well as her painful doubt-filled hours.   

    Her speaker becomes elated at times that a man as accomplished and noteworthy as Robert Browning would take note of her and even desire to spend time with her. But then her mood will change, and she will grow doubtful that the relationship could ever blossom into a lasting, true love.

    Readers who explore the sonnets will become pleasantly captivated by her amazing growth from skepticism and doubt to deep awareness and faith that the couple’s love is genuine and sustained by the Divine Belovèd Creator (God).   Uniquely told in sonnets, the Brownings’ courtship leading to their marriage remains a truly inspiring love story.

  • Elizabeth Barrett Browning

    Image:  Elizabeth Barrett Browning – NPG, London

    Brief Life Sketch of Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Introduction to Sonnets from the Portuguese

    Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s classic work Sonnets from the Portuguese is the poet’s most anthologized and widely published work, studied by students in secondary schools, colleges, and universities and appreciated by the general poetry lover.

    Two Poets in Love

    Robert Browning, while wooing Elizabeth Barrett, referred to his sweetheart lovingly by the nickname he had given her: “my little Portuguese” [1].  He chose that nickname for her because of her dark complexion.  Elizabeth Barrett then quite consequentially titled her sonnet sequence Sonnets from the Portuguese.

    Since its publication, Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnets from the Portuguese has become a beloved, often anthologized, and widely studied sonnet sequence. With this 44-sonnet sequence, Barrett Browning puts on display her mastery of the Petrarchan (Italian) sonnet form.  

    Throughout the sequence, Barrett Browning creates a speaker who develops the theme of the romantic relationship between Elizabeth Barrett and fellow poet, Robert Browning, the man whom she will ultimately marry. 

    As their relationship begins, the speaker is continually beset with deep doubts.  She has little confidence that she can keep the affection of such an accomplished, world-renowned poet as Robert Browning [2].

    The speaker, therefore, continues to dramatize her deep skepticism that the relationship will withstand their differences.  The speaker is continually musing on her insecure nature and doubts as she even magnifies them.  Her exploration and examination of her situation causes her much consternation. Likely, the poet’s prior experience with love relationships influences her hesitancy in engaging in a relationship with Robert Browning:

    Much of E.B.B.’s hesitation came from knowing that love can bring injury as well as boon. She had suffered such injury. With great pain did she finally recognise that her father’s strangely heartless affection would have buried her sickroom, for how else could she interpret his squelching of her plan to travel south for health in 1846, when doctors practically ordered the journey to Italy as a last hope? E.B.B. had had previous experience of one-sided affection, as we see in her diary of 1831-3, which concerns her relationship with the Greek scholar H.S. Boyd. For a year her entries calculate the bitter difference between his regard and her own, and she wonders if she can ever hope for reciprocation. In fact she finds her womanly capacity for feeling a liability and wishes she could feel less — “I am not of a cold nature, & cannot bear to be treated coldly. When cold water is thrown upon a hot iron, the iron hisses. I wish that water wd. make that iron as cold as self.”  [3]

    Elizabeth Barrett’s poor health is often emphasized in the many biographies of the poet.   Few biographers have offered any speculations regarding the origin of the poet’s illness; nor have they attempted to name the disease from which the poet suffered.

    However, Anne Buchanan, who is a research assistant in anthropology, has suggested that  Elizabeth Barrett suffered from hypokalemic periodic paralysis (HKPP), a muscle disorder [4].  Buchanan’s daughter suffers from that same disease, which “causes blood levels of potassium to fall because potassium becomes trapped in muscle cells.”  

    Buchanan and her daughter Ellen Buchanan Weiss observed that the descriptions of Barrett Browning’s malady resembled closely those of the daughter.  The Buchanans have thus suggested that a cold, moist climate often intensifies the pain associated with HKPP.

    Throughout Barrett Browning’s lifetime, London’s cold, damp climate had exacerbated the poet’s health problems, and whatever the title of the disease, escaping the London’s weather was a Godsend to her. 

    Thus, her marriage to  Robert Browning enhanced her health as well as her mental state because the coupled relocated to Italy, where they enjoyed the warm climate, which was amenable to Elizabeth’s health.

    Because of Robert Browning, Elizabeth Barrett not only enjoyed a soulmate to love her, but she also found one who would protect her health and allow her live her remaining years more comfortably and productively.

    The Petrarchan (Italian) Sonnet Form

    The Petrarchan sonnet is named after the 14 century Italian poet, Francesco Petrarch [5].  It is also known as the Italian sonnet.  The Petrarchan/Italian sonnet displays an eight-line octave and a six-line sestet. The octave contains two quatrains (four lines each), and the sestet contains two tercets (three lines each). The traditional rime scheme of the Petrarchan/Italian sonnet is ABBAABBA in the octave and CDCDCD in the sestet.

    Poets, however, often display a variation on the sestet rime scheme, transforming it from CDCDCD to CDECDE.  Many other poets vary the octave as well as create other schemes for the sestet. But Barrett Browning never varies the rime scheme; she retains the traditional rime scheme ABBAABBACDCDCD throughout the entire 44-sonnet sequence.  

    Following such a tight, restricted form that the poet chose to follow as she composed 44 sonnets magnifies her skill and her mastery of that sonnet form. The poet’s choice of the Petrarchan sonnet also reveals her deep affinity for the original Petrarchan theme, as she muses upon the relationship between herself and her belovèd as well as the relationship between the Divine Creator-Father and His human children.

    According to Robert Stanley Martin, Petrarch “reimagined the conventions of love poetry in the most profound way: love for the idealized lady was the path towards learning how to properly love God . . .”:

    [Petrarch’s] poems investigate the connection between love and chastity in the foreground of a political landscape, though many of them are also driven by emotion and sentimentality.  Critic Robert Stanley Martin writes that Petrarch “reimagined the conventions of love poetry in the most profound way: love for the idealized lady was the path towards learning how to properly love God . . . .” [6]

    Each sonnet in this sequence is displayed in only one stanza with its octave and sestet. However, engaging the sonnet’s quatrains and sestets separately allows the commentarian a clearer focus in concentrating on each line unit. 

    Image: Two Poets in Love

    A Legacy of Love

    Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s sonnet sequence offered the poet a remarkably open field as well as the imaginative opportunity for discovery of her true feelings.   The poet’s life had become steeped in melancholy, as a result of her poor health and her family’s inability to understand and appreciate her abilities and sensibilities.  Especially problematic was her difficult relationship with her father.

    As the poet through her speaker navigates through the sonnet sequence, she demonstrates a change of mood. The speaker of the sequence grows from an individual holding the desperate thought that only death would remain her consort to one who could finally experience joy.

    After her doubts that she and such a man of the world as Robert Browning could have a true relationship are finally removed, she finds life to be very different from what she has earlier experienced.

    The confident, sophisticated Robert Browning brought Miss Barrett a happiness that genuinely gave her life meaning. The two poets’ relationship had to struggle against a host of trials and tribulations, but their love story results in one that remains one for the ages. The world is more acquainted with these two lover-poets than it would have otherwise been without their loving relationship:

    In addition to being celebrated for their literary talents, Elizabeth and Robert are remembered as people who were deeply in love. As Sir Frederic Kenyon wrote, Elizabeth and Robert “gave the most beautiful example of [love] in their own lives.” The marriage of Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning required courage and sacrifice, and they were willing to do whatever it took to build a beautiful life together.  [7]

    Barrett Browning’s 44-sonnets sequence recounts the journey of a poet who begins with many doubts. But she examines and muses upon the origins of those doubts and then finally blossoms into a joyous, creative individual after she accepts and engages with the love that Robert Browning had so generously and genuinely offered her.  The story of the love relationship between these two poets has a become one of most inspirational stories in the literary world—or, for that matter, in any world.

    Sources

    [1]  Jennifer Kingma Wall. “Love and Marriage: How Biographical Interpretation affected the Reception of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s ‘Sonnets from the Portuguese’” The Victorian Web.  Last modified May 4, 2005.

    [2] Editors.  “Robert Browning.”  Poetry Foundation.  Accessed March 2, 2023.

    [3]  Kathleen Blake. “The Relationship of Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning.” The Victorian Web.  1991.

    [4] Editors.  “Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Illness Deciphered after 150 Years.”  American Association for the Advancement of Science. December 19, 2011.

    [5] Editors.  “Petrarch.”  Academy of American Poets.  Accessed March 2, 2023.

    [6] Editors.  “Petrarch.”  Poetry Foundation.  Accessed June 29, 2021.

    [7]  Taylor Jasmine. “The Literary Love Story of Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning.”  Literary Ladies Guide.  November 1, 2020.

    Image: Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning

    Commentaries on Sonnets from the Portuguese

    1. Sonnet 1 “I thought once how Theocritus had sung” 
    2. Sonnet 2 “But only three in all God’s universe” 
    3. Sonnet 3 “Unlike are we, unlike, O princely Heart!” 
    4. Sonnet 4 “Thou hast thy calling to some palace-floor”
    5. Sonnet 5  “I lift my heavy heart up solemnly”
    6. Sonnet 6  “Go from me. Yet I feel that I shall stand”