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Tag: Robert Browning

  • Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 34 “With the same heart, I said, I’ll answer thee”

    Image: Elizabeth Barrett Browning – Baylor University

    Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 34 “With the same heart, I said, I’ll answer thee”

    Returning to the melancholy character in sonnet 34 “With the same heart, I said, I’ll answer thee,” as she has so often maintained, the speaker contrasts her light-hearted childhood’s response with her serious maturity.

    Introduction and Text of Sonnet 34 “With the same heart, I said, I’ll answer thee”

    The character speaking in Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 34 “With the same heart, I said, I’ll answer thee” from Sonnets from the Portuguese has returned to her melancholy attitude.  Now she is contrasting her happy, carefree childhood years to her very stern and serious life as a mature adult.

    The speaker however is addressing her belovèd, imploring him to consider how important he is to her.  As earnest, obedient, and steadfast as she was as a child, now her constancy with her belovèd is even more in evidence.    The speaker continues to build her case for deserving the love of such an accomplished man, whom she considers to be much above her own station in life.  

    Sonnet 34 “With the same heart, I said, I’ll answer thee”

    With the same heart, I said, I’ll answer thee
    As those, when thou shalt call me by my name—
    Lo, the vain promise! is the same, the same,
    Perplexed and ruffled by life’s strategy?
    When called before, I told how hastily
    I dropped my flowers or brake off from a game,
    To run and answer with the smile that came
    At play last moment, and went on with me
    Through my obedience. When I answer now,
    I drop a grave thought, break from solitude;
    Yet still my heart goes to thee—ponder how—
    Not as to a single good, but all my good!
    Lay thy hand on it, best one, and allow
    That no child’s foot could run fast as this blood.

    Commentary on Sonnet 34 “With the same heart, I said, I’ll answer thee”

    Returning to the melancholy character she has so often maintained, the speaker contrasts her light-hearted childhood’s response with her serious maturity.

    First Quatrain:  The Necessity of Consistency

    With the same heart, I said, I’ll answer thee
    As those, when thou shalt call me by my name—
    Lo, the vain promise! is the same, the same,
    Perplexed and ruffled by life’s strategy?

    The pensive speaker professes a need to be consistent; thus, she repeats the word “same” three times in three lines.  She is of the “same heart” as she was earlier in her lifetime.  She is called by “[her] name.  But she is unsure about “life’s strategy.”  She is even “perplexed and ruffled” by it.

    The speaker hopes to convince herself that love has merely continued to flow into around her life.  She also demands from her new love relationship a constant heart as she lovingly and gently makes demands on her belovèd.

    Second Quatrain:  The Obedient One

    When called before, I told how hastily
    I dropped my flowers or brake off from a game,
    To run and answer with the smile that came
    At play last moment, and went on with me

    Earlier in her lifetime, the melancholy speaker had played the obedient one, coming when called, dropping her “flowers” or leaving off her “game.”   She ran to answer and even “with a smile” she appeared. Such behavior continued because of her dedication to obedience.

    The speaker needs to be always consistent in her emotional responses.  The static melancholy that she has experienced has programmed her to need a steady environment, even if she must create it from fragments of memory and emotional responses from the past.

    First Tercet:  Adult Life Different Details

    Through my obedience. When I answer now,
    I drop a grave thought, break from solitude;
    Yet still my heart goes to thee—ponder how—

    Now the specific details of life are a bit different.  Instead of games and flowers, she answers from the position of having dropped “a grave thought” or a “break from solitude.”  But her heart goes now always to the belovèd.  She spills out a command before venturing on, telling her beloved to “ponder how . . . .” 

    Even though the details of her adult life are different, her emotional responses are essentially the same.  Her same heart-responses continue to guide her.  Her new love relationship has become even more important to her than any relationship before.

    Second Tercet:  From Childhood to Adulthood

    Not as to a single good, but all my good!
    Lay thy hand on it, best one, and allow
    That no child’s foot could run fast as this blood.

    The speaker then concludes that the good her beloved has done her is not one in one single area but in “all my good!”  She asks her beloved to understand that as fleet foot as she was at obedience as child, she is much faster at running to her belovèd than she could have ever been in her earlier life.  

    The speaker’s blood now runs faster and with more passion than ever her foot did as a child.  As important to her as were her earlier loves, her new belovèd has become even more vital to her life.

    The speaker’s melancholy seems to be desperate for her lover to grasp his importance to her.  Thus, she continues to compare and contrast her life’s environments from childhood to maturity.

    Image: Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning – 1852. Portraits painted by Thomas Buchanan Read

  • Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 32 “The first time that the sun rose on thine oath”

    Image: Elizabeth Barrett Browning – Getty Images

    Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 32 “The first time that the sun rose on thine oath”

    The speaker in Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s sonnet 32 finds her confidence first expanding and then shrinking again on her journey through her adventure to love.

    Introduction and Text of Sonnet 32 “The first time that the sun rose on thine oath”

    In Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s sonnet 32, the speaker once more struggles with her persistent lack of self-worth.  However, the speaker finally decides that by choosing to devalue her own self-worth, at the same time, she is also assigning less value to her belovèd, an intolerable idea that she then attempts mightily to immediately correct.

    Sonnet 32 “The first time that the sun rose on thine oath”

    The first time that the sun rose on thine oath
    To love me, I looked forward to the moon
    To slacken all those bonds which seemed too soon
    And quickly tied to make a lasting troth.
    Quick-loving hearts, I thought, may quickly loathe;
    And, looking on myself, I seemed not one
    For such man’s love;—more like an out-of-tune
    Worn viol, a good singer would be wroth
    To spoil his song with, and which, snatched in haste,
    Is laid down at the first ill-sounding note.
    I did not wrong myself so, but I placed
    A wrong on thee. For perfect strains may float
    ’Neath master-hands, from instruments defaced,—
    And great souls, at one stroke, may do and doat.

    Commentary on Sonnet 32 “The first time that the sun rose on thine oath”

    The speaker in sonnet 32 finds her confidence first increasing and then shrinking again on her journey to her adventures in love.

    First Quatrain: To Soon to Endure

    The first time that the sun rose on thine oath
    To love me, I looked forward to the moon
    To slacken all those bonds which seemed too soon
    And quickly tied to make a lasting troth.

    The first quatrain finds the speaker announcing that after her belovèd first pronounced his love for her, she became lodged in the sorrowful thought that this love might have come “too soon / And quickly tied” to endure for long. 

    The ensuing vow of love which was completed with the rising sun caused her to “look forward” to night time and the moon. She assumed that time of day would abstract her weakened possession of her new love situation.

    This speaker is, of course, again doubting her ability to bring out such a love from this high-stationed man.  The powerful feelings of negative self-worth seem to be permeating and leading her heart’s feelings and her head’s thought processes.

    Second Quatrain: Come Quickly, Leave Quickly

    Quick-loving hearts, I thought, may quickly loathe;
    And, looking on myself, I seemed not one
    For such man’s love;—more like an out-of-tune
    Worn viol, a good singer would be wroth

    The speaker believes that if love comes too quickly, it will then be apt to leave just as quickly.  She thus also emphasizes her sad thought that she does not believe she is entirely worthy of “such man’s love.”    The speaker then likens herself to some “out-of-tune / Worn viol,” which implies that she possesses not enough gifts to play along side such “a good singer.”

    The speaker deems that the good singer, represented in her accomplished poet/suitor, “would be wroth,” to let her accompany him. She suspects that her own lack of talent would besmirch that of her lover’s brilliant talents.

    First Tercet:  An Out-of-Tune Instrument

    To spoil his song with, and which, snatched in haste,
    Is laid down at the first ill-sounding note.
    I did not wrong myself so, but I placed

    The speaker therefore suggests that her belovèd might have made a rash decision in picking her as his partner; thus, she thinks that she will be sent away, “at the first ill-sounding note.”   However, the speaker then immediately shifts her gaze.

    As the speaker still clings to her assessment of herself as an “out-of-tuned viol,” she goes on to maintain that she has not incorrectly evaluated herself, but she does believe that she has been mistaken about her belovèd’s possessions of knowledge, strength, and capability.

    Second Tercet: Clinging to Inferiority

    A wrong on thee. For perfect strains may float
    ’Neath master-hands, from instruments defaced,—
    And great souls, at one stroke, may do and doat.

    Despite the fact that the speaker may be an out-of-tune musical instrument, her belovèd, who is a skillful master may possess the delicious ability of heralding forth from her damaged instrument, “perfect strains.”   

    The speaker’s belovèd after all possesses “master-hands.” She determines her acceptance, with a sufficient and thoroughly axiomatic bit of wit, as she states that, “great souls, at one stroke, may do and dote.”

    The speaker’s timid thought and evaluation of her own inferiority remains so entrenched that she always seems to manage to cling to it.   She implies that the great souls, who are capable of achieving great things, also possess the talent for “doat[ing]” on the things they love, despite any lack of worthiness those things may possess.

  • Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 31 “Thou comest! all is said without a word”  

    Image: Elizabeth Barrett Browning – NPG, London

    Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 31 “Thou comest! all is said without a word”  

    Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s speaker in sonnet 31 “Thou comest! all is said without a word” continues to explore her self-doubt, as she seems to be reverting to her old melancholy ways of thinking. 

    Introduction and Text of Sonnet 31 “Thou comest! all is said without a word”

    The speaker in Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s sonnet 31 “Thou comest! all is said without a word” from Sonnets from the Portuguese seems to be backsliding into her earlier cloud of self-doubt.  Again, she seems to be questioning her good fortune at attracting such a fine belovèd suitor.

    This always musing speaker has grown so accustomed to indulging in sorrow and melancholy that she continues to find it difficult to accept that she can now breathe the fresh air of love, faith, hope, and happiness.  The speaker thus is continuing to examine her plight, and self-doubt seems to return to haunt her without relief.

    Sonnet 31 “Thou comest! all is said without a word”

    Thou comest! all is said without a word.
    I sit beneath thy looks as children do
    In the noon-sun, with souls that tremble through
    Their happy eyelids from an unaverred
    Yet prodigal inward joy. Behold, I erred
    In that last doubt! and yet I cannot rue
    The sin most, but the occasion—that we two
    Should for a moment stand unministered
    By a mutual presence. Ah, keep near and close,
    Thou dovelike help! and, when my fears would rise,
    With thy broad heart serenely interpose:
    Brood down with thy divine sufficiencies
    These thoughts which tremble when bereft of those,
    Like callow birds left desert to the skies.

    Commentary on Sonnet 31 “Thou comest! all is said without a word”

    The speaker in sonnet 31 “Thou comest! all is said without a word” is again exploring her self-doubt and sorrowful life.  It does seem that melancholy must remain a part of her existence.

    First Quatrain:  Returning to Melancholy

    Thou comest! all is said without a word.
    I sit beneath thy looks as children do
    In the noon-sun, with souls that tremble through
    Their happy eyelids from an unaverred

    The speaker in sonnet 31 “Thou comest! all is said without a word” again finds herself rethinking one of her earlier episodes of doubt that return to her from time to time despite her growing confidence in the love of her belovèd suitor. 

    The speaker excitedly exclaims, “Thou comest!”—as if she is utterly surprised that he should return. She reports that neither speaks, and she sits in his gaze somewhat as children would do “in the noon-sun.” 

    Their souls are engaged and “tremble” at the “inward joy,” even though they hardly understand the meaning or eventual consequences of that joy. As is often the case with this speaker, she is somewhat taken aback by her own emotions.

    Second Quatrain:  Feeling Like a Prodigal

    Yet prodigal inward joy. Behold, I erred
    In that last doubt! and yet I cannot rue
    The sin most, but the occasion—that we two
    Should for a moment stand unministered

    The speaker feels as “prodigal” now as she has felt quite early in this budding relationship. As the reader has seen many times before, the speaker’s confidence waxes and wanes. First, she trusts the strength of this new love and then again a “doubt” will creep into her mind.

    The speaker has begun to employ code words that hint of a marriage ceremony which she, no doubt, has difficulty believing will ever come to fruition.  The speaker, indeed, wonders if the two of them will ever stand and take the vows of husband and wife.

    First Tercet:  A Pathetic Plea

    By a mutual presence. Ah, keep near and close,
    Thou dovelike help! and, when my fears would rise,
    With thy broad heart serenely interpose:

    The half-sorrowful speaker offers a pathetic plea, half to her belovèd and half to her own pride, begging that his love remain “near and close,” as she calls his assistance “dovelike.”  The speaker now understands, however, that she will continue to experience those doubts, and likely her “fears would rise” repeatedly.

    The speaker continues to assert that her belovèd has a “broad heart,” and she believes in his ability to remain stable, an eventuality which seems to give her a feeling of steadiness.  The doubting speaker cannot trust her own ability to trust, but she can keep faith that her belovèd will remain strong enough to lift her out of her slough of constant doubt.

    Second Tercet:  The Simple Knowledge of Being Loved

    Brood down with thy divine sufficiencies
    These thoughts which tremble when bereft of those,
    Like callow birds left desert to the skies.

    Taking comfort in her belovèd’s strength and endurance, the speaker asserts that she will be able to endure life in the simple knowledge of being loved by such a strong soul. Again, speaking half to her belovèd and half to her own soul, the speaker likens her own soul to baby birds that have been left “to the skies.”

    But as those “callow birds” are nurtured by “divine sufficiencies,” the speaker determines to strive to attain and keep the faith that will eventually lead her to her own self-sufficiency. 

    But the speaker will also continue to implore and glorify the relationship with her belovèd, in whose glow she will continue to bask as she proceeds on her journey toward love and fulfillment.

  • Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 30 “I see thine image through my tears to-night”

    Image:  Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning – history.com

    Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 30 “I see thine image through my tears to-night”

    The speaker in Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s sonnet 30 “I see thine image through my tears to-night” is indulging herself in doubts as she contemplates the thought that her belovèd is little more than a fantasy.

    Introduction and Text of Sonnet 30 “I see thine image through my tears to-night”

    Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s sonnet 30 “I see thine image through my tears to-night” from Sonnets from the Portuguese dramatizes the regression of the speaker as she wonders if she has merely created dreamlike the love of her belovèd.

    Sonnet 30 “I see thine image through my tears to-night” gives the speaker the space to indulge  in doubts.  She allows herself to go backward to her earlier stage of melancholy.  To her distress, she is now contemplating the possibility, and to her the likelihood, that her lover is little more than a fantasy without a shred of reality.

    Sonnet 30 “I see thine image through my tears to-night”

    I see thine image through my tears to-night,
    And yet to-day I saw thee smiling. How
    Refer the cause?—Beloved, is it thou
    Or I, who makes me sad? The acolyte
    Amid the chanted joy and thankful rite
    May so fall flat, with pale insensate brow,
    On the altar-stair. I hear thy voice and vow,
    Perplexed, uncertain, since thou art out of sight,
    As he, in his swooning ears, the choir’s Amen.
    Beloved, dost thou love? or did I see all
    The glory as I dreamed, and fainted when
    Too vehement light dilated my ideal,
    For my soul’s eyes? Will that light come again,
    As now these tears come—falling hot and real?

    Commentary on Sonnet 30 “I see thine image through my tears to-night”

    The speaker is indulging herself in doubts as she contemplates the thought that her belovèd is little more than a fantasy.  She is finding it difficult again to maintain her posture of happiness because her habit for sorrow.

    First Quatrain:  Remembering An Earlier Visit

    I see thine image through my tears to-night,
    And yet to-day I saw thee smiling. How
    Refer the cause?—Beloved, is it thou
    Or I, who makes me sad? The acolyte

    The speaker remarks that she is shedding tears as she appears to be looking at his picture or perhaps just visualizing him as in a dream.  The now sorrowful speaker ponders the cause of her tears, addressing her belovèd with a question regarding the origin of her tears. 

    She asks him if she is the cause of her sadness or if he is the origin.  With a strange juxtaposition, the speaker then begins to imagine a ceremony, perhaps, the wedding of her belovèd and herself.

    Second Quatrain:  A Dream-State Visualization

    Amid the chanted joy and thankful rite
    May so fall flat, with pale insensate brow,
    On the altar-stair. I hear thy voice and vow,
    Perplexed, uncertain, since thou art out of sight,

    In her dream-state, the speaker visualizes an attendant to the service, and “the acolyte” stumbles and falls “flat” “[o]n the altar-stair.”   Such an unexpected accident provides not only a comic outrage but also a farcical intrusion into such the solemn occasion.

    The speaker’s imagination is allowing her to hallucinate; no doubt such a nightmare comes from the hypersensitive nature of the speaker.   The reader is aware of the intensity of this speaker’s emotions as she has gone from a nearly complete recluse with feelings of abandonment to the betrothed of a suitor, whom she deems much above her class in society.

    The speaker then asserts that she “hear[s his] voice and vow.” But his voice and vow are “perplexed” and “uncertain.” And he is “out of sight.” Again, the reader detects those old feelings of doubt that the speaker has suffered since the beginning of these adventures in romance.

    First Tercet:  Contemplating Possibilities

    As he, in his swooning ears, the choir’s Amen.
    Beloved, dost thou love? or did I see all
    The glory as I dreamed, and fainted when

    The speaker wonders if the stumbling attendant has been overwhelmed by “the choir’s Amen.” And then she contemplates the possibility that she is dreaming this love that has become so important to her, and thus she questions, “Belovèd, dost thou love?”  Or perhaps, the agitated speaker has, in fact, dreamed it all, for she wonders, “did I see all / The glory as I dreamed?” 

    If it is nothing but a dream, it would be quite natural for her to stumble and fall; thus, it was not an assistant but the speaker herself who has stumbled and fallen upon those altar steps.

    Second Tercet:  To Believe Good Fortune

    Too vehement light dilated my ideal,
    For my soul’s eyes? Will that light come again,
    As now these tears come—falling hot and real?

    The speaker considers the possibility that again she has allowed herself to believe in the good fortune of finding a loving mate as brilliant as her belovèd suitor seems to be.  And now the fact may be that it was all a fantasy; perhaps, the glow from her suitor has been exaggerated in her own mine.

    The speaker cannot help but wonder and therefore she puts to him the question, “Will that light come again?”   And the desperate speaker then compares that urgency to “these tears” that she now emphasizes are “falling hot and real?”

  • Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 28 “My letters! all dead paper, mute and white!”

    Image: Elizabeth Barrett Browning – Engraving from original Painting by Chappel, 1872. (Photo by: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

    Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 28 “My letters! all dead paper, mute and white!”

    In Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s sonnet 28 “My letters! all dead paper, mute and white!,” the speaker reacts to each stage of the growing love relationship, while she is looking through a bundle of love letters. 

    Introduction and Text of Sonnet 28 “My letters! all dead paper, mute and white!“

    Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s sonnet 28 “My letters! all dead paper, mute and white!” from Sonnets from the Portuguese is dramatizing the speaker’s uncomplicated activity of perusing a bunch of her love letters.  

    She loosens the cord that binds them and then begins to report certain significant details from each missive.  Each one,  on which the decides to report, unveils a stage in the maturing relationship of the two lovers from friend to soul-mate.

    Sonnet 28  “My letters! all dead paper, mute and white!”

    My letters! all dead paper, mute and white!
    And yet they seem alive and quivering
    Against my tremulous hands which lose the string
    And let them drop down on my knee to-night.
    This said,—he wished to have me in his sight
    Once, as a friend: this fixed a day in spring
    To come and touch my hand … a simple thing,
    Yet I wept for it!—this, … the paper’s light …
    Said, Dear, I love thee; and I sank and quailed
    As if God’s future thundered on my past.
    This said, I am thine—and so its ink has paled
    With lying at my heart that beat too fast.
    And this … O Love, thy words have ill availed
    If, what this said, I dared repeat at last!

    Commentary on Sonnet 28 “My letters! all dead paper, mute and white!”

    The speaker in Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 28 “My letters! all dead paper, mute and white!” is looking at the love letters from her beloved suitor and reacting to each step in the growth of their love relationship.

    First Quatrain: Letters That Live

    My letters! all dead paper, mute and white!
    And yet they seem alive and quivering
    Against my tremulous hands which lose the string
    And let them drop down on my knee to-night.

    The speaker begins by exclaiming “My letters!” She sits with a bundle of her letters in her hands and commences to muse aloud her response to fact that they even exist. She insists that they are actually nothing more than “dead paper, mute and white!”  But because she is aware of the story that they contain, she claims that they seem to be “alive and quivering.” 

    Of course, it is the trembling of her hands that causes them to “quiver.” She has untied the cord that binds the letters together in a bunch, and her “tremulous hands” then permit those letters to “drop down on her knee.”

    Second Quatrain:  Each Letter a Pronouncement

    This said,—he wished to have me in his sight
    Once, as a friend: this fixed a day in spring
    To come and touch my hand … a simple thing,
    Yet I wept for it!—this, … the paper’s light …

    The speaker, in the second quatrain, commences her report on what each letter pronounces. The first one that she selects is telling her that her suitor at first desired to visit her for the purpose of friendship.  

    After all they are both poets, and poets are likely to enjoy friendship with other poets.  Thus, at the outset, the two poets experienced friendship, and she was pleasantly surprised that he even wished to visit her.

    In the next missive she on which she focuses, he informs her her that he would like to visit and hold her hand; appropriately and timely, that day was a spring day.  The romance inherent in these image choices is full of possibilities; yet, she regards the event “a simple thing.”  Still, even though it may be simple, it brings tears to her eyes.

    First Tercet:   What God Judges

    Said, Dear, I love thee; and I sank and quailed
    As if God’s future thundered on my past.
    This said, I am thine—and so its ink has paled

    The next epistle with paper that is “light” informs her, “Dear, I love thee.” To this astonishing avowal, she exerts a passionate and extreme reaction.  She sinks back in her seat with a startled cry for she felt as if God had declared some momentous decree on her past life.

    As this sonnet sequence has progressively revealed, this speaker has passed quite a solitary and painfully sorrowful life.  However, her past now is being put in judgment by God, and God is proclaiming that her future will not be replicating her sad past.

    Second Tercet:  Next to a Fast-Beating Heart

    With lying at my heart that beat too fast.
    And this … O Love, thy words have ill availed
    If, what this said, I dared repeat at last!

    The next letter avows to her that he belongs to her. The speaker has so treasured this letter that she has caused the ink to become pale from holding it to her fast-beating heart.  The speaker has figuratively held this letter to her fast-beating heart, and that holding has metaphorically caused the ink to lighten.

    The last epistle inflames her so much that she cannot allow herself to voice any of it nor even offer a hint of what it announces.  Nevertheless, the continuing progress of the sonnet sequence allows the reader to remain perfectly satisfied with what might be a unsatisfying because inconclusive conclusion because the speaker chose to reveal nothing from the final letter’s contents.

  • Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 27 “My own Belovèd, who hast lifted me”

    Image: Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning – Two Poets in Love

    Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 27 “My own Belovèd, who hast lifted me”

    The speaker in Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s sonnet 27  “My own Belovèd, who hast lifted me” alludes to the Greek mythological Asphodel Meadows to dramatize her life’s transformation after meeting her belovèd.

    Introduction and Text of Sonnet 27 “My own Belovèd, who hast lifted me”

    In Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s sonnet 27 “My own Belovèd, who hast lifted me” from Sonnets from the Portuguese, the speaker again is dramatizing the contrast between how her life was before she met her belovèd fiancé and how it is now that she has found the love of her life. 

    In this sonnet, the speaker employs an allusion to the Greek mythological “Asphodel Meadows” in order to dramatize the transformation her life has undergone after meeting and growing close to her belovèd.

    The speaker asserts the contrast between her life after meeting her belovèd to her former miserable state of being in order to establish herself firmly in the relationship, which she had earlier attempted to deny.

    Sonnet 27 “My own Belovèd, who hast lifted me”

    My own Belovèd, who hast lifted me
    From this drear flat of earth where I was thrown,
    And, in betwixt the languid ringlets, blown
    A life-breath, till the forehead hopefully
    Shines out again, as all the angels see,
    Before thy saving kiss! My own, my own,
    Who camest to me when the world was gone,
    And I who looked for only God, found thee!
    I find thee; I am safe, and strong, and glad.
    As one who stands in dewless asphodel,
    Looks backward on the tedious time he had
    In the upper life,—so I, with bosom-swell,
    Make witness, here, between the good and bad,
    That Love, as strong as Death, retrieves as well.

    Commentary on Sonnet 27 “My own Belovèd, who hast lifted me”

    The speaker in sonnet 27 “My own Belovèd, who hast lifted me” is alluding to the Greek mythological Asphodel Meadows to dramatize her life’s transformation after meeting her belovèd.

    First Quatrain:  A Cruel Life

    My own Belovèd, who hast lifted me
    From this drear flat of earth where I was thrown,
    And, in betwixt the languid ringlets, blown
    A life-breath, till the forehead hopefully

    The speaker begins by addressing her belovèd directly, telling him again about how he came to her at her lowest point of depression.  Her belovèd has raised the speaker from the depths of utter despair which she now describes as “this drear flat of earth where I was thrown.” 

    The speaker’s life has been so cruel to her that she felt that she was not only sinking but was also violently “thrown” to her lowest level. Even the speaker’s hair had become limp and lifeless as her “languid ringlets” attested, until her lover had “blown / A life-breath” and her forehead would finally come alive with brightness.

    Second Quatrain:  An Infusion of Hope

    Shines out again, as all the angels see,
    Before thy saving kiss! My own, my own,
    Who camest to me when the world was gone,
    And I who looked for only God, found thee!

    After the speaker’s belovèd suitor had lovingly kissed her pale forehead, she then became infused with the hope that she would brighten, “as all the angels see.” 

    The speaker then exclaims and repeats, “My own, my own”; he is now her own belovèd who has entered her life at a time when there seemed to be nothing in the world for which she could go on living.

    This sonnet, unfortunately, may sounds a bit as if the speaker has chosen her human lover over God. The speaker reports that she sought “only God,” before her belovèd’s arrival, but then unexpectedly she “found thee!” 

    However, in earlier sonnets, this speaker has made it clear that she is thankful to God for sending her belovèd and that God knows what is appropriate for His children.

    Thus, the speaker is not suggesting that her suitor is replacing God in the life; she is expressing the fact that now she has a human love in her life, as well as God’s. 

    She has already acknowledged that God was in her life as she struggled to become closer to the Divine Creator.  The difference is that her Creator has now brought her together with a soul mate for the continuation of her earthy incarnation.

    First Tercet:   Celebration of Love

    I find thee; I am safe, and strong, and glad.
    As one who stands in dewless asphodel,
    Looks backward on the tedious time he had

    The speaker continues to celebrate finding her human love, as she reports the uplifting feelings she now experiences: “I am safe, and strong, and glad.”  The speaker then employs the allusion to the Greek mythological positioning of souls in the afterlife, stating, “As one who stands in dewless asphodel.” 

    The “Asphodel Meadows” are located between heaven and hell, and she thus likens herself to an individual positioned between the ultimate good and ultimate bad.   As the speaker “looks backward” to her old life, she deems that time “tedious” compared to how she feels now.

    Second Tercet:  The Superior Action of Love 

    In the upper life,—so I, with bosom-swell,
    Make witness, here, between the good and bad,
    That Love, as strong as Death, retrieves as well.

    The speaker now sees herself as one testifying that while “Death” ushers a soul to a different level of being, she has discovered that “Love” does so as well.   And the speaker’s reaction with a “bosom-swell” demonstrates that she is witness to the superior action of love.

  • Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 25 “A heavy heart, Belovèd, have I borne”

    Image:  Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning – history.com

    Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 25 “A heavy heart, Belovèd, have I borne”

    Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s speaker revisits her former sorrow to contrast her earlier “heavy heart” with the light heartedness she now enjoys because of her belovèd fiancé.

    Introduction and Text of Sonnet 25 “A heavy heart, Belovèd, have I borne”

    Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s sonnet 25 from Sonnets from the Portuguese dramatizes the transformation of the speaker’s “heavy heart” of misery into a welcoming home of life and love. She credits her belovèd suitor for her ability to transcend her earlier sorrows.

    The speaker continues to gain confidence in herself and the possibility that she can be loved by one whose status she deems so far above her own.  She began in utter denial of any such luck, but as the muses, prays, and contemplates the motives and the behavior of her beloved, she becomes more convinced of his genuine affection for her.

    Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s speaker revisits her former sadness and melancholy in order to contrast that earlier “heavy heart” with the light heartedness she now has begun to enjoy because of the genuine feelings she now detects in her belovèd life partner.

    Sonnet 25 “A heavy heart, Belovèd, have I borne”

    A heavy heart, Belovèd, have I borne
    From year to year until I saw thy face,
    And sorrow after sorrow took the place
    Of all those natural joys as lightly worn
    As the stringed pearls, each lifted in its turn
    By a beating heart at dance-time. Hopes apace
    Were changed to long despairs, till God’s own grace
    Could scarcely lift above the world forlorn
    My heavy heart. Then thou didst bid me bring
    And let it drop adown thy calmly great
    Deep being! Fast it sinketh, as a thing
    Which its own nature doth precipitate,
    While thine doth close above it, mediating
    Betwixt the stars and the unaccomplished fate.

    Commentary on Sonnet 25 “A heavy heart, Belovèd, have I borne”

    The speaker is revisiting her former sorrow and contrasting her earlier “heavy heart” to the light heartedness she now enjoys because of her belovèd suitor.

    First Quatrain:   A Storehouse of Metaphors for Misery

    A heavy heart, Belovèd, have I borne
    From year to year until I saw thy face,
    And sorrow after sorrow took the place
    Of all those natural joys as lightly worn

    The speaker addressing her belovèd recalls that before she “saw [his] face,” she was afflicted with a “heavy heart.” She suffered a long line of sorrows instead of “all those natural joys” that young woman usually experience so easily.

    This speaker has so often alluded to her sorrow that the reader is not surprised that it appears again in dramatic form. Her storehouse of metaphors that elucidate her misery is large and varied.

    Second Quatrain:  Sorrows Like a String of Pearls

    As the stringed pearls, each lifted in its turn
    By a beating heart at dance-time. Hopes apace
    Were changed to long despairs, till God’s own grace
    Could scarcely lift above the world forlorn

    The speaker compares that long life of “sorrow after sorrow” to a string of pearls and supplies the image of a young woman at a dance, who fingers her pearls as she waits with rapidly “beating heart” to be asked to dance.

    The speaker sees herself as a wallflower and as that metaphoric self stood waiting to be chosen, her hopes were dashed and “were changed to long despairs.” She remained alone and lonely until her belovèd, now future life partner,  mercifully through the grace of God rescued her.

    First Tercet:   Love Warm and Soothing

    My heavy heart. Then thou didst bid me bring
    And let it drop adown thy calmly great
    Deep being! Fast it sinketh, as a thing

    Inordinately, the speaker was so distressed with her burden of a sad, depressed heart that it was difficult even for “God’s own grace” to raise from her that melancholy. In a pain-producing world, her heart that had felt complete dejection. But fortunately her belovèd appeared. He beckoned her, accepted her, and welcomed her to let go of her suspicion and take into her soul the reality of his love for her.

    The speaker’s gentleman friend’s loving affection was like a warm soothing pool of fresh water into which she could drop her painful “heavy heart” to have it washed clean of its sorrowful burden. Her heavy heart sank quickly to bottom of his welcoming comfort as if it belonged in that very place.

    Second Tercet:   Adoring Care

    Which its own nature doth precipitate,
    While thine doth close above it, mediating
    Betwixt the stars and the unaccomplished fate.

    The speaker’s emotional self was thus comforted by her belovèd’s adoring care; she felt that she had come home for the first time. His love enclosed her and lifted her to where she could sense her destiny as majestic as a celestial being “mediating / Betwixt the stars and the unaccomplished fate.”

    The speaker has offered her belovèd a dramatic celebration of her change of heart and credited him with transforming her heavy load of sorrow and dejection into a light sensory gift that has become conducive of heaven.

  • Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 23 “Is it indeed so? If I lay here dead”

    Image: Elizabeth Barrett Browning – Engraving from original Painting by Chappel, 1872. (Photo by: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

    Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 23 “Is it indeed so? If I lay here dead”

    The speaker is responding to a sweet love letter from her dear belovèd fiancé.  She concludes that instead of desiring the deliverance by death of her woes, she can remain an earth resident because of the love that has healed her melancholy.

    Introduction and Text of Sonnet 23 “Is it indeed so? If I lay here dead”

    In Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s sonnet 23 “Is it indeed so? If I lay here dead” from Sonnets from the Portuguese, the speaker dramatizes the ever-growing confidence and profound love the speaker is enjoying with her belovèd.  

    She is responding to a love letter from her lover with her usual dazzling, amazement that he can love her so genuinely.  The speaker is finally accepting the still a bit unbelievable fact that she is loved very deeply by this incredible man, whom she still holds in such high esteem.

    Sonnet 23 “Is it indeed so? If I lay here dead”

    Is it indeed so? If I lay here dead,
    Wouldst thou miss any life in losing mine?
    And would the sun for thee more coldly shine
    Because of grave-damps falling round my head?
    I marvelled, my Beloved, when I read
    Thy thought so in the letter. I am thine—
    But . . . so much to thee? Can I pour thy wine
    While my hands tremble ? Then my soul, instead
    Of dreams of death, resumes life’s lower range.
    Then, love me, Love! look on me—breathe on me!
    As brighter ladies do not count it strange,
    For love, to give up acres and degree,
    I yield the grave for thy sake, and exchange
    My near sweet view of Heaven, for earth with thee!

    Commentary on Sonnet 23:  “Is it indeed so? If I lay here dead”

    The speaker inElizabeth Barrett Browning’s sonnet 23 “Is it indeed so? If I lay here dead” is dramatizing her reaction to n affectionate love letter from her dear belovèd suitor.

    First Quatrain:   Framing a Question

    Is it indeed so? If I lay here dead,
    Wouldst thou miss any life in losing mine?
    And would the sun for thee more coldly shine
    Because of grave-damps falling round my head?

    Beginning with a simple, yet somewhat vague at first, question, the speaker asks if something is really true. Next, she supplies the idea that prompts her inquiry, but then appends two additional questions. She is asking her lover if it is really true that he would miss her if she died.

    But the speaker dramatizes this simple notion by asking her questions in such a vivid manner. She wonders if for her belovèd, it would seem that the sun’s warmth had cooled.  Because only cold dampness would be “falling round [her] head” as she lay in the grave, she senses that coldness would also become her lover’s sensibilities. 

    The speaker may be echoing her lover’s words, but she enhances them by placing them in question form.  The eerie image of “grave-damps falling” around her head evokes the mighty contrast between her imagined situation in a coffin and her moving about live upon the earth.

    Second Quatrain:   Filled with Wonder

    I marvelled, my Beloved, when I read
    Thy thought so in the letter. I am thine—
    But . . . so much to thee? Can I pour thy wine
    While my hands tremble ? Then my soul, instead

    Directly addressing her belovèd, the speaker reveals that she was filled with wonder as she was reading the words communicating those very thoughts in a letter that she had received from him.  Thus, the speaker then is creating her sonnet in response to her lover’s effusions in the love-letter, which reveals that the two are at the height of their passion.  

    The speaker has finally accepted that she is loved very deeply by this man, but she still can be overcome with emotion when he speaks to her from his heart. She repeats those long-wished-for, delicious words, “I am thine.” 

    However, the speaker then finds herself in awe that she could mean so much to this accomplished suitor. She lets him know that his admission has touched her so deeply that she is trembling, and thus she queries, wondering if she could even pour wine into a glass as her hands trembled so violently.

    Again, the speaker dramatizes her avowal by placing it in a question.  This emphasis assumes to communicate her still amazement at her good fortune in experiencing love with this wonderful mate.

    First Tercet:  Unique Love

    Of dreams of death, resumes life’s lower range.
    Then, love me, Love! look on me—breathe on me!
    As brighter ladies do not count it strange,

    The speaker, accepting that the answers to her questions are positive, reports that because of this unique love, she is touched to the soul and wants more than ever to live.   Even though the speaker has dreamed of death to quell her misery, she now insists she will dream of life because now, her soul can move through life in a quieter atmosphere, where contentment can hold sway in her moods.

    The speaker then effuses, “Then, love, Love! Look on me—breathe on me!” Her passion is rousing her language; she wants to make him know how strongly her ardor has become.

    Second Tercet:  Earthbound for the Sake of Love

    For love, to give up acres and degree,
    I yield the grave for thy sake, and exchange
    My near sweet view of Heaven, for earth with thee!

    The speaker then asserts that as those women, who are “brighter” than she is, are willing to give up possessions and station for love, she is willing to give up her desire for death to deliver her from her misery.  She has held view that residing her her concept of heaven would be preferable to the life she has been assigned on earth.

    However, now through the blessings of her love relationship with her suitor, she now wishes to give up those heavenly blessings for which she had yearned, and remain earthbound.  She is willing to remain earthbound and keep her physical encasement for his sake.

    Introduction to the Sonnet Sequence

  • Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 22 “When our two souls stand up erect and strong”

    Image: Elizabeth Barrett Browning – Getty Images

    Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 22 “When our two souls stand up erect and strong”

    The speaker in Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s sonnet 22 “When our two souls stand up erect and strong” from “Sonnets from the Portuguese” contrasts the heaven created by the soul force of the lovers with the contrary state of worldly existence.

    Introduction with Text of Sonnet 22 “When our two souls stand up erect and strong”

    The speaker in Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s sonnet 22 “When our two souls stand up erect and strong” from Sonnets from the Portuguese is drawing a contrast between the paradisiacal state effected in the relationship between her beloved and herself and the oppositional state that a worldly existence has erected around them. 

    In order to ennoble their growing relationship to its highest level, the speaker creates a description of the  melding of two souls. Instead of the mere, mundane marriage of minds and physical encasements as most ordinary human beings emphasize, this speaker is concerned with eternal verities. This speaker is engaged in creating a world within a world wherein the spiritual is more real than the material level of existence.

    Sonnet 22 “When our two souls stand up erect and strong”

    When our two souls stand up erect and strong,
    Face to face, silent, drawing nigh and nigher,
    Until the lengthening wings break into fire
    At either curvèd point,—what bitter wrong
    Can the earth do to us, that we should not long
    Be here contented? Think. In mounting higher,
    The angels would press on us and aspire
    To drop some golden orb of perfect song
    Into our deep, dear silence. Let us stay
    Rather on earth, Belovèd,—where the unfit
    Contrarious moods of men recoil away
    And isolate pure spirits, and permit
    A place to stand and love in for a day,
    With darkness and the death-hour rounding it.

    Commentary on Sonnet 22 “When our two souls stand up erect and strong”

    In sonnet 22 “When our two souls stand up erect and strong,” the speaker is waxing ever more fanciful, painting a safe harbor for herself and her beloved as a loving couple whose union is heightened by the power and force of their souls.

    First Quatrain:  Imagining a Wedding

    When our two souls stand up erect and strong,
    Face to face, silent, drawing nigh and nigher,
    Until the lengthening wings break into fire
    At either curvèd point,—what bitter wrong

    The speaker dramatizes the couple’s wedding, fancying that their souls are standing and meeting as they draw closer and closer together in the silence facing each other. The couple resembles two angels who will merge into one. But before they merge, she allows the tips of their wings to catch fire as they form a curve in touching.

    At first, the speaker’s other-worldly depiction seems to imply that she perceives that their love does not belong to this world, but the reader must remember that this speaker’s exaggeration often lowers expectations as much as it elevates them.  

    This speaker is convinced that the two lovers are soul-mates; thus, she would stage their marriage first at the soul level, where nothing on earth could ever detract from their union.

    Second Quatrain:  United by Soul

    Can the earth do to us, that we should not long
    Be here contented? Think. In mounting higher,
    The angels would press on us and aspire
    To drop some golden orb of perfect song

    The speaker then asks the question, what could anyone or anything earthly do to hamper their happiness? Because they are united through soul force, even on earth they can “be here contented.”  Indeed, they could be content anywhere, for as the marriage vow declares, “what God hath joined together, let not man put asunder” (Matthew 19:6).

    The speaker commands her belovèd to “think”; she wants him to reflect on the efficacy of remaining earth-bound in their love relationship.  If they allow themselves to ascend too high, then heavily beings might interfere with their engaging at the soul level with their beloved state of silence.  Silence at the soul level remains the best, most congenial locus for true love.

    If an angel-like being intrudes with even some lovely sounding song, that intrusion would be too much for the couple during the sacred moments wherein they are becoming joined as one.

    First Tercet:  Working out Karma

    Into our deep, dear silence. Let us stay
    Rather on earth, Belovèd,—where the unfit
    Contrarious moods of men recoil away
    And isolate pure spirits, and permit
    A place to stand and love in for a day,
    With darkness and the death-hour rounding it.

    The speaker implies that they are not ready for total perfection; they must remain earthbound and contend with whatever circumstances other individuals might cause.  The negative repercussions that society might place upon this couple will have to be strongly rebuked they the couple in the here and how.

    So they must remain earthbound and practical in order to put down any such rebellions against them.  However, the speaker is certain that the couple will be able to overcome all adversity offered by others, and their love will cause their adversaries to “recoil away.”

    Second Tercet:   Better Together

    And isolate pure spirits, and permit
    A place to stand and love in for a day,
    With darkness and the death-hour rounding it.

    The speaker’s faith in the united soul force of the two lovers deems them “pure spirits,” and they will endure like a strong, self-sustaining island.  Their love will be “a place to stand and love in for a day.” Even though around them the darkness of earthly, worldly existence will trudge on, for them their haven will endure indefinitely.

  • Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 21 “Say over again, and yet once over again”

    Image: Elizabeth Barrett Browning – NPG, London

    Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 21 “Say over again, and yet once over again”

    The speaker in Barrett Browning’s sonnet 21 “Say over again, and yet once over again” is becoming habituated to hearing her belovèd suitor tell her that he loves her.  Thus she acquires the audacity to demand of him that he express to her repeatedly those beautiful, majestic words.

    Introduction with Text of Sonnet 21 “Say over again, and yet once over again”

    Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s speaker in sonnet 21 “Say over again, and yet once over again” from Sonnets from the Portuguese seems to be speaking in an uncharacteristic manner, as she is sounding somewhat giddy. The speaker is encouraging her belovèd to keep on repeating these delicious words that she has so long craved to hear.

    She is in a long but steady process of reforming her attitudinal behavior from a timid, unhealthily woman to one of happiness, contentment, and self-assuredness. The speaker is becoming habituated to listening to her suitor say those magic words to her—”I love you.” Thus she is playfully commanding him to continue to  repeat those beautiful words.

    Sonnet 21 “Say over again, and yet once over again”

    Say over again, and yet once over again,
    That thou dost love me. Though the word repeated
    Should seem “a cuckoo-song,” as thou dost treat it,
    Remember, never to the hill or plain,
    Valley and wood, without her cuckoo-strain
    Comes the fresh Spring in all her green completed.
    Belovèd, I, amid the darkness greeted
    By a doubtful spirit-voice, in that doubt’s pain
    Cry, “Speak once more—thou lovest!” Who can fear
    Too many stars, though each in heaven shall roll,
    Too many flowers, though each shall crown the year?
    Say thou dost love me, love me, love me—toll
    The silver iterance!—only minding, Dear,
    To love me also in silence with thy soul.

    Commentary on Sonnet 21 “Say over again, and yet once over again”

    The speaker getting used to hearing to her belovèd suitor tell her that he loves her, and therefore, she begins to playfully demand to hear those magic words repeatedly from the lips of her adored mate.

    First Quatrain:  Giddy with Love

    Say over again, and yet once over again,
    That thou dost love me. Though the word repeated
    Should seem “a cuckoo-song,” as thou dost treat it,
    Remember, never to the hill or plain,

    The speaker playfully and with utmost respect begins to command of her beloved suitor that he continue to repeat to her the words of love that she has so long craved to hear from a companion in a love relationship.  She wants to hear him say he loves her “over again, and yet once over again.”

    Although the speaker does admit that the repetition of the same words repeatedly over and over again may likely be thought of as a bit giddy and as vainly repetitious as the cuckoo bird’s outcries, she can justify her orders by insisting that nature itself is full of marvelous examples of repetition that is glorious.

    The speaker then brings to mind for her belovèd and also for herself that the breathtaking beautiful season of spring never comes until the meadows and hills have become festooned and spread with the repetitions of the green that the woods and valleys also put on display and still further with the same silly cuckoo’s repetition of plaintive cries.

    Second Quatrain:  Human Nature’s Over-Sensitivity

    Valley and wood, without her cuckoo-strain
    Comes the fresh Spring in all her green completed.
    Belovèd, I, amid the darkness greeted
    By a doubtful spirit-voice, in that doubt’s pain

    The speaker is comparing the status of humanity to the machinations of nature in order to clarify and even rehabilitate human nature’s penchant for over-sensitivity.  She in particular wishes to make right her own penchant for being too sensitive.  

    The speaker has become transformed by her feeling of delight in hearing her suitor declare his love for her repeatedly.  She is finally acquiring the ability to accept and believe in the truth of  his words. 

    The speaker then feels it need to continue expressing herself in her newly acquired giddy state.   She feels justified in engaging in seeming frivolity to demand that her suitor keep on repeating his declarations of affection and love to her. She then abruptly lets him know that during the night her old melancholy and thought of gross negativity had accosted her and caused to return to doubt and sorrow.

    Those returning doubts that caused pain have now motivated her to ask him to repeat his words that express his feelings for her.  She yearns to hear those lovely words again and again.  It is for this reason that she is so giddily adamant that he continue to repeat his words of love to her.

    Likely, she feels that she must justify her seemingly erratic commands.  Her doubts, thus, remain part of her behavior despite the fact that she seems to have completely accepted as fact that her suitor does love her very much and that he holds her dearly in his heart.

    First Tercet:   Too Many Stars or Flowers

    Cry, “Speak once more—thou lovest!” Who can fear
    Too many stars, though each in heaven shall roll,
    Too many flowers, though each shall crown the year?


    After her confession, the speaker positions an inquiry that further makes her feel more comfortable in repeating her demand to hear those words from the lips of her belovèd.  She insists that people would not likely be against “too many stars”  or even “too many flowers.”  

    It is thus that the speaker feels there is no problem with her asking him to repeat his declamation.  She, in fact, wants to hear it repeatedly.  As stars and flowers repeat their presence in the cosmos, her little demand will leave little intrusion.

    Second Tercet:  A Bold Request

    Say thou dost love me, love me, love me—toll
    The silver iterance!—only minding, Dear,
    To love me also in silence with thy soul.

    The second tercet finds the speaker  dramatizing the repetition as she repeats it herself: “Say thou dost love me, love me, love me.”  The speaker describes the repetition as a “silver iterance,” which asserts its quality as that of a bell.  The speaker has come to strongly desire to hear the “toll” of her lover’s “silver iterance!”

    The speaker then offers a startling yet supremely appropriate command.  As much as she loves hearing aloud the words of love, she craves even more that her belovèd, “love me also in silence with thy soul.”  

    Without her lover also loving her quietly in his soul, that love would be like a husk of corn with the grain—somewhat protective yet nutritionally useless.  Hearing the words is wonderful, but intuiting the love in the heart and soul is sublime.