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Tag: Robert Browning

  • Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 20 “Beloved, my Beloved, when I think”

    Image:  Robert Browning visits Elizabeth Barrett at 50 Wimpole Street – painting by Celestial Images

    Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 20 “Beloved, my Beloved, when I think”

    Sonnet 20 “Beloved, my Beloved, when I think” from Sonnets from the Portuguese finds the speaker in a pensive mood, dramatizing her awe at the difference a year has made in her life.

    Introduction with Text of Sonnet 20 “Beloved, my Beloved, when I think”

    The speaker in Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s sonnet 20 “Beloved, my Beloved, when I think” from Sonnets from the Portuguese remembers that just year ago she would not have been able to imagine that a love relationship with someone so important as her belovèd would break the chains of sorrow with which she has been bound for many years.

    This sonnet finds the speaker in a pensive mood, dramatizing her awe at the difference a year has made in her life.  The speaker is gaining confidence in her ability to attract and return the kind of love that she has yearned for but heretofore considered herself unworthy of possessing. 

    Sonnet 20 “Beloved, my Beloved, when I think”

    Beloved, my Beloved, when I think
    That thou wast in the world a year ago,
    What time I sate alone here in the snow
    And saw no footprint, heard the silence sink
    No moment at thy voice … but, link by link,
    Went counting all my chains, as if that so
    They never could fall off at any blow
    Struck by thy possible hand … why, thus I drink
    Of life’s great cup of wonder! Wonderful,
    Never to feel thee thrill the day or night
    With personal act or speech,—nor ever cull
    Some prescience of thee with the blossoms white
    Thou sawest growing! Atheists are as dull,
    Who cannot guess God’s presence out of sight.

    Commentary on Sonnet 20 “Beloved, my Beloved, when I think”

    Sonnet 20 “Beloved, my Beloved, when I think” finds the speaker in a pensive mood, dramatizing her awe at the difference a year has made in her life.

    First Quatrain:  The Difference a Year Makes

    Beloved, my Beloved, when I think
    That thou wast in the world a year ago,
    What time I sate alone here in the snow
    And saw no footprint, heard the silence sink 

    The speaker is reminiscing about her feelings “a year ago” before she had met her belovèd. She sat watching the snow that remained without his “footprint.” The silence surrounding her lingered without her hearing his voice. The speaker is structuring her remarks in when/then clauses; she will be saying, “when” this was true, “then” something else was true.

    In the first quatrain, she is thus beginning her clause with “when I think” and what she is thinking about is the time before her belovèd and she had met. She continues the “when” clause until the last line of the second quatrain.

    Second Quatrain:  Never to be Broken Chains

    No moment at thy voice … but, link by link,
    Went counting all my chains, as if that so
    They never could fall off at any blow
    Struck by thy possible hand … why, thus I drink 

    Continuing to recount what she did and how she felt before her ne love came into her life, she reminds her audience that she was bound by “all my chains” which she “went counting” and believing would never be broken.  The speaker makes it clear that her belovèd has, in fact, been responsible for breaking those chains of pain and sorrow that kept her bound and weeping.

    The speaker then moves into the “then” construction, averring that the arrival of her belovèd is, indeed, the reason that she can now look on the world as a place “of wonder.”  At this point, she is simply experiencing the awe of wonder that she should be so fortunate to have her belovèd strike those metaphorical blows against the chains of sorrow that kept her in misery.

    First Tercet:  Near Incredulous

    Of life’s great cup of wonder! Wonderful,
    Never to feel thee thrill the day or night
    With personal act or speech,—nor ever cull 

    The speaker then expounds on what she had not been able to foretell as she remained unable to experience the joy and thrill of living that her belovèd has now afforded her through his acts of kindness and his verbal expressions of affection.  The speaker is nearly incredulous that she could have remained without the love that has become so important to her.

    Second Tercet:  Dull as Atheists

    Some prescience of thee with the blossoms white
    Thou sawest growing! Atheists are as dull,
    Who cannot guess God’s presence out of sight.

    The speaker adds another part of her astonishing “wonder”: that she was not able to sense that such a being might actually be living and amenable to having a relationship with her.  She feels that she should have had some inkling of awareness that such might be the case.

    She sees now that she was “as dull” as “atheists,” those unimaginative souls, “who cannot guess God’s presence out of sight.”   The speaker’s belovèd is such a marvelous work of nature that she imbues him with a certain divine stature, and she considers herself somewhat “dull” for not being about to guess that such a one existed. 

    As atheists are unable to surmise of Supreme Intelligence guiding the ordered cosmos, she was incapable of imagining that one such as her belovèd would come along and free her from her self-induced coma of sadness.

  • Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 19 “The soul’s Rialto hath its merchandise”

    Image: Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning – Global Love Museum

    Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 19 “The soul’s Rialto hath its merchandise”

    The two lovers exchange locks of hair, and the speaker makes a ceremony of the exchange as she again emphasizes the royalty of her lover’s station and talent.

    Introduction with Text of Sonnet 19 “The soul’s Rialto hath its merchandise”

    In sonnet 18 “I never gave a lock of hair away” from Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnets from the Portuguese, the speaker dramatically celebrates giving a lock of her hair to her belovèd.

    The little drama continues with sonnet 19 “The soul’s Rialto hath its merchandise,” as she receives a lock from him.  The two lovers exchange their locks of hair, and the speaker dramatizes a ceremony of the exchange, as she again celebrates the royalty of her lover’s station and talent.

    Sonnet 19 “The soul’s Rialto hath its merchandise”

    The soul’s Rialto hath its merchandise;
    I barter curl for curl upon that mart,
    And from my poet’s forehead to my heart
    Receive this lock which outweighs argosies,—
    As purply black, as erst to Pindar’s eyes
    The dim purpureal tresses gloomed athwart
    The nine white Muse-brows. For this counterpart,
    The bay-crown’s shade, Belovèd, I surmise,
    Still lingers on thy curl, it is so black!
    Thus, with a fillet of smooth-kissing breath,
    I tie the shadows safe from gliding back,
    And lay the gift where nothing hindereth;
    Here on my heart, as on thy brow, to lack
    No natural heat till mine grows cold in death.

    Commentary on Sonnet 19 “The soul’s Rialto hath its merchandise”

    The two lovers exchange locks of hair, and the speaker makes a ceremony of the exchange as she again emphasizes the royalty of her lover’s station and talent.

    First Quatrain:  Oration and Commemoration

    The soul’s Rialto hath its merchandise;
    I barter curl for curl upon that mart,
    And from my poet’s forehead to my heart
    Receive this lock which outweighs argosies,—

    As in sonnet 18 “I never gave a lock of hair away,” the speaker offers a bit of an oration, commemorating the exchange of locks of hair between the two lovers. She metaphorically compares the soul to a marketplace, the Rialto, an important commercial district in Venice.  The speaker employs a commercial metaphor because of the trading of items that the two lovers are engaging in.

    The speaker then reveals that she is accepting the lock of hair from the head of her beloved with all the enthusiasm that an individual might express if she were presented with large loads of valuable cargoes from vast commercial sailing ships.

    The speaker enhances the value of that lock of hair by stating that it weighs even more than “argosies.” It is even more valuable than all the cargo arriving in vast commercial vessels that travel the seas.

    Second Quatrain:  Purple Black

    As purply black, as erst to Pindar’s eyes
    The dim purpureal tresses gloomed athwart
    The nine white Muse-brows. For this counterpart,
    The bay-crown’s shade, Belovèd, I surmise,

    In the second quatrain, the speaker emphasizes the blackness of her lover’s lock. The “curl,” she claims, is so black that it is “purply black.”  Again, she employs the color of royalty to distinguish the high station of her talented, handsome, accomplished lover.

    The speaker alludes to the ancient Greek poet Pindar, who is considered the greatest of the nine most famous ancient Greek poets, whom she references as “the nine white Muse-brows.”  The speaker’s lover’s lock is as significant because he is as important to the poetry world as those Greek poets are.

    First Tercet:  Pindar Allusion

    Still lingers on thy curl, it is so black!
    Thus, with a fillet of smooth-kissing breath,
    I tie the shadows safe from gliding back,

    The speaker voices her assumption that “the bay-crown’s shade, Beloved / / Still lingers on the curl.” The “bay-crown” refers to that most famous poet, Pindar, whose shadow-presence influences her lover’s talent through his “purpureal tresses.”

    The speaker insists that because of the high value she places on that black lock of hair, she will keep the lock close to her heart to keep it warm.  Likely, the speaker will place it in a locket, but she exaggerates her drama by saying she is binding it with her “smooth-kissing breath” and tying “the shadows safe from gliding back.”

    Second Tercet:  Ceremony of the Lock

    And lay the gift where nothing hindereth;
    Here on my heart, as on thy brow, to lack
    No natural heat till mine grows cold in death.

    In placing the lock next to her heart, the speaker is safe-guarding the “gift where nothing” can disturb it.  Close to the speaker’s heart, the lock will “lack / No natural heat” until, of course, the speaker “grows cold in death.”  The ceremony of the lock exchange is complete, and the love relationship will then progress to the next important stage.

  • Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 18 “I never gave a lock of hair away”

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

    Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 18 “I never gave a lock of hair away”

    In sonnet 18 “I never gave a lock of hair away” from Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s “Sonnets from the Portuguese,” the speaker dramatizes the simple act of giving a lock of her hair to her belovèd.

    Introduction with Text of Sonnet 18 “I never gave a lock of hair away”

    Sonnet 18 “I never gave a lock of hair away” from Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnets from the Portuguese reveals the speaker musing on her feelings as she affords her belovèd the gift of a lock of her hair, of which she emphasizes its purity in that no other man has touched it.

    The tentative and lonely speaker continues to create little dramas in her developing relationship with her friend and belovèd, who happens to be a fellow poet.  No doubt her lover appreciates her musing and feels a great sense of pride in having her composing for his benefit.

    And the poet/speaker herself continues to develop from the shy individual whose countenance had thus far bespoken only melancholy, derived from much physical and mental suffering.

    Sonnet 18 “I never gave a lock of hair away”

    I never gave a lock of hair away
    To a man, Dearest, except this to thee,
    Which now upon my fingers thoughtfully,
    I ring out to the full brown length and say
    ‘Take it.’ My day of youth went yesterday;
    My hair no longer bounds to my foot’s glee,
    Nor plant I it from rose or myrtle-tree,
    As girls do, any more: it only may
    Now shade on two pale cheeks the mark of tears,
    Taught drooping from the head that hangs aside
    Through sorrow’s trick. I thought the funeral-shears
    Would take this first, but Love is justified,—
    Take it thou,—finding pure, from all those years,
    The kiss my mother left here when she died.

    Commentary on Sonnet 18  “I never gave a lock of hair away”v

    In sonnet 18 “I never gave a lock of hair away,” the speaker is dramatizing a little ritual of the simple act of giving a lock of her hair to her lover.  Such gift giving was a common occurrence in that era, but to this speaker, it becomes a momentous event owing to her years of solitary confinement and physical as well a mental suffering.

    First Quatrain:  A Virgin Lock

    I never gave a lock of hair away
    To a man, Dearest, except this to thee,
    Which now upon my fingers thoughtfully,
    I ring out to the full brown length and say

    The speaker begins by claiming that she has never given any other man a lock of her hair; it is, therefore, to her a particularly special act that she is now conferring on her lover this special lock. 

    She has excised a few strands that extend are the exact full length of her hair which she designates as brown in color, even though she later affirms that she is no longer a young woman.

    The strands rest upon her “fingers” as she philosophically dramatizes the event by saying a few words over them.  The object takes on a status of a sacred relic as she seems almost prayerful in handling them.

    This speaker is almost always full of drama, from agonizing over her miseries to proclaiming her now vast and growing love and affection for her belovèd. Her life is the stuff and substance of her poetry, and she lives it in each and every moment.

    This speaker’s intensity remains the very stuff of living life “deliberately” as promulgated by Barrett Browning’s contemporary, the American philosopher Henry David Thoreau, who affirmed, “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately.”  This speaker, in nurturing a love relationship with a fellow poet, is living deliberately as she composes verses exploring and celebrating that relationship.

    Second Quatrain:  Justifying the Gift

    ‘Take it.’ My day of youth went yesterday;
    My hair no longer bounds to my foot’s glee,
    Nor plant I it from rose or myrtle-tree,
    As girls do, any more: it only may

    The speaker hands the hair to her lover and commands him, “Take it.” She then reveals the fact that she is no longer a young woman.  She emphasizes that her youth has already passed her by.  She no longer runs and jumps and skips thus causing her hair to jostle about as she did when she was a child. 

    The speaker no longer performs little rituals with it such as offering strands of her hair to birds to build their nests.  She needs to justify giving away this lock of hair, just as her personality motivates her to justify everything she does and feels.  Such justification remains part of her notion of living life through deliberate acts.

    First Tercet:  Covering Her Poor Cheeks

    Now shade on two pale cheeks the mark of tears,
    Taught drooping from the head that hangs aside
    Through sorrow’s trick. I thought the funeral-shears

    In the first tercet of the sestet, the speaker then divulges the use to which she has long put her locks of hair, and it is not surprising that that use would be bound closely to her sorrow with which has lived her entire life. 

    The speaker does not disappoint as she reveals that the only use for those locks of brown hair has been to cover her poor cheeks which are so often streaked with tears.  She has shed tears so often and so profusely that she hardly recognizes herself without those streak running down her face.

    Those locks of hair have simply hung down over those tear-stained cheeks, and they have learned to hide the sorrow that urges those tears. She has become habituated to tilting her head a certain way to encourage the hair to act as a curtain to shield her sadness.

    This speaker’s framing of the rituals with simple strands of falling hair reveals the clever artist whose dramatic verse offers such colorful images that unfold the nature of her cloistered life.  Such drama emphasizes the importance of her new relationship with the important belovèd, who can now help her release the past agony with which she has had to contend.

    Second Tercet:  Her Chaste Hair

    Would take this first, but Love is justified,—
    Take it thou,—finding pure, from all those years,
    The kiss my mother left here when she died.

    The speaker’s final dramatic pose reveals that she thought some mortician would be the one to cut her hair. This image again emphasizes the morbidity of the thoughts with which the speaker has had to grapple for so many empty years. 

    But now her lover has came along and “justified” her cutting it herself and presenting it to him.  Her relief from the past morbid imagery becomes palpable.  She is finally free to accept that happiness may actually become a central feature in the existence.

    The speaker then emphasizes again that the hair is as pure as the day her mother left “the kiss” on it before she died.  She is repeating and emphasizing her claim that no other man has had access to her chaste hair.  The purity of this lock of hair becomes symbolic of the purity of the love relationship between the speaker and her belovèd.

  • Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 17 “My poet, thou canst touch on all the notes”

    Image: Elizabeth Barrett Browning – Getty Images

    Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 17 “My poet, thou canst touch on all the notes”

    In sonnet 17 “My poet, thou canst touch on all the notes,” the poet’s always melancholy speaker muses on the art of poetics in her relationship with her poet/lover.  She considers her role in his art and how they might in future employ imagination to continue to be creatively productive.

    Introduction withText of Sonnet 17 “My poet, thou canst touch on all the notes”

    In sonnet 17 from her classic work Sonnets from the Portuguese, Elizabeth Barrett Browning again allows her speaker to hint at melancholy as she continues her efforts to sustain and understand her new love relationship, and her always melancholy speaker is now musing on the poetics of her relationship with her poet/lover.

    Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s speaker will continue to include a place for doubt as she journeys through her sequence of love songs to her belovèd.   The speaker’s charm remains subtle while always tinged with the possibility of sorrow.  Even as that former sadness in which she dwelt so heavily subsides, its specter seems forever to simmer just below the surface of consciousness.

    Sonnet 17 “My poet, thou canst touch on all the notes”

    My poet, thou canst touch on all the notes
    God set between his After and Before,
    And strike up and strike off the general roar
    Of the rushing worlds a melody that floats
    In a serene air purely. Antidotes
    Of medicated music, answering for
    Mankind’s forlornest uses, thou canst pour
    From thence into their ears. God’s will devotes
    Thine to such ends, and mine to wait on thine.
    How, Dearest, wilt thou have me for most use?
    A hope, to sing by gladly ? or a fine
    Sad memory, with thy songs to interfuse?
    A shade, in which to sing—of palm or pine?
    A grave, on which to rest from singing ? Choose.

    Commentary on Sonnet 17  “My poet, thou canst touch on all the notes”

    In sonnet 17 “My poet, thou canst touch on all the notes,” the poet’s always melancholy speaker muses on the poetics involved in her relationship with her poet/lover. A serious relationship between two poets would necessarily involve the creation of poetry and its ability to bind the lovers in certain literary ways.

    First Quatrain:  Praise for Poetic Prowess

    My poet, thou canst touch on all the notes
    God set between his After and Before,
    And strike up and strike off the general roar
    Of the rushing worlds a melody that floats

    The speaker in Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s sonnet 17 “My poet, thou canst touch on all the notes”  from Sonnets from the Portuguese addresses her belovèd, asserting that he 

    has ability to range far and wide in broaching the music that plays between the two artist/lovers.   She is quietly suggesting that God is bringing the two together through whisper of love that has played in their souls from the time before they even met.

    The speaker’s high praise for her lover’s poetic prowess demonstrates a shift in her observation from her own lowly station to his art. Because the speaker herself is a poet, she has, no doubt, known that she must eventually address the issue that both she and her belovèd share the same avocation.   It might well be expected that she will elevate his while remaining humble about her own, and that expectation is fulfilled in this poetic offering.  

    The speaker credits her belovèd with the ability to create worlds that make the ineffable mystery understandable to the ordinary consciousness; he is able to herald celestial music that contends with the creation of whole worlds of emotion.   The “rushing worlds” may seek to drown love in its massive sound, but her poet/lover’s ability to tame those sound renders the cacophony into melodies that are easily accepts.

    Second Quatrain:   Curing Boredom

    In a serene air purely. Antidotes
    Of medicated music, answering for
    Mankind’s forlornest uses, thou canst pour
    From thence into their ears. God’s will devotes

    The melody glides easily through an atmosphere made pure and serene by the unique ability of her poet/love to convert all chaos into peace, as well as all sadness into contentedness.  Mankind will find his dramatization “medicated music,” which will cure the boredom of “mankind’s forlornest uses.” Her belovèd retains the unique marvelous, unique talent to spill his melodic strains “into their ears.”

    First Tercet:  A Drama Sanctioned by the Divine

    Thine to such ends, and mine to wait on thine.
    How, Dearest, wilt thou have me for most use?
    A hope, to sing by gladly ? or a fine

    The speaker asserts that her greatly talented lover’s drama is, indeed, sanctioned by the Divine, and she is motivated as she patiently expects his creations to flaunt their magic and music to her as well.

    The speaker puts a complicated question to her belovèd: “How, Dearest, wilt thou have me for most use?” In that the speaker would perfectly fulfill her position as muse, she makes clear that she will be right alongside him in his every effort to sustain his God-given abilities.  Regardless of the theme or subject, whether it be “a hope, to sing by gladly,” the speaker suggests that she will continue to praise where necessity takes her.

    Second Tercet:  Useful Powers of Sorrow

    Sad memory, with thy songs to interfuse?
    A shade, in which to sing–of palm or pine?
    A grave, on which to rest from singing ? Choose.

    This speaker is not yet ready to relinquish her references to melancholy; thus her question continues with a set of propositions: perhaps she will offer “a fine / Sad memory.” She will, therefore, not be surprised that her powers of sorrow may be useful to them both in their poetic pursuits.  But the speaker also wonders if death themes might intrude at some point: “A shade, in which to sing—of palm or pine? / A grave, on which to rest from singing?”  

    It just may be that they will both become so satisfied with their comfortable love that they will have to rely more on imagination than they had ever thought. Thus the speaker admonishes her poetically talented belovèd that at some poi

  • Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 15 “Accuse me not, beseech thee, that I wear”

    Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning – Two Poets in Love

    Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 15 “Accuse me not, beseech thee, that I wear”

    The speaker in sonnet 15 concentrates on her ambiguous facial expressions that have yet to catch up with her overflowing heart. She finds it difficult to be happy after being sad for most of her life.

    Introduction with Text of Sonnet 15 “Accuse me not, beseech thee, that I wear”

    Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s sonnet 15 from Sonnets from the Portuguese finds the speaker again on the edge of doubt.   She has lived with a gloomy countenance for so long that she is reluctant to change it to one of sunshine and gaiety, even as her belovèd apparently chides her for the melancholy.

    Sonnet 15 “Accuse me not, beseech thee, that I wear”

    Accuse me not, beseech thee, that I wear
    Too calm and sad a face in front of thine;
    For we two look two ways, and cannot shine
    With the same sunlight on our brow and hair.
    On me thou lookest with no doubting care,
    As on a bee shut in a crystalline;
    Since sorrow hath shut me safe in love’s divine,
    And to spread wing and fly in the outer air
    Were most impossible failure, if I strove
    To fail so. But I look on thee—on thee—
    Beholding, besides love, the end of love,
    Hearing oblivion beyond memory;
    As one who sits and gazes from above,
    Over the rivers to the bitter sea.

    Commentary on Sonnet 15 “Accuse me not, beseech thee, that I wear”

    The speaker has remained in a sad state for so many years that she is now finding it difficult to be happy even as she has so much for which to be happy.  She knows she should be smiling but she is more accustomed to frowning.

    First Quatrain:  A Solemn Expression

    Accuse me not, beseech thee, that I wear
    Too calm and sad a face in front of thine;
    For we two look two ways, and cannot shine
    With the same sunlight on our brow and hair.

    Addressing her belovèd, the speaker begs him not to worry over her solemn expression. She has experienced great difficulty accepting this love relationship, in part because of her penchant for melancholy. 

    She has suffered physically and mentally for so long that it has become a part of her character and continues to disfigure her face.  She laments that she cannot change her facial expression so quickly, even with the shining example of her brilliant lover before her. 

    She dramatically asserts that because the two of them each “look two ways,” they cannot reflect the same kind of sunny disposition.  Their faces will remain according to their earlier penchant for each relevant emotion.

    Second Quatrain:   A Transformative State

    On me thou lookest with no doubting care,
    As on a bee shut in a crystalline;
    Since sorrow hath shut me safe in love’s divine,
    And to spread wing and fly in the outer air

    The speaker avers that her belovèd is able to look at her with great excitement and fervor without doubt or perturbation because he is as content as if he were observing “a bee in a crystalline.” But for her, the experience is still in a transformative state.

    She has been engulfed in “sorrow” for such an extended period of time that she feels she is still “shut [ ] safe in love’s divine.” Thus, still somewhat paralyzed by the full prospect of love, her unexercised limbs are still incapable of functioning well.

    First Tercet:  A Metaphorical Bird

    Were most impossible failure, if I strove
    To fail so. But I look on thee—on thee—
    Beholding, besides love, the end of love,

    The speaker invokes the metaphor of a bird flying or perhaps a bee that would “spread wing and fly,” but she claims that if she tried to “fly,” she would crash in failure.  Such a failure would be so odious that she calls it a “most impossible failure.” And she insists that she does not dare “fail so.” 

    When she looks at her belovèd, she sees such pure love that she thinks she sees through eternity to the “end of love”—not the stoppage of love but the goal of love, or the result that keeps her somewhat cautious.

    Second Tercet:  Transported by Love

    Hearing oblivion beyond memory;
    As one who sits and gazes from above,
    Over the rivers to the bitter sea.

    The speaker senses in her lover’s look a perfection of love that allows her not only to see but to hear “oblivion beyond memory.” She seems to be transported to a height from which she can observe the phenomena below. 

    She can see “the rivers [flowing] to the bitter sea.” The sea remains “bitter” for now, but with all those rivers feeding it, she senses that one day she will look on it with kinder, more confident eyes.

  • Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 14 “If thou must love me, let it be for nought”

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

    Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 14 “If thou must love me, let it be for nought”

    In sonnet 14, Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s speaker is insisting that her suitor love her only for the sake of love, not for her physical qualities such as her smiling lips or the soft manner in which she speaks.

    Introduction with Text of Sonnet 14 “If thou must love me, let it be for nought”

    The speaker in this sonnet from Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s classic Sonnets from the Portuguese is now graciously receiving her suitor’s affection.  Nevertheless, she also feels it necessary to make him aware that she expects that their budding relationship should not only continue to grow but should become permanent.  She therefore delineates the nature of the love she anticipates that the two will share.

    Sonnet 14 “If thou must love me, let it be for nought”

    If thou must love me, let it be for nought
    Except for love’s sake only. Do not say
    “I love her for her smile—her look—her way
    Of speaking gently,—for a trick of thought
    That falls in well with mine, and certes brought
    A sense of pleasant ease on such a day”—
    For these things in themselves, Belovèd, may
    Be changed, or change for thee,—and love, so wrought,
    May be unwrought so. Neither love me for
    Thine own dear pity’s wiping my cheeks dry,—
    A creature might forget to weep, who bore
    Thy comfort long, and lose thy love thereby!
    But love me for love’s sake, that evermore
    Thou mayst love on, through love’s eternity.

    Commentary on Sonnet 14 “If thou must love me, let it be for nought”

    The speaker insists that her beloved offer her affection only based on love and not for any physical qualities that she demonstrates, including the way she smiles or the manner in which she speaks.

    First Quatrain:  Continuing to Remain Somewhat Tentative

    If thou must love me, let it be for nought
    Except for love’s sake only. Do not say
    “I love her for her smile—her look—her way
    Of speaking gently,—for a trick of thought

    The speaker’s tentativeness continues,  even though she seems to be contemplating the much desired joy of such a love relationship.  Her continued procrastination remains as a shield for her heart, in case the relationship ends.   She is signaling the likelihood of her acceptance by affirming, “If thou must love me,” but not with the oft-touted insulting phrase, if-you-really-love-me.

    The uncomplicated, single term “must” declares that a change is in the offing.  It demonstrates that she now realizes the true nature of this man’s love, although she cannot bring herself to have total faith that some feature in her nature could never assert itself and thus spoil such a love that seems to be so true.

    The speaker is requesting pragmatically that he love her for love alone, and not because of  the physical, therefore superficial, qualities that too often attract lovers.  She does not desire that her lover to be in love merely with the physical qualities she possesses such as her smile and speaking manner.

    Second Quatrain: Contempt for the Superficial

    That falls in well with mine, and certes brought
    A sense of pleasant ease on such a day”—
    For these things in themselves, Belovèd, may
    Be changed, or change for thee,—and love, so wrought,

    The speaker then is unveiling her reason for being dismayed by superficial kinds of attention that often engages lovers.  Those qualities too often prove to be “a trick of thought.”  Suppose that her smile be pleasant to him one day but not so much the next day.  If he were fixed upon such a smile, she fears his feeling for her would diminish.

    The speaker does not wish that her partner’s love to be guided only by mood.  She suspects that if she offers him a pleasant glance but later offers a melancholy sorrow his love for her may become negatively affected.  

    Also, her speech to him may from time to time vary and not always offer him the same level of delight.  She knows she will not always be able to engage in conversation that is brimming only with joyful pleasantries.

    The speaker comprehends well that love based on change cannot maintain a lasting, steadfast love relationship.  Thus she is letting him know that she is aware that the physical is very likely to change, but true love should not change; love should remain constant.  She wants to let him know that she can only engage in an unconditional love that is founded on unchanging affection.

    First Tercet:  Accepting No Pity

    May be unwrought so. Neither love me for
    Thine own dear pity’s wiping my cheeks dry,—
    A creature might forget to weep, who bore

    The speaker is offering an additional demand that he not love her with pity in his heart.  She has often explored the reaches of the melancholy that has caused her to shed tears often and for long periods of time.  And if his love were tainted with pity and sympathy for her sorrowful lot, what would occur with that pity, were she to “forget to weep”?

    She reasons that if or when she likely becomes a happily, contented woman, her beloved would then have one less reason to continue to love her, if he had allowed his love for her to include the negativity of pity and sympathy.

    Second Tercet:   Love for Love’s Sake Alone

    Thy comfort long, and lose thy love thereby!
    But love me for love’s sake, that evermore
    Thou mayst love on, through love’s eternity.

    The speaker deems it very important to make her paramour aware that she wants to be loved for no reason other than that she exists.  If she is loved because of physical features, or because of the fact that she has deeply suffered and somehow now deserves to be content, true, lasting love could never continue to remain.

    Therefore, if her beloved will love her as she requests and just love her for “love’s sake,” she is convinced that their love will exist “through love’s eternity.”  She has weighed the calamity of false starts, and she makes it clear that she wishes to avoid the pain of a failed relationship.

  • Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 13 “And wilt thou have me fashion into speech”

    Image: Elizabeth Barrett Browning – NPG, London

    Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 13 “And wilt thou have me fashion into speech“

    The speaker in sonnet 13 muses on the idea of composing a verse about her newly found emotion but hesitates for fear of touching the grief she suffers. 

    Introduction with Text of Sonnet 13 “And wilt thou have me fashion into speech”

    In Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s sonnet 13 from Sonnets from the Portuguese, the speaker attempts to respond to her suitor’s encouragement to transcribe her feelings for him in a poem, but she does not yet believe she is ready to plumb the depths of her feelings.

    Sonnet 13 “And wilt thou have me fashion into speech”

    And wilt thou have me fashion into speech
    The love I bear thee, finding words enough,
    And hold the torch out, while the winds are rough,
    Between our faces, to cast light on each?
    I drop it at thy feet. I cannot teach
    My hand to hold my spirit so far off
    From myself—me—that I should bring thee proof
    In words, of love hid in me out of reach.
    Nay, let the silence of my womanhood
    Commend my woman-love to thy belief,—
    Seeing that I stand unwon, however wooed,
    And rend the garment of my life, in brief,
    By a most dauntless, voiceless fortitude,
    Lest one touch of this heart convey its grief.

    Commentary on Sonnet 13 “And wilt thou have me fashion into speech”

    The speaker in sonnet 13 muses on the idea of composing a verse about her newly found emotion of love, but she hesitates for she fears touching the grief that still confronts her.

    First Quatrain:  Should She Express Her Love?

    And wilt thou have me fashion into speech
    The love I bear thee, finding words enough,
    And hold the torch out, while the winds are rough,
    Between our faces, to cast light on each?

    The speaker beseeches her beloved wondering if she should “fashion into speech” how she feels about him. She feels that she may not yet be ready to express verbally the feelings that are beginning to move her. Undoubtedly, she believes that outward verbal expression may hamper her unique emotions.

    If she translated her feelings into words, she fears they would behave as a “torch” and would “cast light on each” of their faces.  However, that would happen only if the wind did not blow out their fire. 

    She believes she must protect her increasing emotion from all outside forces; therefore, she opens with a question. She cannot be certain that remaining silent is any longer the proper way to behave.

    Second Quatrain:  Unsteadied by Emotion

    I drop it at thy feet. I cannot teach
    My hand to hold my spirit so far off
    From myself—me—that I should bring thee proof
    In words, of love hid in me out of reach.

    The speaker then dramatically asserts that she, “drop[s] at [his] feet”; she does this because she cannot remain steady in his presence, as she is overcome with emotion. She becomes so agitated with the notion of love, and she cannot calm down in order to write what might be coherent about her intense feelings.

    The sonnet suggests that her beloved has asked the poet/speaker for a poem about her feelings for him; however, she believes that her love is so profoundly heartfelt that she may not be able to shapes its significance in words.

    The speaker feels that she cannot perceive the appropriate images for they are, “hid in me out of reach.” She feels that she must wait for a time when she has found enough tranquility to be able to “fashion into speech” the complex, deep feelings she is experiencing because of her love for this man.

    First Tercet:   Remaining Self-Aware

    Nay, let the silence of my womanhood
    Commend my woman-love to thy belief,—
    Seeing that I stand unwon, however wooed,

    The speaker concludes therefore that “the silence of [her] womanhood” will have to function to persuade him that she does possess those deep feeling of love for him.  She confesses  that she has remained a bit distant from her beloved, when she says she is “unwon.” 

    Although he has “wooed” her, she feels that she must keep a portion of her self out of sight for very deeply personal reasons. She must make sure she stays present and connected in her own self.

    Second Tercet:   Dramatizing the Depth of Pain

    And rend the garment of my life, in brief,
    By a most dauntless, voiceless fortitude,
    Lest one touch of this heart convey its grief.

    The sonnet sequence has dramatized the depth of the pain and melancholy the speaker has endured her entire life-long. She is still suffering that same pain and sadness. She thus again reveals that if she too soon tries to place her feeling into a poem, she would perhaps only “convey [her heart’s] grief.”

    The speaker remains fearful of the notion that “a most dauntless, voiceless fortitude” could impede the power with which she is being propelled toward completely accepting the current relationship with her new-found belovèd.

  • Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 12 “Indeed this very love which is my boast”

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

    Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 12 “Indeed this very love which is my boast”

    In sonnet 12 from Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s “Sonnets from the Portuguese,” her speaker is becoming more comfortable, realizing that she is truly loved by her suitor.  Still she gives him all credit for her ability to love as deeply as she does.

    Introduction with Text of Sonnet 12 “Indeed this very love which is my boast”

    Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s sonnet 12 from Sonnets from the Portuguese portrays the speaker as she muses on the happiness of having fallen in love with one so illustrious and accomplished as is her suitor.

    Sonnet 12 “Indeed this very love which is my boast”

    Indeed this very love which is my boast,
    And which, when rising up from breast to brow,
    Doth crown me with a ruby large enow
    To draw men’s eyes and prove the inner cost,—
    This love even, all my worth, to the uttermost,
    I should not love withal, unless that thou
    Hadst set me an example, shown me how,
    When first thine earnest eyes with mine were crossed,
    And love called love. And thus, I cannot speak
    Of love even, as a good thing of my own:
    Thy soul hath snatched up mine all faint and weak,
    And placed it by thee on a golden throne,—
    And that I love (O soul, we must be meek!)
    Is by thee only, whom I love alone.

    Commentary on Sonnet 12 “Indeed this very love which is my boast”

    Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s speaker in this sonnet is musing on her good fortune to have attracted the attention of a man, who is without doubt above her class status.  And what is more important is that he has accomplished much and is recognized as a excellent poet.

    First Quatrain:  The Effects of Love

    Indeed this very love which is my boast,
    And which, when rising up from breast to brow,
    Doth crown me with a ruby large enow
    To draw men’s eyes and prove the inner cost,—

    The speaker recognizes the effects of the love she is experiencing.  She flushes red-cheeked as she muses on her good luck.  She believes it entirely appropriate that she “boast” because of her good fortune.  She thinks that whoever sees her can understand that she is glowing with love from “breast to brow” because of her wonderful, dynamic suitor. 

    The speaker reports that her heart has gained speed, rushing to her face the blood results in the blushing that announces to the world that she is in love.  She no longer can keep private her joy at being loved.  Her feelings have become too full, too great to contain with a neutral pose.

    Second Quatrain:  Learning Deep Love

    This love even, all my worth, to the uttermost,
    I should not love withal, unless that thou
    Hadst set me an example, shown me how,
    When first thine earnest eyes with mine were crossed,

    Then the speaker declares something truly astonishing: she admits that without her beloved teaching her how to love at such a depth, she would not have been able to do so.  Without his example, she would never have understood how love can completely engulf the heart and mind.

    The speaker gradually little by little is coming to comprehend the importance of her burgeoning affection.  She now begins to realize the glorious state of affairs that actually started as soon as their eyes first connected in their first love’s deep glance.

    First Tercet:  Naming the Emotion

    And love called love. And thus, I cannot speak
    Of love even, as a good thing of my own:
    Thy soul hath snatched up mine all faint and weak,

    The speaker realized for the first time the beauty of naming that magnificent emotion “love”—for it was then that for her, indeed, “love called love”—only at that momentous occasion when the pair of lovers first looked deeply into each other’s eyes.

    Not only was the emotion labeled, but the feeling itself was also brought forth. The emotion resided within her deep heart; her beloved brought the emotion into her open consciousness. 

    She finds that she still “cannot speak” about love without acknowledging the existence, the existential presence, of her beloved. For her, love and her suitor are virtually synonymous because he “snatched up” her soul at a time that it was “all faint and weak.”

    Second Tercet:  Liberating a Weak Spirit

    And placed it by thee on a golden throne,—
    And that I love (O soul, we must be meek!)
    Is by thee only, whom I love alone.

    After liberating her faint, weak soul, her suitor raised her and set her beside him, “on a golden throne.” Metaphorically, she likens the bliss of his love to a royal asset of high value—an apt comparison because of all the many references to royalty she has employed to describe her suitor.

    The speaker again bestows all credit to her suitor for the being able to love as profoundly as she does.  She even tells her own soul that “we must be meek.”  The speaker never wants to lose the humility she was blessed with.  She never wants to forget that her own soul is the repository of all love.

  • Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 11 “And therefore if to love can be desert”

    Image: Elizabeth Barrett Browning – Library of Congress

    Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 11 “And therefore if to love can be desert”

    The speaker is still walking the path to self-acceptance, still looking for the courage to believe in her own good fortune at finding a love that she wants to deserve.

    Introduction and Text of Sonnet 11: “And therefore if to love can be desert”

    Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s sonnet 11 from Sonnets from the Portuguese features the continued philosophizing of the obsessed speaker as she falls in love while trying to justify that love to herself and to her belovèd.

    Sonnet 11 “And therefore if to love can be desert”

    And therefore if to love can be desert,
    I am not all unworthy. Cheeks as pale
    As these you see, and trembling knees that fail
    To bear the burden of a heavy heart,—
    This weary minstrel-life that once was girt
    To climb Aornus, and can scarce avail
    To pipe now ‘gainst the valley nightingale
    A melancholy music,—why advert
    To these things? O Belovèd, it is plain
    I am not of thy worth nor for thy place!
    And yet, because I love thee, I obtain
    From that same love this vindicating grace,
    To live on still in love, and yet in vain,—
    To bless thee, yet renounce thee to thy face.

    Reading

    Commentary on Sonnet 11 “And therefore if to love can be desert”

    The speaker remains reluctant to engage in her own self-acceptance.  She is still looking for enough courage to accept her own good fortune in finding a love of which she desire to become deserving .

    First Quatrain:  Berating Her Own Value

    And therefore if to love can be desert,
    I am not all unworthy. Cheeks as pale
    As these you see, and trembling knees that fail
    To bear the burden of a heavy heart,

    The speaker, who so often has devalued her own self worth, now continues to evolve toward accepting the idea that she might, in fact, be “not all unworthy.”  She contends that if the ability to love can be deserved, as an award for goodness or service, she feels that it just might be possible for her to have enough importance to accept the love of one so obviously above her in status and accomplishments.

    Again, however, she begins her litany of flaws; she has pale cheeks, and her knees tremble so that she can hardly “bear the burden of a heavy heart.”  She continues her string of self-deprecations into the second quatrain and first tercet.

    Second Quatrain:  To Accomplish Great Things

    This weary minstrel-life that once was girt
    To climb Aornus, and can scarce avail
    To pipe now ‘gainst the valley nightingale
    A melancholy music,—why advert

    The speaker has lived a “weary minstrel-life,” and while she once thought of accomplishing great things, as Alexander the Great had taken Aornus, she now finds herself barely able to compose a few melancholy poems.  She finds it difficult even to compete “’gainst the valley nightingale.” 

    However, she has also decided, while both thinking of and obsessing over these negative aspects of the life, to reconsider her possibilities.   She realizes that she is merely distracting herself from more important issues by continuing to retain negative thoughts about which she spends too much time obsessing.

    First Tercet: Concentration on Negativity

    To these things? O Belovèd, it is plain
    I am not of thy worth nor for thy place!
    And yet, because I love thee, I obtain

    Thus the speaker asks herself, “why advert / / To these things?”  Indeed, why concentrate on the past negativity, as such a glorious future has been heralded? She then directly addresses her suitor, claiming, “O Belovèd, it is plain / I am not of thy worth.” 

    She still insists on making it known how aware she is that she is not of her suitor’s status. However, she is now willing to consider that they might be able to grow a relationship.

    Second Tercet: Advancing a Philosophical Position

    From that same love this vindicating grace,
    To live on still in love, and yet in vain,—
    To bless thee, yet renounce thee to thy face.

    The speaker advances an odd philosophical position that because she loves the man, that love will offer her “vindicating grace.”  Thus, she can accept his love and love him while still allowing herself to believe that such a love is “in vain” and that she can still “bless” him with her love, while simultaneously she can “renounce [him] to [his] face.”

    The speaker’s complex of accepting and rejecting allows her to continue to believe she is both worthy yet somehow not quite worthy of this love.  She cannot forsake the notion that she can never be equal to him.  

    Yet, she can accept his love and the prospect that somehow, somewhere beyond her ability to grasp it is the possibility that despite all of her flaws, she ultimately is deserving of such a great and glorious love.

  • Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 10 “Yet, love, mere love, is beautiful indeed”

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

    Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 10 “Yet, love, mere love, is beautiful indeed”

    The speaker of sonnet 10 is beginning to reason that despite her flaws, the transformative power of love can change her negative, dismissive attitude.

    Introduction and Text of Sonnet 10 “Yet, love, mere love, is beautiful indeed”

    Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s sonnet 10 from Sonnets from the Portuguese finds the speaker’s attitude slowly but surely evolving.  She is now allowing herself to reason that if God can love his lowliest creatures, surely a man can love a flawed woman.  Thus, through that magic power, those flaws may be overcome.

    Sonnet 10  “Yet, love, mere love, is beautiful indeed”

    Yet, love, mere love, is beautiful indeed
    And worthy of acceptation. Fire is bright,
    Let temple burn, or flax; an equal light
    Leaps in the flame from cedar-plank or weed:
    And love is fire. And when I say at need
    I love thee … mark! … I love thee—in thy sight
    I stand transfigured, glorified aright,
    With conscience of the new rays that proceed
    Out of my face toward thine. There’s nothing low
    In love, when love the lowest: meanest creatures
    Who love God, God accepts while loving so.
    And what I feel, across the inferior features
    Of what I am, doth flash itself, and show
    How that great work of Love enhances Nature’s.

    Reading  

    Commentary on Sonnet 10 “Yet, love, mere love, is beautiful indeed”

    The speaker of sonnet 10 is beginning to reason that despite her flaws, the transformative power of love can change her negative, dismissive attitude.  As she begins to turn her negativity around, she puts on a brighter glow of enthusiasm.

    First Quatrain:  The Value of Love

    Yet, love, mere love, is beautiful indeed
    And worthy of acceptation. Fire is bright,
    Let temple burn, or flax; an equal light
    Leaps in the flame from cedar-plank or weed:

    The speaker begins to focus on the value of love, finding that emotion to be “beautiful” and even “worthy of acceptation.” She likens love to fire and finds love to be “bright” as love is also a flame in the heart and mind.  She contends that the power of fire and the light it emits remains the same force regardless of the fuel that feeds it—whether it is “from cedar-plank” or even if it is from “weed.” 

    Thus, the melancholy speaker is beginning to believe that her suitor’s love can burn as bright even if she is the motivation, although she metaphorically considers herself to be the weed rather than the cedar-plank.

    Second Quatrain:  Fire and Love

    And love is fire. And when I say at need
    I love thee … mark! … I love thee—in thy sight
    I stand transfigured, glorified aright,
    With conscience of the new rays that proceed

    The speaker continues the metaphorical comparison of love to fire and boldly states that love is, indeed, fire.  She audaciously proclaims her love for her suitor and contends that by saying she loves him, she transforms her lowly self, and thereby she can arise transformed and even reflect an honest kind of glory.  The awareness of the vibrations of love that exude from her being causes her to be magnified and made better than she normally believes herself to be.

    First Tercet:  God’s Love

    Out of my face toward thine. There’s nothing low
    In love, when love the lowest: meanest creatures
    Who love God, God accepts while loving so.

    The speaker avers that there is nothing about love that is “low.”  God loves all of his creatures, even the lowliest.  The speaker is evolving toward true acceptance of her suitor’s attention and affection, but she has to convince her doubting mind that there exist sufficiently good reasons for her to change her negative outlook.

    Obviously, the speaker has no intention of changing her beliefs in her own low station in life.  She carries her past in the heart and mind, and all of her tears and sorrows have permanently tainted her own view of herself.  But she can turn toward acceptance and allow herself to be loved, and through that love, she can, at least, bask in its joy as a chilled person would bask in sunshine.

    Second Tercet:  The Transformative Powers of Love

    And what I feel, across the inferior features
    Of what I am, doth flash itself, and show
    How that great work of Love enhances Nature’s.

    The speaker will continue to think of herself as inferior, but because she can now believe that one as illustrious as her suitor can love her, she is opening her heart and mind to the possibility of the transformative powers of love.  She still insists on her inferiority, asserting that she possesses “inferior features.”  

    And she must “feel” her way across such ingrained realities.  But she also can now affirm that the power of love is so great that it can enhance the qualities and feature of Nature itself.  Such a power demands respect, and the speaker is awakening to that reality.