Sunday, November 22, 2009
"Sonnet 43"
Oh no! I forgot to have this blog post up for you on Friday. What was meant to be written was a commentary on "Sonnet 43" using the structure for a poetry commentary that we used before. I know that I told some students about this before Friday and hope that everyone was able to figure this out. Not to worry. We'll discuss this further this week. When you have finished this commentary, please post it as a comment here.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Polina
ReplyDeleteSonnet43
Sonnet 43 was written by Elizabeth Barrett Browning in 1950. Elizabeth Barrett(1806-1861) was one of the most prominent poets of the Victorian era. Sonnet 43 she wrote to her husband Robert Browning. Elizabeth was telling him her love by this sonnet.
In the sonnet we can see that Elizabeth count the ways how she love thee. I think that thee its a Robert Browning her husband. Then she wrote how great her love by comparing things and describing feelings. She remembered the past "My childhood's faith" and mentioned future "after my death" It shows us that she really in love.
In the sonnet we can see a bit of her history like "in my old griefs" I think she wrote about death of her brother. Also her father didn't allow her marry the men she liked and in this sonnet she trying to see how big is her love by comparing things like " I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise". She thought that she wont love again but she did " I love thee with the love I seemed to lose". This sonnet has 14 lines. A,B,B,A,C,D,D,C,E,F,E,G,H,G.
In this sonnet Elizabeth describes her love. She divided it in to two parts first she saying her emotions like she feeling love with all her soul. In the second part she is talking about love on level of everyday's like a normal, standard love. in the second like we can see how big her love "I love thee to the depth and breadth and height" she wrote "and" by this we can imagine kind of volume of love depth, breadth ,height.. Also she comparing things in the poem like "I love thee freely, as men strive for right". With last sentences she is showing how great her love is " I shall but love thee better after my death".
This sonnet is saying us how great her feelings to Robert Browning. She always thinks about him. This poem remind me about Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare because it has same strong feelings. Also in both stories fathers of Elizabeth and Juliet were against their relationship.
This sonnet is very emotional and interesting one. She described it very well so everyone who reads it can feel her. I like this sonnet.
Hope its right...
Sonnet 43
ReplyDeleteThe poem is called “Sonnet 43”, and is written by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. She wrote it in 1850, and the main theme of the poem is love. Here is the poem:
Sonnet #43
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints!---I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life!---and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.
So in the first line Elizabeth Barrett is asking herself how much she loves “thee”. In the second and third lines she is speaking about the dimensions of her love, she is saying that it is never ending and infinite. Then in 4th and 5th lines she is saying that she loves “thee” “To the level of everyday’s”. Then the next line she is saying that a little bit of love is all she is asking for. Then she is comparing her love using similes, and then she is finishing the poem asking herself if she would love “thee” better after she died.
This poem is about love, and it can be different types of love; how you love your mate, how you love your parents or how you love god or friends, or anything. So in class we were guessing what love she meant in this poem, because when you read it once you know exactly that it is passionate love, but when you read it more and think about it and her biography more you might think that she either means her future husband, or she means her dead brother, or she is so religious implying “thee”, so she refers to god. Any of the three really suit because even though in line nine she mentions “passion”, maybe she meant that she passionately loved god or her brother passionately like a lot, maybe in her time passion didn’t exactly mean sexual relations, but maybe she could passionately love a flower.
This poem consists of fourteen lines, which are structured in this way:ABBAABBAACACAC. It has a steady rhythm, you might no realize it rhymes because it does not have the same number of syllables in each line. The mood is neutral and the tone is loud but not shouting loud. To me it didn’t quite create any special atmosphere.
I think that this poem is similar to the poem called “Will love you forever”, by Amanda Nicole Martinez. Here is the poem:
Will Love You Forever
I love you so deeply,
I love you so much,
I love the sound of your voice
And the way that we touch.
I love your warm smile
And your kind, thoughtful way,
The joy that you bring
To my life every day.
I love you today
As I have from the start,
And I'll love you forever
With all of my heart.
- Amanda Nicole Martinez -
I think that the poems are similar because both of the authors are female, both of the poems are about love, also this poem starts off with saying how you love the person or whatever, just like in sonnet 43. Both of the poem also end with loving forever, in this poem it says, but in sonnet 43 I think she meant that because when you die, you die forever.
I really liked this poem, I loved it actually. I think learning it by heart makes it easier to discuss it, and understand the deeper meaning of it later on. I am not sure what it sets out to do, I guess it sets out the readers to think about the author’s love, and their own, in this case it is successful.
Evita Otigbah
ReplyDeleteSonnet 43 is a poem from the collection of sonnets called Sonnets from the Portuguese this collection was written by Elizabeth Barrett. This particular poem was published in 1850 4 years after she eloped with her lover Robert Browning. The main theme of the poem is love.
This poem was written as a response to one of Robert Browning’s poems .In this poem Elizabeth is expressing her love for Robert. The first line opens the poem by asking a question ‘How do I love thee?’ then Elizabeth goes on to explain her love. In the second line of the poem it talks about how her love can be measured and I get the idea that it is a deep pool of love ‘I love thee to the depth & breadth & height. So it is saying love is like a liquid that can be measured. In the third line however ‘My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight’ gives me the impression that she does not love the person that much because we do not know how much her soul can reach (and souls cannot reach). But she is saying he can feel his love even when she is lost and confused.
The fifth and sixth lines suggest that he is an everyday need and she can’t live without him.
The next two lines are comparing her love to something else ‘I love thee freely, as men strive for Right…I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise’ she loves him a lot because most mean would do anything for their right and her love is pure.
‘I love thee with the passion put to use In my old grief’s,.. and with my childhood's faith’
These two lines say she loves him with a great amount of passion because she lost her brother and her mother at a young age and also her father went against her marriage so she loves him.
In next line she admits she losses her love for him but then says she loves him with the ‘breath, smiles, tears’ of all her life. The last line is the most touching line she is telling Robert Browning that if God lets her (if there is life after death ) she will love him better after she dies ‘if God choose, I shall but love thee better after my death.’
The poem mentions the word ‘love’ many times. The poem has a rhyming scheme and that is
A,B,B,A,C,D,D,C,E,F,E,F,E,F. The tone of the poem is quiet serious and desperate because she is trying to convey her feelings across. This poem is deep because of the way she is expressing her love ‘I love thee to the depth & breadth & height’ and ‘I love thee with the passion put to use In my old grief’s,. . and with my childhood's faith’. The poem is written in first person and it uses ‘thee’ you so in a sense the poet is saying she loves the reader and the effect given is that we are brought closer to the poet and the poem which gives an interesting meaning to the poem.
I can link this poem to a book I have read called Autofiction by Hitomi Kanehara the story is about a woman the story goes back in time and it is written so the woman is narrating the story it is written in first person. In the first part of the story she is on a plane and she gets obsessed with the idea that her husband is cheating on her with the air hostess when he goes to use the bathroom (but he really is not) and she keeps on saying weird things because of this thought that has dawned on her and she expresses her love bys saying I wish this plane would crash so everyone could die and so she would be out of her misery. In the story and the poem the expression of love in both is deep and meant in a serious way. In both the women love the men a lot and the feelings are conveyed across to the audience.
I found this poem very interesting because of the way the poet expressed her love to her lover. I really like the way the love was expressed. If I ever found someone I loved a lot I would surely read this poem to that person, because the love even though it is a huge amount to convey the poet managed to convey it in this poem which is quite a challenging task.
Sonnet 43
ReplyDeleteElizabeth Barret Browning
The poem I wrote about is called Sonnet 43 which was written by Elizabeth Barret Browning in 1850. The general subject of the poem is love and Christianity, and the way she expresses her love to her husband. The poem is about Elizabeth Browning (the writer) expressing her love to her husband, Robert Browning.
In the first two lines of the poem, she is expressing her love to her husband by saying “Let me count the ways” as there are many ways that she loves her husband and when she says “I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My Soul can reach…” means that she loves / cares for him so much. On the 7th and 8th lines, she is probably saying that she is not ashamed of her love for her husband and that she’ll love him with a pure heart, when saying “I love thee freely and purely.” And for the last lines, she is saying that she will love him for all her life, through hardships and joys, and until she dies.
Elizabeth Browning seems to be suggesting her love in the poem. The poem could be more interesting if she didn’t make it obvious of her love for her husband. Example: Instead of starting with “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.” She could start off with “How do I feel for thee? Let me express the ways.” So it will keep us thinking of the poem and wondering ‘Is it love that she is talking about or is it hate?’
The poem isn’t structured in stanzas, but is structured with just a continuation of lines, like a sort of short story or a message of some sort. There is no rhythm and rhyme to the poem in the first part, but the parts that do have a rhyme is lines 2, 3, 4, 5, which is A, A, B, B. There is also of the lines 6 and 7. The words that rhyme there are candle – light and Right. The lines of 8, 9, 10, and 11’s rhyme scheme is A, B, A, B. And of lines 12, 13, and 14 is A, B, A. The imagery I get from this poem is of a married couple that is in love with each other, and the wife expressing her love to the husband. The mood and tone isn’t of a sad one, but more of a loving and joyful one with no hates involved between them. The way the atmosphere is created with words such as ‘I love thee freely, as men strive for Right’ and ‘I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.’ and ‘I love thee with passion put to use.’
This poem mostly links to the poem of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare because it mentions that she loves him even after death, which is also linked to Romeo and Juliet. The text she uses is also a bit dramatic when she mentions ‘Smiles, tears, of all my life! – And if God choose…’
I enjoyed reading this poem, and I liked the way she expressed her feelings towards him. It sends a pretty good message for those who are feeling the same thing as advice, and it’s uniquely structured sonnet. I didn’t have any problem of understanding of what she was trying to say. The images it gives are not the most obvious, but are creative and very true as well. In my opinion, I think it is a very successful poem from 1850, and I would rate It 5/5.
Poetry Commentary – Sonnet 43
ReplyDeleteSONNET 43
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints!---I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life!---and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death
Sonnet 43 is a sonnet written by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. This sonnet was written in 1850. The poem is about love. It is probably meant to be sent to her husband Robert Browning but there are many different possibilities of people she could have sent it to. The poem is a very olden style of poem, because it includes thee and thy a lot. This also indicates that whoever wrote it is a very passionate woman.
The poem is about love, it shows her affection to her husband, god and perhaps even her brother who had passed away. The stanza is about her showing her love in many different ways. In the first line she is showing that she loves him so much that she needs to count the ways of how many different ways she loves him. It shows the size of her love in line 2 and it shows that her love is unreachable in many different ways. When she says ‘when feeling out of sight’ she means the love is farther than you can possibly see and reach. In line 4 she is showing how she is in touch with her religion. Also in line 4 she says ‘For the ends of Being and ideal Grace’ it means that her love is so big that she loves him to the infinite amount. In the fifth line she loves Robert to the level of everyday’s which means she loves him immensely. In line 6 Elizabeth is showing that she loves him in a normal way, a normal love, like everybody’s love. In line 7-9 Elizabeth is showing that she loves him as men strive for what right and when they turn for praise. This shows that she loves him a lot that way. In line ten she mentions saints, this shows she is close to her religion. In the end of this poem she shows how much she loves him when she will be dead because she cannot imagine more love.
This poem is a love poem so it repeats the word love many times. This word or the stanza ‘’I love thee’’ is repeated 8 times in the whole poem. This shows her love for Robert. The rhyme scheme of this poem is A,B,B,A,C,D,D,C,E,F,E,F,E,F. The poem is written in the first person, it uses thee so it shows that it is in the first. The poem is unique, she is trying to express her love and she writes this romantic and deep poem.
I can link this poem to another poem I read, “Poem to daughter”
Daughter, take this amulet
tie it with cord and caring
I’ll make you a chain of coral and pearl
to glow on your neck. I’ll dress you nobly.
A gold clasp too – fine, without flaw
to keep with you always.
When you bathe, sprinkle perfume, and weave your
hair in braids.
Spring jasmine for the counterpane.
Wear you clothes like a bride.
for your feet anklets, bracelets for your arms…
Don’t forget rosewater,
don’t forget henna for the palms of your hands.
This poem is about a mother who loves her daughter very much and gives her an amulet to show her love. The love is not the same but it is strong and passionate but not romantic. It shows motherly and daughterly love between the two. It does link to this poem/sonnet.
I found this poem very interesting to read as it was different, it was a different love, it was more passionate, stronger and more true. Actually their love is so true she wrote this amazing poem that struck the hearts of everyone who read it, as it is true and strong.
Poetry Commentary
ReplyDeleteSonnet 43
PART 1:
The poet “Sonnet 43” was written by Elizabeth Barrett Browning in 1850. This sonnet is one of the 44 sonnets she wrote and she called this series “Sonnets From the Portuguese”. Sonnet 43 is about her love to a person that is not named in the poem but most likely it is her beloved Robert Browning.
At the very beginning, the author writes “How do I love thee?”. ‘Thee’ could be referring to Robert Browning. The first line shows us that something like a list is following because it says “Let me count the ways.” Then the author writes that she loves ‘thee’ “to the depth and breadth and height” which is very geometrical. Maybe we imagine her love as a very big, squared box. The meaning of “For the ends of Being” could be ‘the result of Being’ or maybe even ‘the meaning of life’. Probably, her love is the meaning of her life. The fifth line makes her love more usual because there’s written “to the level of everyday’s”. “Candle-light” in the sixth line is something touchable which makes the love also more normal/ usual. In this line is written “sun and candle-light” which could be meant as day (sun) and night (candle-light). The next three lines all start with “I love thee” and they describe ways the author loves him. The line “In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith” is possibly referring to the past and then in the very last line “I shall but love thee better after death” is referring to the future. “I love thee with the breath, Smiles, tears, of all my life!” (twelfth and thirteenth line) shows us that everything in her life is about him and her love for him. All the good and bad things that happen – everything that happens – happens for him.
The poem is all about the love the author has for a person. “My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight” that even if she doesn’t see her love, she still can ‘reach’ him. So she thinks about him al the time. “I love thee freely” shows us that it is no forced love and that it has no limits. “I love thee purely” tells us that her love is pure. Then the author writes that she will love him better after her death but only “ if God choose”. That could be because she isn’t sure if there is a life after death. Maybe she hopes that she could still love him after her death because her father goes against her marriage and so they had to have a ‘secret love’. Maybe that’s why she wrote “better after death”. The whole poem is about how strong and infinite her love is and that her whole meaning of life is love. Though there are some phrases that make her love natural and usual (“to the level of everyday’s”; “Candle-light”), the love is mostly described as unusually big and special.
PART 2:
ReplyDeleteThe poem has the words “Being”, “Grace”, “Right”, “Praise” and “God” are written with capital letters. This could be because she wants to emphasize these words. They are words with positive meanings (“Right”, “Praise”) and they are all somehow connected. God created “Being” and “Being” wants to have “Right”, “Grace” and “Praise”. The sonnet has 14 lines and the rhyming scheme: A,B,B,A,C,D,D,C,E,F,E,G,E,G. In line seven and eight she compares her love to “as men strive for Right” and the other time to “as they turn from Praise”. The way she describes her love, it makes you imagine it as something too big and maybe geometrical and infinite. She also makes it clear that she is being serious. You can imagine the poem being read out loud by a woman because such strong emotions are not very often written down by men. The atmosphere hasn’t to be only serious, it is also kind of lyrical the way she writes about her love. The author is being very emotional and her love is very deep and strong. “With my lost saints!” and “Smiles, tears, of all my life!” make the poem less calm and makes the mood even stronger emotional than it already was. The last sentence “and, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death.” is a good ending because it builds up a calmer atmosphere again and ‘death’ is like ‘end’ so it’s suitable to end the poem with the word ‘death’. The poem uses ‘thee’ instead of ‘you’ which makes it more poetic.
The poem reminds me of the poem ‘So We’ll Go No More A-Roving’ by George Gordon Byron. That poem is also about love and it tells us about a secret love that has once been. Though the poem ‘Sonnet 43’ does not directly tell us that there is something like a secret love, too, but because the author’s father was against the relationship she had, it is very similar to the other poem. Love is very often the topic of poem and there are very different types of poems talking about love.
I really enjoyed reading this poem. The author was very honest about her love and I liked that. She also described her love in so many different ways an it was very emotional and strong. It also shows us how deeply in love she is and that she is very sure that her love will last forever, even after her death. This touched me and all in all the poem was very successful.
CAROLiNE SCHiLLER
The Sonnet 43
ReplyDeletePoetry Commentary
The Sonnet 43 was written by Elizabeth Barret Browning, who was born in 1806 and died unfortunately in 1861. The sonnet was written together with her future husband, Robert Browning. The theme of this sonnet is representing to be, love.
Sonnet 43 starts with “How do I love thee?” – ‘Thee’ in those days was referring to, as we call it ‘you’ today. By the word ‘thee’ the author was most probably referring to her future husband, Robert Browning. “I love thee to the depth and breadth and height” she says in the next line. By this the author is describing how much she loves this person in everyway equally. In the next stanza she says, “For the ends of Being an ideal Grace” The words, ‘Being’ and ‘Grace’ start with capital letters, probably to make the words stand out a little bit more and meaning what the author says. On the next line she says “ I love thee to the level of every day’s” by this she means that she can not keep her mind of him, that she keeps thinking about him constantly. “Most quiet need, by sun and candle light” she mentions in the next line possibly meaning that when she’s lonely she might be walking in the sun or either sit in a room with candles looking at it’s, oh so beautiful light. In the next three lines the author expresses her feelings towards this person and compares it to certain details. All of the three verses start with ‘I love thee’. In the next line she says “In my old grief and with my childhood’s faith.” meaning, the old experience and something she had strongly believed in as a child. In the next line the author mentions “I love thee with the breath, Smiles, tears, of all my life!” which might be meaning, she loves the person in any way, with all the happiness and sadness she got in her. In the last line, but not least – “I shall but love thee better after death” meaning, that she wants to love the person always, right now and after death, if not better when they were alive.
The author’s point of view is most probably, that she is incredibly in love that she can not think about anything else but this certain person. She mentions so many beautiful facts and details that it is impossible not to believe how incredibly in love she is. She expresses all her feelings and emotions coming out of her into a lovely piece of paper and sharing it with everybody who ever reads this lovely sonnet.
The style of the sonnet is a fourteen line sonnet with great details mentioned, easy to follow and understand , when putting the words we use today – as for example ‘thee’ converting the word into our every days language, ‘you’. The author first begins with mentioning the ways that she loves this certain person. she expresses a lot of her feelings – and it obviously shows! she puts words in such way, that it is easily shown how in love she is. She also compares a lot of her lines with something totally different – non referring to the theme, most probably to make it more dramatic and stand out with those feelings she mentions.
This sonnet really explains a lot – she expresses all her feelings she has for this person and it shows incredibly. Even the fact that she wrote this sonnet together with her future husband, it was most probably a great honor to be in that position for him. Knowing someone cares for him so much – that, that someone special wants to share something this big with the whole world. It kind of reminds me of the movie ‘Titanic’ how that couple loved each other so much but at the end they both die, it has kind of the same story but those are obviously, two different worlds and years. However, it is truly an amazing sonnet.
Christina Lomakina
Poetry Commentary - PART 1
ReplyDeleteThis commentary is on the poem "Sonnet 43" by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, written in 1850. The poem is, in general, all about love. It explains the different ways in how someone loves someone else, but from Elizabeth's point of view. The key themes of the poem is, of course, love, but also the features and effects of love.
There are 3-4 sections in "Sonnet 43". The first section of the poem is the main introduction of Elizabeth giving out a logical question; 'How do i love thee?'. It is then described in the 4 first lines how love can go far in different lengths and measurements e.g. 'depth', 'breadth', and 'height'. Elizabeth makes love seem like a kind of volume of air and that love can be measured in distance. In the 2nd section she describes 3 more ways how someone can be loved; 'freely', 'purely', and 'level' each giving an example of how this can be done. This section explains more about the different features love can be. The 3rd section is just 2 lines so it might not even count as a section, but i will give a small explanation of it anyway. It is about how someone can be passionate with love with their sadness ('grief) but also with their 'childhood's faith'. The last section of "Sonnet 43" is the whole conclusion of the poem. It explains the 2 final ways to be loved; ' breath, smiles, and tears' and 'love i seemed to lose'. These explain how she loves the person with all her life and would do anything to love the person for eternity.
If you look more deeply into the meaning of this poem you can find a wide range of them, some even leading to the background of the author's life of how at the time she was very in love with Robert Browning which who she wedded secretly behind her father who did not allow them to marry. This poem was suspected to be written to him and there are lines in the poem that could refer to their secret relationship; 'I love thee freely, as men strive for right'. This line she wrote maybe how they were not allowed to wed by her father and they would strive for right to be wedded. But it also explains that even if they could not be married under her fathers permission she could still love with him in unlimited ways. But as we look deeper into the poem we also ponder the question of if this poem was really about Robert Browning, Elizabeths husband? There are many religious words and sayings in the book like'ideal grace', 'saints, 'praise'. So this could poem could even be written to God if you look more deeply into the words of this poem.
The diction in "Sonnet 43" is clearly seen to be from the 18th century. The different words used, like 'thee', 'shall', 'breadth', 'being' etc, all sound pretty old for us in the 21st century since we don't use most of those words anymore. Since this poem is a sonnet, there is clearly a rhythm put into it. It might not be as clear as the rhythm in other poems, but when you say it out loud it sounds evenly put with a set pattern of syllables after each line. All of the lines except for very few of them have 10 syllables. In the beginning of the poem there is some definite rhyme; 'depth', 'breadth' and 'height', 'sight', '-light', 'right'.Those are pretty much all the ones i can find.
PART 2
ReplyDelete(same paragraph as previous post) The rhyme scheme is A, B, B, A, C, D, D, C, E, F, E, F, E, F. The poem sounds great anyway without it. There is some figurative imagery in the poem. One example of it is; 'My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight'. Here you can imagine how the soul of one person can reach the love so far, so that it is almost out of sight. No one has really put love like this and it is an unusual image to think of. The mood and atmosphere of the poem is very calm, tranquil, and loving. There is no sadness or depression detected anywhere in this poem (except for griefs). The atmosphere is filled with beautiful,ancient diction,love and peacefulness. There is one example of alliteration/assonance in "Sonnet 43"; 'depth & breadth & height'. It might not be an exact example of it, but it is very close to it.
(continuing in next post)
There are many poems similar to this one, since most of the sonnets/poems out there are mainly about love. This poem that I will present to you is very similar to “Sonnet 43” I must say. It is by Robert Burns in the year of 1794.
"Song—A Red, Red Rose"
O my Luve’s like a red, red rose,
That’s newly sprung in June:
O my Luve’s like the melodie,
That’s sweetly play’d in tune.
As fair art thou, my bonie lass,
So deep in luve am I;
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
Till a’ the seas gang dry.
Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear,
And the rocks melt wi’ the sun;
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
While the sands o’ life shall run.
And fare-thee-weel, my only Luve!
And fare-thee-weel, a while!
And I will come again, my Luve,
Tho’ ’twere ten thousand mile!
Both of the two poems have the theme of love and their love for the other. The two of them both have the repetition of one line, in this case, 'O my luve' and 'I will luve thee'. In “Sonnet 43” it is 'I love thee'. Which is almost the exact same interpretation as 'I will luve thee'.
My conclusion of “Sonnet 43” is that my overall feeling of it is that it is such a deep-felt, beautiful piece of poetry. It is so filled with love, that is difficult and confusing but at the same time, also simple and understanding. I really liked how after each line reference there was an example of it right after e.g. 'I love thee freely, as men strive for Right,-'. It made you understand more easily what the poet wanted to tell the reader. It also gave the impression that the poet really struggled to show what this poem was set out to do; explain how much she loves this one person it is directed to. And I have to say, she showed it successfully with her many figurative images and simple explanations. At first I didn't really understand the poem that much, but as we discussed it further in class, I could get a good and clear overview of it.
Sonnet 43
ReplyDeleteHow do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints!---I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life!---and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.
Sonnet 43, written by Elizabeth Barrett Browning in 1850, is a sonnet about her love for ‘thee’, and the whole idea of the poem is based around her love, and also mixes in with religion. Thee has been thought to be aimed at Robert Browning, as they were two lovers, living distances apart, but can also be interpreted as many other figures, such as God, which also makes sense, because of the use of religion in the sonnet.
The first few lines of the sonnet are expressing her immense love for ‘thee’, comparing her love to great, even infinite amounts (‘I love thee to the depth and breadth and height. My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight for the ends of Being and ideal Grace.’). It sounds like she is writing this from one country to a person in another country, and although she cannot see him, she still loves him greatly, and very passionately. But then she goes on about her love for ‘thee’, but on a smaller scale, comparing her love with the level of everyday’s most quiet need, and after that, she compares her love to him by saying ‘I love thee freely, as men strive for right; I love thee purely, as they turn from praise. I love thee with the passion put to use in my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.’ The use of the phrase ‘as men strive for right’ is quite peculiar, as at that era, it would be imagined that women would strive for right, not the men. Finally, the last few lines imply a religious feel to the sonnet, and she mentions lost saints, interpreted as her lost mother and brother.
The poem is about her ever-lasting love towards Robert Browning, and how she seems so far away from him, yet loves him so much. She emphasizes a lot to get the message across that her love for Robert Browning is infinite (the first part of the poem anyway), and that her feelings for him are very stong, and she is very passionate about him. She wrote this as a response to one of his poems, and when she found out that he admired her work, she was amazed that someone of his stature would like her work.
The sonnet has the rhyme scheme of A B B A C D D C E F E F E F, and uses the phrase ‘I love thee...’ many times, and also the word love. She uses religious words too, such as ‘ideal Grace’, and’lost Saints’, and even ‘Ends of Being’. These refer to her lost family (Brother and Mother, who she missed very much). The poem is written in first person, from the vantage point of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and although about her deep love for Robert Browning, the poem seems serious, and slightly depressing. Being a sonnet, there are 14 lines, and 10 syllables to a line.
I can compare this to ‘Love Sonnet XVII’, by Pablo Neruda, which uses the term ‘i love you’ over and over again, like in this poem, and compares his love to something great.
ReplyDeleteI don't love you as if you were the salt-rose, topaz
or arrow of carnations that propagate fire:
I love you as certain dark things are loved,
secretly, between the shadow and the soul.
I love you as the plant that doesn't bloom and carries
hidden within itself the light of those flowers,
and thanks to your love, darkly in my body
lives the dense fragrance that rises from the earth.
I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where,
I love you simply, without problems or pride:
I love you in this way because I don't know any other way of loving
but this, in which there is no I or you,
so intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand,
so intimate that when I fall asleep it is your eyes that close.
Both poems contain the repetitive use of ‘i love you to...’ and both compare the love they have to very important/great things. The sonnet XVII is about the same thing, a figure (the author) who loves another so greatly, that they have to compare their love to great things.
I found this sonnet very interesting, especially when we looked into its further meanings. I think the sonnet is well written, and brings across the message very boldly, that her love for Robert Browning is so immense, that she compares it to infinity. It is a very passionate poem, and although i usually dislike romance pieces of literature, this was a good poem, and i enjoyed reading it.
SONNET #43, FROM THE PORTUGUESE
ReplyDeleteBy Elizabeth Barrett Browning
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old grief’s, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints!---I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life!---and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.
Sonnet 43 is written by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, published in the 1850’s this was one of Elizabeth’s many Sonnets, which was number 43 of her collection ‘From The Portuguese’ The poem is about her love to Robert Browning, as she continuously mentions ‘I Love Thee’ Elizabeth had problems with her love life, since her father was very strict, Elizabeth kept Her love with Robert Secret. There also seems to be some religion in the poem as near the end she mentions ‘God’
The first couple of lines are about how she loves him as she continuously used “I love thee”, and the depth in which she loves him as “Depth and Breadth and Height” along with “My soul can reach” show this, this is making it look as if she knows her love is far away but she keeps on believing that she can still reach him through her soul. She then goes on comparing her love to certain things but on a ‘Low’ matter now, “Level of everyday’s Most quiet need” and then she compares it to men’s rights as she says “I love thee freely, as men strive for Right, - I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise; I love thee with the passion put to use” and at this point she makes it feel as if she Really loves him to the ends of time. Then the next few lines go on about how her love is ‘bound’ by religion as “With my lost Saints-, I love thee with the breath, Smiles, tears, of all my life! - and, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after my death.” And With my lost Saints, that could mean her Brother, Edward and her mother.
The Sonnet seems to hint that Elizabeth Loves Robert quite a bit, as almost every line has “I love thee” but it also shows that even though she is far away from Robert, her love can reach as far as the ends of the earth as she loves him dearly. She also wrote some of her sonnets as a response to Roberts work and once she found out that he very much liked them, that was it, she was shocked at someone like him to like her work.
ReplyDeleteThe Sonnet’s Rhyme scheme is A,B,B,A,C,D,D,C,E,F,E,F,E,F and since it is a sonnet is has 14 lines and 10 syllables per line. The sonnet uses “I Love Thee” many times as this emphasizes her love to Robert Browning, the sonnet also uses a lot of Religious references like “Ideal Grace”, “lost Saints” If God choose,” and as I said before ‘lost Saints’ could be a reference to her deceased Brother and Mother. The sonnet is told in the first person as it is from Elizabeth’s point of view. The poem does get serious but It has no seriously depressing parts.
I have not read anything like the poem as this is not ‘up my alley’ but there are certain aspects of the sonnet that link to that of the other 14 poems that I am studying. For example, Sonnet 43 deals with relationships so The Voice, Dover Beach, First Love, Marrysong etc… have a link to the idea of Sonnet 43.
I must say for not liking romantic poems, books and all that this poem was really good in a way that I enjoyed it, the poem had very unique ways of explaining ‘Love’ and showing how far someone can actually ‘Love’ a person. The Sonnet is indeed well written as it emphasizes Elizabeth’s Love for Robert Quite a few times and that bring out what the poem is actually trying to say.
The poem was written in 1850 by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. The Sonnet is based on her love for her husband Robert Browning who was also a poet. There are also numerous references to religion.
ReplyDeleteAt the beginning, we instantly realise that Barrett Browning is going to provide a list of how she loves her husband. This is because she says ‘let me count the ways’. She then talks about the fact that she loves this person so much, that she can’t see the limits. This then links to when she talks about her willing love for Robert. She later mentions her past by saying ‘my childhood’s faith’. At the end, she mentions the fact that love is never ending by saying ‘I shall but love thee better after death.’
Throughout this poem, Elizabeth illustrates how great her love is for Robert Browning. She mentions the depth of her love and how passionate she is about him. We also get the impression that she is very religious as she uses words such as ‘grace’ and ‘faith’. She also refers to God in the penultimate line.
As this is a Sonnet, there are 14 lines but there is not a clear rhyming structure. There are couplet lines that are next to each other such as line 2 ending with ‘height’ and line 3 which ends with ‘sight’. Whilst other lines are like Shakespearian sonnets, line 9 ends ‘use’ and then line 11 ends ‘lose’.
In the first section of the poem, Elizabeth describes the extent of her love for Robert. She mentions the words ‘depth and breadth and height’ which is vocabulary used when describing 3D shapes. The purpose of this is to show that Elizabeth’s love is all around her. She also mentions the meaning of life in the 4th line by saying ‘for the ends of being’ thereby referring to the reason for being alive. We could say that Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s perception is that there is life after death and she will continue to love him then as she says ‘love thee after death.’ She mentions her past and her dead siblings by saying ‘With my lost saints’. Religion is constantly mentioned during the second half of the poem especially the last 3 lines.
This poem is clearly a love poem and there are many pieces that are similar to it. Shakespeare’s famous Sonnet 18 is a good example as they both convey the love and passion of the person they are in love with.. Both are Sonnets, and so both have 14 lines and use an iambic pentameter. A similarity is that in the first line, they both start with a question. However, these love sonnets differ in some ways. A key one is that Sonnet 43 was written by a woman and Shakespeare’s sonnet was written by a man. Therefore, they use a different perspective on how they feel about their loved one. Shakespeare is subtle on how he feels about his lover while Elizabeth portrays her strong feelings for her husband.
I believe that Sonnet 43 demonstrates a very strong love between a couple. It brings out Elizabeth’s true feelings and her deep passion. It is very well structured and has a good flow. However, I believe it would have been beneficiary to have a continuous rhyming structure throughout. The poem sets out to show Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s genuine feelings and passion and clearly accomplishes this.
Sonnet 43 – Poetry Commentary
ReplyDeleteThe title of this story is Sonnet 43 and the author is Elizabeth Barret Browning and the poem is about the author showing her love to the person she loves, so it is a love poem.
In the first part she is saying that she loves him to the depth and breadth and height that her soul can reach when feeling out of sight, so she is saying that she loves him to all the edges of her soul, and she loves him with all her life. Next she says that she loves him every day and night. Then she says how she loves him the same way that men strive for right and how she loves him purely as they turn from Praise. Then she explains how she loves him with all the faith she had during her childhood and how she loves him with the love that she lost. She says that she loves him with every emotion of her life. In the last part she says if God would let her, she would love him better after death.
The author puts a lot of wide meanings into a few words, and when they are read the reader understands that there is more to a particular word or phrase than how it is written. For example, on the second line, when the poet says ‘breadth and depth and height’, it is not about math but she is using those terms to put how much she loves him sort of into a measurement.
The poem does not have a particular rhythm when it is read out, and there are rhymes in the poem. The rhyming sequence of the poem is A BB AA BB A CDCD ED. The mood of this poem is ‘in love’ and the tone is also ‘in love’. The atmosphere is created by using words to describe situations that have nothing to do with the word. For example, when she says ‘to the breadth and depth and height’, the reader would think that she is talking about math or physics, but she is actually expressing in words, the dimensions of love using words that do not make any sense in that area.
There is no poetry that I can compare this piece to.
I do not read much poetry in my free time, especially love poetry, but I think this piece was quite interesting to read and then open it up and look at the different part and what the author is implying. It is interesting to think that the author can put so much thought and feeling and information into such a short poem. I think this poem definitely manages to give across the message that it wants to.
Sonnet 43
ReplyDeleteElizabeth Barret Browning.
Sonnet 43 was written by Elizabeth Barret Browning in 1850. The poem is about love, and the way she expresses it to her partner. The poem is about Elizabeth Browning (the writer) expressing her love to her partner, Robert Browning.
In the first two lines of the poem, she is expressing her love to Robert by saying “Let me count the ways” as there are many ways that she loves her partner and she sets the theme up as she is going to write them as a list. The ‘list like’ lines follow as it says how she loves him and to what extent. Then for the last two lines, she is saying that she will love him for all her life and until she dies and if god will allow her after her death too.
The sonnet has the rhyme scheme of A B B A C D D C E F E F E F, and uses the phrase I love thee many times, mainly during the list form. She uses religious words too including ideal Grace and lost Saints. These refer to her lost family and her religious beliefs. The poem is written from the view of the writer and it’s all about her love for Robert Browning, the poem is very serious for him. Being a sonnet, there are 14 lines, and 10 syllables to a line.
This poem can be linked to Romeo and Juliet because it mentions that she loves him even after death in both of them. The text she uses is also rather emotive when she mentions ‘Smiles, tears, of all my life! – And if God choose…’ she really wants to show that everything about her, including her thoughts and emotions involve him and how much she loves him.
I enjoyed reading this poem even though it is also, very repetitive and I liked the way she expressed her feelings towards him multiple times. It used rather easy vocabulary and there wasn’t much of a hidden message apart from... ‘I love you’ In my opinion, I think it is a very good poem but can get annoying as its too ‘romantic’ and ‘corny’ for my liking
By Elizabeth Barrett Browning
ReplyDeleteHow do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old grief’s, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints!---I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life!---and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.
Sonnet 43
Elizabeth Barret Browning.
Sonnet 43 by Elizabeth Barret Browning published in 1850. The poem is based on love, and the way she feels about her partner. The poem is belived to be sent from Elizabeth Browning to Robert Browning as a romantic piece of poetry she wrote about their love.
The poem starts with "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways." Then she goes on to describe the many ways she loves Robert in a list like form that sounds like a vow of her love saying that she loves him in many ways and in many measures. The Sonnet ends with the line "I shall but love thee better after death." Saying that she will even love him still when they are dead and gone.
Sonnet 43 is 14 lines with 10 syllables per line but unlike the Shakespearean sonnets it follows the pertracan rhyme scheme of A B B A C D D C E F E F E F. Barret repeats the words "I love thee" Many times when she is listing the ways she loves him. The poem is wrote from the view of the poet and the poem is rather emotional and upbeat. Barret also shows that every thing is committed to the the relationship even in death
Sonnet 43 shares similarities to Sonnet 29 Edna St VIncent Millay. Both sonnets are about love, but the large difference is that Sonnet 43 is talking about what it feels to be in love and how much she loves that person. where Sonnet 29 is talking about the absence of a love once there.
I enjoyed the poem and thought it was a good read and like the way it sounds to the ear.
Nathan Back
Sonnet 43 was written by Elizabeth Barret Browning. She wrote this poem in 1850 and it is believed to have been written for her husband Robert Browning. The main idea of this poem is Love.
ReplyDeleteThe first line “How do I love thee, let me count the ways” is probably referring to her husband and she is counting the ways in which she loves him throughout the poem. Every time we have I love thee it is another way that she loves him. The next 2 lines are “I love thee to the depth and breadth and height that my soul can reach when feeling out of sight” meaning she loves him no matter where he is or what he does. Basically no matter what she will always love him. The next 3 lines are “For the ends of being and ideal Grace. I love thee to the level of everyday’s most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.” These show us that she loves him in a graceful way and it also looks as if she is showing her love towards god. “I love thee freely, as men strive for Right, I love thee purely as they turn from praise, I love thee with the passion put to use.” This seems like she’s telling us she is not embarrassed to love him so much and that loving him is the right thing to do. The rest of the lines are basically meaning that through joy, sadness, grief, happiness etc.. She will always love him and even more so after she dies.
The main subtext in the poem is obviously love, and all she is doing throughout the poem is talking about how much she loves her husband, which is a bit bleak and boring to read, but it makes us wonder, is it her husband she is talking about ? There are hints in their suggesting it could be her God or her dead brother which is quite interesting to think about throughout.
There isn’t a structure of stanzas in this poem. It looks like one continuous paragraph. There isn’t much of a rhyming scheme but there is a quite complicated one in the poem, it goes; A,B,B,C,A,D,D,A,E,F,E,G,E,G. The imagery I get from reading this poem is seeing a happy married couple, and the women expressing her love towards him. The mood and tone of this poem Is very happy and passionate. We get the feeling from some of the words used ‘Purely, Freely, Passion, Love’ etc..
This poem really reminds me of the love between the two characters Romeo and Juliet. The mentioning of love after death fits in quite well with the story of these young couple who literally kill themselves for one another because they are so much in love.
I did like this poem because it was really sweet and quite odd at the same time, because no one would ever express such love towards there lover. It was happy and cheery to which made me feel happy just reading it. On the whole I really enjoyed reading this poem.
In class we have been studying the poem 'Sonnet 43' written by
ReplyDeleteElizabeth Barrett Browning wrote this poem in the year 1850. In this poem Elizabeth
Tells us about her undeniable love for someone. She lists the way she
Loves them, “to the depth & breadth & height my soul can reach
When feeling out of sight."
In the first stanza, the poet introduces her poem, "How do I love thee? let me count the ways" She is telling us she loves someone and that she is counting the ways in which she loves that person. 'I love thee to the depth & breadth & height my soul can reach, when feeling out of sight." This shows, who ever she is speaking to, she must love and awful lot. She is referring to her soul, maybe talking about soul mates and that the absolute limits her soul can reach is the amount she loves this person. "For the ends of being and ideal grace". Regarding the referral to 'ends of being' maybe she is referring to the end of the world or maybe the end of life as she knows it. 'I love thee to the level of everyday's" in this line she sort of tones down the poem by saying she loves the person to the limit of everyday love, so not as dramatic as the other lines. " Most quiet need by sun and candle-light" Most people need light so she's maybe saying she loves the person as much as people need sun light or candle light. " I love the freely as men strive for right," Mankind struggled for a long time for personal freedom , democracy , freedom of speech. Maybe not so much during her time but she may be referring to the fact that she was struggling to love him because of her father. “I love thee purely, as they turn from praise. I love thee with a passion put to use” She is saying that she is passionately and she puts that passion to use. “ In my old grief’s, and childhood’s faith, I love thee with a love I seemed to lose. “ Here I think she is referring to her deceased mother because she had no motherly love so she lost it. “With my lost saints--- I love thee with the breath, smiles, tears, of all my life! --- and if god chose, I shall but love the better after death. “ She refers to maybe her dead mother and brother and she is also saying that she shall love her beloved even better after they have gone to heaven, where they can , maybe, be together finally and forever.
I think this poem doesn’t really have a subtext. It sort of says what it is supposed to say. This poem I think is about her undeniable love for I’m guessing her lover Robert Browning. There is reference to struggle , meaning I think the struggle between her love for Robert and her fathers acceptance of their love. The main subtext if there was one was even though they aren’t allowed to be together, they will be and I think that is what the final line “ I shall but love thee better after death” comes in and sort of sums it all up saying, when we’re dead we shall be together always , meaning life after death and heaven I’m guessing.
Sonnet 43 has a very complicated rhyming scheme. It goes A,B,B,A,C,C,A,D,E,D,F,D,F. The Rhythm would be 10 syllables per line. The mood is quite romantic and sort of undeniable. She has dedicated this whole poem to some one and so that’s quite romantic. The tone is very in Love sort of thing like “ I shall but love thee better after death” it sounds all very much like some one in love.
I can not think of any peice of literature that is similar to this poem .
I thought this poem was quite a good peice of literature. I enjoyed studying it. When I first looked at it it didn't seem that complex, but as we went through it and looked at the subtext and underlying meanings it began to have a new meaning and maybe a different perspective then we thought.
Commentary Sonnet 43-
ReplyDeleteThe Sonnet 43 was written by Elizabeth Barret Browning. The main idea of the poem was about her love Robert Browning and the theme is love.
In the first part of the poem she is explaining that she loves him to the depth and breadth and height that her soul can reach. This shows us that her love is a deep and meaningful love. Next she says that she loves him every day and night, so again that shows her love for him. Then she continues to show the ways she loves him by saying she loves him the same way that men strive for right and how she loves him purely as they turn from Praise. In these few lines she is comparing her love to everyday issues and events that happen in life.Then she explains how she loves him with all the faith she had in her childhood and how she loves him with the love that she seemed to loose. She says that she loves him with every emotion of her life. In the ending of the poem she says that if God would let her, she would love him more after death.
The author uses a lot of wide meanings and manages to put them into a few words, and when they are read the reader finds that there is more than one meaning to the words or phrases. For example, when she says, ‘breadth and depth and height’, it is not about maths but about using those terms to put how much she loves him sort of into a measurement.
The poem does not have a fixed rhythm when it is read out, but there are rhymes in the poem. The rhyme scheme of the poem is A BB AA BB A CDCD ED. The main idea of this poem is ‘ love’ and the tone is also ‘in love’. The atmosphere is created by using certain words to describe situations even though they do not have anything to do with the word. When she says ‘to the breadth and depth and height’, the reader automatically thinks that she is talking about maths and measurments, but she is actually expressing in words, the dimensions of her love using those types of words.
There is not a poem that I can compare this one too, because it is different in its own way.
I think this piece of poetry was quite interesting and meaningful to read. It is interesting to think that the poet can put so much thought and feelings into such a short poem. I think this poem definitely manages to give out the message that it was suppost to do.
Sonnet 43 Commentary
ReplyDeleteSonnet 43 is written by Elizabeth Barret Browning in 1850. It is about LOVE. It is Elizabeth writing a poem to her love about how much she loves him. It a short poem only 14 lines long.
The poem starts off with ‘How do I love thee? Let me count the ways’ this straight away suggests that this story is about love. It then goes into how much she loves him and she says it in the form of measurement so she is measuring how much she loves him. Then she goes on about how she loves him to the extent of the sun and candle light. Then she says ‘I love thee freely, as men strive for right’ which shows that she is free to love him as much as she wants (her family does not allow her to love him). She loves him using the strength of her bad pasts and lastly she says that she will love him even once she has died meaning that her love for him is forever and never ending.
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
This basically means that she loves him.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
By saying this she is measuring how much she loves him by doing this she is showing the reader that her love is so real that is can be measured.
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
‘reach’ again in a way of measuring so she loves him from head to toe from the tips of her fingers she loves him.
For the ends of Being and Ideal Grace.
She loves him till the very end, the ‘end of being’ I think refers to till she dies.
I love thee to the level of everyday’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
This two lines tells me that her love is simple like the sun and candle light but yet huge and immense.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
Shows that she is free to love him as much as she wants even though her family won’t allow it her love is so big she will still do so and go against the will of her family.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.
She loves him so much that even the horrible child hood she had wont stop her from loving him.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
This definitely means that she still loves him even though she knows or thinks that out of her love nothing will ever happen. But still she loves him knowing that she may never be with him happily.
With my lost saints,—I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life!—and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.
These last three lines tell me that even if they never ever get together and share their love she will always love him even if it is God’s will that they don’t.
The poem is written as a Shakespearean poem which means that there are 14 lines and each line there are 10 syllables. Elizabeth Barret Browning uses old English such as ‘thee’ there is no rhyme and no particular rhythm though it can of course be read in a rhythm. It is a simple poem because it is about love but if you read between the lines you have to really think about what she actually means by what she writes. To me the mood is dull because she is writing a poem about her love to a man who she loves but cant be with, so it’s a bit depressing and sad. There is no alliteration or assonance. What tells the reader that this poem is about love is the very first line wiich also tells us how its written in old English because it use ‘thee’ “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways”
This poem reminds me about Cinderela. She too wanted to go the ball and meet her love the prince but couldn’t because of her step mother and sisters. The same concept is in Sonnet 43 she wants to be with him but she can’t. though I know for sure that in the end she flees with him to another country and they live happily ever after and so does Cinderela eventually find her dream prince marries and the live happily ever after.
When I read this poem I am happy about it because it is about love. But when you look at it carefully it is very sad how two people are kept apart even though they love each other so dearly so it’s a happy but yet sad poem all at the same time so my feelings are totally mixed up.
ReplyDeleteSonnet 43
ReplyDeleteSonnet 43 is a sonnet that was written by Elizabeth Barrett Browning in the mid 1800s and is a love sonnet intended for her one true love, Robert browning. The poem describes how she loves him and in to what extent. This is the 43rd sonnet out of her series of 44 sonnets called “Sonnets from the Portuguese”.
In the first line and second lines of the sonnet, Browning begins the list of ways in which she loves Robert Browning with a simple “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways” This is succeeded by a very physical measurement of their love “I love thee to the depth and breadth and height”. She then puts the love as something un-fathomable, she talks about “to the end of being”, and perhaps suggesting their love was their very existence, their purpose almost. However the fifth and sixth lines contradict this by talking about how their love is “to the level of everyday’s most quiet need by sun and candle light”, an ordinary, routine type of love. She then goes on to mention=on that she loves him with the “passion put to use” when she was grieving for her lost brother and her innocent beliefs. In the final line she shows that her love is so strong that it will continue, if nothing else better, after her death.
The Sonnet quiet obviously implies that Elizabeth Barrett Browning had an extremely strong bond with Robert Browning. The words used and the way the sonnet was written gives a us a sense that the love she describes is reciprocated, it is not a love that is one sided but Robert Browning gives the love back. It also hints that Elizabeth Barrett Browning still loves Robert despite what others may think in an almost selfish (as people writing about true love often are) manner.
Sonnet 43 is a Petrarchan sonnet which means it follows the initial rhyme scheme of ABBAABBA for the first octet and a CDCDCD pattern for the last six lines. The way Browning uses ‘thee’ rather than just ‘you’ gives a more poetic feel to the lines. After the first two introductory lines, Browning begins to build up an understanding of her love for Robert Browning for the reader, by listing the ways in which she loves him. Then towards the end of the sonnet she starts to describe her personal passion and feelings, and even a mention of God. The very last line ties up the description, by talking about her death, but still leaves the reader trying to fully understand what she feels.
Sonnet 43 is very similar to a Sonnet written by Edna St. Vincent Millay, called Sonnet 29. Whilst Sonnet 43 is a description of the writers strong love for another person, Sonnet 29 is about other people’s love for the author and how it never seems to last. The two poems are both about love, however at the same time they are opposites. Elizabeth Barrett Browning talks about loving Robert Browning until after death, while Edna St. Vincent Millay is hurt time and time again by men who do not love her for a long time, but rather and up and down in the love.
I Think Sonnet 43 is very successful in conveying its message of the deep bond between Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning. The use of poetic words and non-physical description as well as personal and past feelings give the poem a rich feeling of reciprocated love.
Sonnet 43 by Elizabeth Barret Browning
ReplyDeleteThis poem is called Sonnet 43 and was written by Elizabeth Barret Browning. The poem is about love and how she loves Robert Browning. It is a Petrarchan sonnet, having 14 lines and the last two lines do not rhyme.
It starts with asking, “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways” It then gives how, “I love thee to the depth, breadth and height”. She then says “I love thee to the level of everyday’s” it continues on about how she loves him, and then says, “In my old griefs, and with childhood faith.” We know that she had experience loss in her life, and her father will not let her marry Robert. It seems as if it first shows her love using the “I love thee” (And how do I love thee). It then goes on to get sadder, while talking about old griefs and things from childhood. Then it gets to an even happier, as if she is eccentric about this love using “!” as well as -s for pauses. She then says “I shall love thee better after death.” This might be because she has her father not letting them marry, and probably does not approve of their relationship; she thinks that in death she will have none of that. She even says she loves him in the beginning, in so many ways she has to count all of them.
As said before, she feels very strongly about the person who this poem was made for. It isn’t at all secret; it is in extremely plain sight. This is obviously because only he would have read the poem then and in this letter there is no need to keep their love a secret. She says how her love is almost unreachable. She shows her love in an incredibly large amount of different ways. She must have also been implying that her love was so intense, that she would still be able to love after death, and it would be better as her father isn’t there.
The poem’s Rhyme scheme is A B B A C D D C E F E F E F. It helps the poet so she was able to say something, and then back it up, as with the “I love thee” s. Each line has 10 syllables, as in all Sonnets. This person is written in the first person, and the reader, who was meant to be Robert Browning, is the one being loved. The poem gets serious and maybe in some points could be called depressing. It also has parts where she seems to be having fun, as if she were shouting her love for him.
I don’t usually read poems like this, so I cannot really relate it much to what I have read. But I might link it to Sonnet 29 by Edna St. Vincent Millay. They both talk strongly about love, but in Sonnet 29 she is talking about a man’s love and how it disappears and how love is destructive. They talk about to different kinds of love, in Sonnet 43 it is talking about her love, and in sonnet 29 she is talking about a man’s love, and how she never remembers that a man falls out of love.
I liked this poem, even though it is not something I would have picked up myself. I liked the way it was structured, something I usually find appealing with sonnets. I think she showed her love to Robert well, after this poem he would have had no doubt of her love.