ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING
By Kailin Yu, Alexandra Lu, Brendan Lin, and Anim
Abdullah
BIOGRAPHY
Elizabeth Barrett Browning was an English poet
who was born in 1806. She had 11 siblings and
she was the oldest out of them. Her father,
Edward Barrett Moulton Barrett, was a slave
plantation owner in Jamaica. Her father home
schooled her for her childhood. She had read
numerous great pieces of literature before the
age of 10 that includes literature by Shakespeare
among others.
BIOGRAPHY CONT.
She wrote her first poem at the age of 12, which
consisted of four books of rhyming couplets. At
the age of 14, she had developed a lung ailment
that would be with her until she died. At the age
of 15, she also had a spinal injury while riding a
pony. Her injuries, however, did not set her back.
She continued her education and she achieved
several accomplishments such as learning Hebrew
and studying Greek culture. She was also a
reader of the Bible.
BIOGRAPHY CONT.
She met her husband, Robert Browning, when he wrote her a letter
after she had wrote about him in one of her poems. Robert was very
influential to Elizabeth’s work. Her father has despised the marriage
and never spoke to her again. The two moved to Florence, Italy where
they had 1 son. She died on June 29, 1861 in Florence at the age of
55.
HISTORICAL/SOCIAL BACKGROUND
Elizabeth Barrett Browning grew up during the
time of slavery. She always opposed slavery and
she wrote The Seraphim and other poems in 1838
that included some of her views. Also, she
expressed sympathy for Italy’s struggle for
unification and the Austrian oppression of the
Italians. She was an enthusiastic Christian. Her
views are expressed in some of her poems. Some
of her views, such as opposition to slavery,
lowered her popularity among people.
POEM: LIFE AND LOVE
FAST this Life of mine was dying,
Blind already and calm as death,
Snowflakes on her bosom lying
Scarcely heaving with her breath.
Love came by, and having known her
In a dream of fabled lands,
Gently stooped, and laid upon her
Mystic chrism of holy lands;
Drew his smile across her folded
Eyelids, as the swallow dips;
Breathed as finely as the cold did
Through the locking of her lips.
So, when Life looked upward,
being
Warmed and breathed on
from above,
What sight could she have for
seeing,
Evermore,……….but only
Love?
EXPLANATION
One of the poems describes how
“Life” (A woman) was dying, and
was then embraced by Love (A
man). At first, Life knew that she
would die, being blind, she
naturally accepted it. But then,
Love came, because he knew that
she was a good person of
dreams.
“Love” gave “Life” chrism, holy
liquid to be baptized, and live
anew. Love then kisses Life’s
eyelids and her lips. Life then
opens her eyes, cured of her
blindness, and sees Love.
When life is ready to die (Due to
recurring events), love will be
there to save it, because one
cannot live life without obtaining
love, or giving it.
EXPLANATION CONT.
Literary Elements used:
Allegory is used is used in this
poem to tell the story of life and
love, and how they are
intertwined.
Hyperbole is used to exaggerate
Life looking upward. It is also
used to exaggerate Love coming
and saving Life.
Personification is used to give
Love and Life human like
characteristics, such as “he”, and
“she”, and dying, coming, kissing,
etc.
Rhyme is used; dying/lying,
death/breath, dips/lips.
Symbolism is used to give
meaning to chrism. Chrism is
normally used in churches to
baptize. In this case, Life is being
born again through the use of
chrism.
ANALYSIS
“Life and Love” is a poem that
contains four stanzas with four
verses to each stanza. Each line
contains between 7 and 8 syllables.
The poem has a rhyme scheme of
a-b-a-b, c-d-c-d, e-f-e-f, g-h-gh. Examples include “dying” and
“lying” (lines 1 and 3), “lands”
and “hands” (lines 6 and 8), and
“above” and “Love” (lines 14 and
16).
The tone of the poem is dramatic
and the mood is peaceful. There is
not much action, only the character
Love approaching then kissing the
woman while she is still. The fourth
line, “Scarcely heaving with her
breath,” creates the illusion of the
sound of soft breathing. The
reader feels a chill from the words
“death,” “snowflakes,” and
“cold”.
POEM: HOW DO I LOVE THEE?
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 sum and candlelight.
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 childhood
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.
EXPLANATION
The poem is trying to say
that the person would give
everything and anything
that they have to love.
Literary Elements Used:
Personification is used in this
poem to give inanimate
objects human like
characteristics. “My soul
can reach when feeling out
of sight”.
Hyperbole is used to show
exaggeration; “I shall but love
thee better after death”.
Lyric is used, the person is
conveying their deep emotions of
love towards another person.
Sonnet is used in the poem. There
are 14 lines, and follows rhyme
scheme.
COMPARISON
The two poems both represent
the idea of love. But, the first
poem describes love as
something that can save your life.
In the second poem, it describes
love as something that can be
aided upon by other factors, such
as the depth of breath and
height, childhood faith, smiles,
tears, and after death.
Both poems are designed to
express opposing ideas, because
the author (Emily Browning) wants
to show that you can think of love
in two different ways. The second
poem sounds as if love can be
thrown around, but in the first
poem, it describes just how much
you really need love. If love was
really that important, then you
wouldn’t need anything else to
back it up.
ANALYSIS
“How Do I Love Thee?”, also known as
“Sonnet 43” by Elizabeth Barrett
Browning, is written in the form of an
Italian (Petrarchan) sonnet. It contains
14 lines and is divided into an octave
(the first 8 lines) and a sestet (the last 6
lines).
The sonnet is written in iambic
pentameter, meaning that there are
“ten syllables, or five feet, per line with
five pairs of unstressed and stressed
syllables” (Cummings, “Sonnet 43: A
Study Guide”). This can be shown in
the second and third lines:
The octave typically has a rhyme
scheme of a-b-b-a-a-b-b-a while the
sestet has a rhyme scheme of c-d-c-dc-d. Browning’s sonnet follows the
same pattern. Examples include
“height” and “sight” (lines 2 and 3),
“day’s” and “praise” (lines 5 and 8),
and “lose” and “choose” (lines 11 and
13).
I LOVE the TO the DEPTH and
BREADTH and HEIGHT
My SOUL can REACH, when FEEL-ing
OUT of SIGHT.
SIGNIFICANCE
We learn about these “Love” poems because it gives
us a sense of how people feel during the course of their
life. I was drawn to these poems because I wanted to
understand how another person felt about love by
writing in the form of poetry. These poems are
important to understanding poetry because it is a
structural template by using rhymes, hyberbole,
personification, sonnet, etc.
ANALYSIS CONT.
Browning uses a few poetic devices to create
meaning in her sonnet. She uses anaphora, or
the repetition of a word, phrase, or clause at
the beginning of word groups occurring one
after the other. To accentuate her love as well
as support the theme, Browning repeatedly
says “I love thee” in lines 15, 17 to 19, and 21.
She also uses alliteration to also reinforce
meaning and in this case, the meaning of her
love.
I love thee to the level of every day's...
...
I love thee freely, as men strive for right.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose (line 11)
I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use...
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use (lines 8
and 9)
Browning creates a deep, yet loving tone to her
sonnet, able to describe the abstract feelings of
love. The last two lines have a more serious
tone, however, describing how love can
overcome anything -- even death.
POEM BY ALEXANDRA LU
What is love? So much more than four letters.
Passion, devotion, desire for their soul,
Love is something that bands two as a whole.
When all thoughts are on being together,
Love runs deeper than the oceans and flies
Far beyond the blazing stars up in space.
Love is a being with no need to race,
It envelops the heart and never dies.
POEM BY BRENDAN LIN
On the cold hard pavement
The sound goes crack
We're in perfect alignment
when I hit you back
You go flying
so small and blue
making others crying
That's handball for you.
POEM BY ANIM ABDULLAH
What is a book?
Does it make you feel sad,
Like you lost a family member?
Does it explode with surprises,
Like finding out you won the lottery?
Or does it make you feel happy,
Like getting the puppy you always wanted?
Or is it entertaining,
Like the worlds best magic show
Is it just boring,
Like a gloomy gray day?
Or is it all of these in one book?
POEM BY KAILIN YU
There’s black and white
There’s peace and war
We thrive beneath the sun
But without dark, there is no light
We love, yet we hate
We protect, yet we persecute
Two sides of the same coin
One cannot be without the other
How can we know if we are good
If there is no evil?
BIBLIOGRAPHY
•Browning, Elizabeth Barrett, and Robert Browning. "Sonnets from the
Portuguese." The Love Poems of Elizabeth and Robert Browning. New York:
Barnes & Noble, 1994. 3+. Print. 31 May 2013.
•Mermin, Dorothy. "The Female Poet and the Embarrassed Reader:
Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Sonnets From the Portuguese." English Literary
History 48.2 (1981): 351-67. JSTOR. Web. 3 June 2013.
•Elizabeth Barrett Browning." - Poets.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 June 2013.
•Lorcher, Trent. "An Analysis of "How Do I Love Thee" by Elizabeth Barret
Browning: One of the World's Most Famous Love Poems." Bright Hub
Education. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 June 2013.
•"Three Types of Sonnet." Academic Writing in British English. N.p., n.d.
Web. 04 June 2013.
•Cummings, Michael J. "Cummings Study Guide." Elizabeth Barrett
Browning's Sonnet 43: Analysis. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 June 2013.