Elizabeth Barrett Browning Sonnet 1
Theme: Unexpectedness of love
Falling in love with Robert and his returning of her love came as a great surprise to Elizabeth, considering past her circumstances.
Analysis:
Reworks the traditional sonnet sequence by transforming gender roles. She utilises the female voice instead of the traditional male voice. She assumes the role of epic hero.
She adopts the petrachan sonnet style . The octet’s strict rhyming pattern reflects how she feels her life has been static so far.
The sestet’s alternating near rhymes modulate from ‘move’ to ‘strove’ to ‘love’ reflecting gradual emotional and spiritual movement as a result of discovering this unexpected love.
The distortion of iambic pentameter reflects the distorted and unharmonic patterns of her own life.
BB uses past tense show how joy escapes her- ‘once’ ‘sung’. The brevity of ‘once’ suggests that this kind of love is fleeting. ‘Once’ also has fairytale associations ‘once upon a time’ which suggests that love for her is a myth.
She utilisies the classical greek reference (allusion) to Theocritus whose poem suggested that every year of life brought new happiness with it. This allusion evokes the original pastoral tradition from Sicily and implicitly allows a world of classical Italian paganism (and potential sexuality) into the world of Victorian poetry.
Creates a dramatic effect by using enjambment to set off a phrase at the beginning of the sestet. volta, (Italian: “turn”) the turn in thought in a sonnet that is often indicated by such initial words as But , Yet , or And yet .The volta occurs between the octet and sestet in a
Petrarchan sonnet. Here the thought continues from line 8 to 9.This suggests that the melancholy blends itself across all aspects of her life.
That she remembers the poem as being ‘sung’
(past tense) also suggests that harmony and sweetness have not been a part of her life’s journey.
Listing ‘the sweet years, the dear and wished for years’
‘The sweet ,sad years, the melancholy years’. This again emphasises how much joy and beauty she has missed out on and how much she has suffered
The assonance ‘sweet’ ‘dear’ elongates her loss
‘antique tongue’ classical adjectival reference , could suggest these notions are foreign to her just as an antique language is or that this happiness could only be found in the past.
‘flung’ powerful and jarring verb.
Browning feels that fate has powerfully

‘shadow’ she is now an image of her former self due to the illness, suffering and oppression she has been through OR darkness has spread, there is no light of hope in her life.
‘mystic Shape’ capitalised -shape is personified. Mystic means
"spiritually allegorical, pertaining to mysteries of faith," "pertaining to occult practices or ancient religions"
So…this shape is foreign to her
‘shape’
"creation, form, destiny," from root of shape (v.)). Meaning "contours of the body" is attested from late 14c. Meaning "condition, state" is first recorded 1865, Amer.Eng. In M.E., the word also had a sense of "a woman's private parts."
‘hair’ :An allusion to Homer’s Iliad. Epic which begins with Athena pulling Achilles by the hair. Divine intervention by the Gods. EBB could see Browning’s love for her as divine intervention. Her allusion to Homer’s epic subtly suggests that there is something heroic and brave about this romantic engagement.
The gender dynamic of this allusion should not be overlooked. At the opening of the Iliad
Achilles and Agamemnon are contending over who will get to keep a captive female in his tent-an odd and interesting allusion for the beginning of feminine love sonnets. In Barrett
Browning;s revision of this scene, the desiring female speaker assumes the position of epic hero. Pulled away from destructive, seductive thoughts of death, she engages with the emotional risks of love when the conditions seem to glorify her as much as her beloved; thus the speaker is both the subject and object of love, revising without entirely reversing the
Pertrarchan tradition in which the woman is a silent object of admiration. This allusion to homer’s epic, as well as the heroic sonnet form, subtly suggests that there is something brave and heroic about this romantic engagement.
Fate is symbolised as a woman constantly turning. Her hair had to be grabbed while she was facing you.
Allusion to a A children’s game. The sestet is based on a children’s game of the time in which one child would creep up behind another, grab her hair and ask: “Guess who it is?”
The poet compares falling in love to this game. She suggests than when the strange feeling
(of love) metaphorically “drew me backwards by the hair”, she assumed that it was death that was seizing her (her pessimistic expectation). “mystic Shape” (line 10) suggests something mysterious and possibly sinister.
In line 12: “…a voice said in mastery while
I strove”
suggests the power of her new feelings and her attempts to resist them because she feared them.
Silver answercolour imagerylove has found her but isn’t quite gold yet. She can sense its beauty but is distrustful and questions her own value and worth, therefore while she is joyful to find love she is wary of it. Silver also represents purity, so perhaps the answer of ‘love’ is pure and simple as further witnessed through the use of monosyllables ‘Not Death but Love’
Rangconnotative of wedding bells or announcements. Loud volume. Has it awoken her from her melancholy and sadness? Rang is also in present tense to show her awakening to love and joy, as opposed to the past tense ‘sung’ ‘wished’
Sung, Voice,Rang –the experience is auditory. Why? Siren’s call? Has she subverted this?
She is like the men lead to their death? The dangers of love? Perhaps she only understands

love when she hears it from someone else, she herself cannot articulate it because of her isolated existence.
Bells are commonly representative of joy and freedom. The shape of the bell is closely related to the vault of HEAVEN . A bell's pendulous motion can represent the extremes of good and evil; death and immortality. Its sound is a symbol of creative power, but can also be a call to arms. Is also phallic in some senses, a bell and handle = a vulva and a phallus.
Embodiment of virginity, unmarried women adorn themselves with bells.
The use of direct speech in lines 13 & 14 dramatises her surprise. The ellipsis in line 14 creates suspense before the final antithesis of “Not Death, but Love.” which highlights the great change in her outlook on life from the second quatrain.
Volta: Browning plays with the Petrarchan form because she’s more intent on meaning rather than staying with form. Goes into 9 th
line in sestet. Provides a volta in line 13 after the caesura ‘but there’.
Elipsis.
The function of these is to show that she is reserved and reticent about embracing love due to her societal constraints which include: patriarchal power structure, history of illness and tragedy, feels unworthy and mistrusts herself.
Sense of Self-she is aware of her limitations and cleverly questions and challenges those through her poetry.
Classical Elements in Poem
Petrarchan Rhyme Scheme
Theocritus
Antique tongue
Hair-allusion to Homer’s Iliad epic
The drama of death and love evokes classical drama and mythology, figures such as Orpheus and Euridyce and the figure of fate.
Can read her poems as a version of the silent, suffering powerless woman
Elizabeth Barrett Browning Sonnet 13
Modern Elements of Poem
Reworks sonnet code: female voice
Usurps masculine conventions-she’s no longer silent but eloquent
Uses her structure to infer movement from stasis to an opening up of emotions
Cleverly invokes sexuality and desire in a strict patriarchal society
Transforms ritual of identity-sonnet is about (values debate about identity within context of conformity) She is aware of her limitations and cleverly challenges them throughout her poetry
She is reserved and reticent about embracing love due to her societal constraints: patriarchal power structure, history of illness and tragedy, feels unworthy and mistrusts herself.

Theme:
The dominant idea and tone of this sonnet seems to be uncertainty - uncertainty about whether the poet/persona can trust her lover and whether she can control the intensity of her own feelings.
This poem is about EBB being unable to speak or admit her love to Robert Browning, however, she paradoxically creates a work of art to declares her love. She declares herself as a poet maker which will then be her gift to Robert.
She isn’t ready to admit love yet. She will declare it when she is ready.
Analysis:
Reworks the traditional sonnet sequence by transforming gender roles. She utilises the female voice instead of the traditional male voice. Unlike the traditional depiction of a woman in
Petrarchs poetry-she is not silent. She poses and answers the rhetorical question, ‘And wilt though have me fashion into speech/the love I bear thee, finding words enough…’
She adopts the Petrachan sonnet style . She has control over her own silence, questioning the validity of words and hence the sonnet form itself.
Paradox -this poem is about her not being able to communicate yet she communicates with
Robert Browning through this poem.
She does not introduce a volta in lines 8 or 9 which shows her determination to express her uncertainty about revealing her feelings to Rober Browning.
It appears as if she begins mid –conversation with the conjunction ‘And’ starting off the sonnet. This is reflective of the conversational style of the letters and also reminds the reader that the sonnet is part of a sequence of ideas.
*The use of the archaic forms “thee”/”thou”/’thy” and “wilt” suggests that the question may be a device, as used in the sonnets of Shakespeare and the Metaphysical poets, to introduce her ideas dramatically, rather than a response to a real request from Robert.
‘Hold the torch out where the words are rough/ between our faces, to cast a light on each?..’
The torch and light here can symbolise illumination, exposure or disclosure and hence the revelation of their love to others, which EBB is afraid of as it will allow them to be criticised by others. In these lines EBB is also creating a drama of epic significance. The flaming torches allude to classical drama.
She is also the one in control as she is the torch bearer, which again subverts the traditional notion of the submissive woman in Petrarchan poetry. The metaphor “where the words are rough” suggests the external forces that make it difficult to her express her love publicly, possibly a reference to her father’s opposition.
“I drop it at thy feet’. Cleverly denounces her previous image of power and control by submitting humbly to him. The use of the verb drop suggests her inability to effectively be a

torchbearer and consequently she reveals to him that she in unable to effectively communicate her love to him in her writing, ‘I cannot teach my hand to hold my spirit so far off/From myself..me.’ The high modality reflects her inability to do so.
‘Nay, -let the silence of my womanhood/Commend my woman-love to thy belief-’ Cleverly adopts the role of a virtuous Victorian woman who until the point of marriage will not talk and must remain a mystery. The first word of the sestet “Nay” (No) does not introduce a volta
(turn) in this case. Instead it emphasises her determination not to declare her love, reinforcing the second quatrain.
‘And that I stand unwon, however wooed’. There is a lovely play on contrasting words here with the ‘w’ sound
which empahsises the paradoxical nature of her situation. She is in love but cannot admit it, however, cleverly explores and conveys her emotions of uncertainty to
Robert through her poetry.
She urges her lover to assume that she is following the conventions of courtly love (suggested by the phrase “woman-love” and the archaic word “wooed”), in which the woman was expected to pretend disinterest as a sign of modesty and a way to encourage her lover to more extravagant protestation of his love. (This links to the archaic forms in the first quatrain.)
“Rending the garment of my life, in brief /By a most dauntless voiceless fortitude’, Here, the verb
‘rending’ is powerful and sexual. Her outward unresponsiveness conceals deeply felt passion. The image of being ravished is suggested in the metaphor of her life as a garment being torn apart. The superlative ‘most’ coupled with the rhyming and long sounding
‘dauntless, voiceless’ reveals the amount of mental and emotional strength needed by EBB to guard her feelings. She again creates the classical image of woman. She is heroic and strong in grief.
‘Lest one touch of this heart convey its grief’. The singular ‘One touch’ conveys the powerful brevity of tenderness and instantaneous consequent vulnerability of revealing her love. Should she reveal her love, she will be open to ‘grief’, the grief that comes with love and happiness. It may also be personal grief due to the loss of her brother as well as the social grief that comes as a result of the restrictions placed on women during her time. Revealing her love will make her vulnerable in many ways and will open up a plethora of emotions for her.
Elipsis.
The function of these is to show that she is reserved and reticent about admitting love.
The pronouns change from male ‘thou’ and ‘thee’ to female to ‘I’ and ‘myself….me’ to neutral ‘this’. This could reveal the process in which she constructs a hybrid gender for herself which allows her to escape patriarchal constraints and usurp masculine conventions
(see below).

The drama is that this is a woman speaking as a lover to a lover, about the nature of love poetry. The emphasis is on the nature of ‘woman-love’ and the paradox is that her traditional
‘silence’ has become powerful eloquence. Part of the challenge is that EBB works with cross dressing and paradoxes about hybrid gender , as in her poems to George Sand, that ‘largebrained woman and large-hearted man’. While she usurps masculine conventions, authority and eloquence she also insists that she retains a tragic identity as the always ‘unwon’ and enduring woman, the lover who cannot admit love, and in that way suffers love that in turn leads to sadness. Intellectualism and paradox are certainly part of her strategy and essential to the emotional power of the sonnet.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning Sonnet 14
Theme:
In this poem EBB has accepted her suitor’s love, but now makes demands regarding the nature of that love.She urges her lover to love her not for any particular reason, but simply because he loves her “for love’s sake only”. She argues that if there is a particular reason for loving someone, then a change in circumstances can remove the reason and destroy the love.
One interesting interpretation is that she is cleverly smothering Robert through her poetry and language to test that he truly loves her. This could be validated with the fact that ‘love’ is repeated nine times in the poem.
Analysis:
‘If thou must love me, let it be for nought/Except for love’s sake only.’ The opening line is very dramatic and is addressed directly to the lover in the archaic second person (“thou”).
She tells him: If you must love me, let it be for nothing. The high modality of the auxiliary verb “must” may be playfully suggesting that she does not really want him to love her or that she cannot believe that he would actually want to (a sign of her sense of inferiority). Like
Sonnet 13 she also begins with the conjunction ‘if’ which creates a conversational tone.
The idea of loving her for nothing seems strange until we read line 2. (i.e. the power of the idea is created by the enjambment, creating a pause before the qualifying condition -
“except”).
‘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 as day-“ EBB uses the imperative voice and listing of conventional attributes that are admired in women to warn Robert not to love her for these superficial qualities as they are subject to change. Ellipsis is used in these lines to suggest alternates that he might say.
( certes – certainly)
‘For these things in themselves beloved, may/Be changed, or change for thee,..and love so wrought,/May be unwrought so. Here, EBB explains why she does not want him to love her in these ways – because these things may change, destroying the love.
In using the contrast of opposites ‘wrought/unwrought’ EBB highlights how easily love may come undone when it is based on transient qualities, as easily and simply as adding a small prefix to a word that resonates with work and effort.

The word “beloved” in line 7 shows that she really loves him, dispelling any doubt that may have been created by line 1. She has not used this word before to address him in previous poems for study.
‘Neither love me for /Thine own dear pity wiping my cheeks dry!’/For one might well forget to weep, who bore/Thy comfort long, and lose love thereby-‘ The idea in lines 9 – 12 is that he should not love her because he pities her unhappiness, because his love would make her happy, so he could no longer pity her, and therefore, no longer love her. The exclamatory shows that she is horrified of being pitied.
‘But love me for love’s sake, that evermore/ Thou may’st love on through love’s eternity.’
The poem ends with a clear and direct use of the imperative mood to emphasise her main idea – “love me for love’s sake”. She repeats the words of line 2, having explained why she made the opening statement.
The words “evermore”, “love on” and “eternity” suggest unchanging love which will not be affected by changing circumstances, further reinforcing the poet’s main idea.
In terms of the sonnet form, EBB has now moved away from the half rhymes in her sestet to full rhyme ‘for’, ‘bore’ ‘evermore’ and ‘dry’, ‘thereby’. However, she utilises half rhyme in ending with ‘eternity’. This serves to emphasise the uniqueness of the word and the longevity of their love (made up of four syllables and the longest sounding word in the poem) and hence the uniqueness of their love if it isn’t based on approaching her and loving her as a conventional woman.
Reworks the traditional sonnet sequence by transforming gender roles. She utilises the female voice instead of the traditional male voice. Unlike the traditional depiction of a woman in
Petrarchan poetry-she is not silent. She is in control and makes demands of Robert
Browning’s love.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning Sonnet 21
Theme:
The tone of this sonnet is dramatically different from the three previous ones set for study. It is more exuberant ( excited, high-spirited) , clearly shown by the number of exclamations.
This might suggest that her doubts about the genuineness of Robert’s love are decreasing and she is beginning to enjoy their relationship. (One study guide refers to her “pleasure”, another to her “thrill”.)
An alternative reading might be that there is a sense of desperation in her excitement – that she is urging him to keep telling her that he loves her so she can overcome her doubts. There is evidence in the poem to justify either approach, so you must make your own judgment.
Analysis:
In lines 1 – 6 she urges her beloved to keep telling her that he loves her.

There is a typical dramatic opening, addressing her lover directly “Beloved” and using repetition “again and yet again”. The repeated use of exclamatory in line 6 and 7 line create a sense of exuberance. The foregrounding of the adjectival ‘Beloved’ may reveal an acceptance of her feelings towards Robert Browning, as she has now placed the term of endearment at the start of the poem (in contrast to Sonnet 14). Moreso it relegates him to the object of the poem and thus EBB again subverts the traditional Petrarchan sonnet which had the woman as the object. EBB also subverts the form by taking control through the use of the imperative tone.
She compares his repeated declarations of his love to the song of the cuckoo (“cuckoo-song”
& “cuckoo-strain”). This bird is heard very frequently in spring in England, and many people get sick of its monotonous calling. She suggests that while people might get sick of hearing the cuckoo, it should be welcomed because spring cannot come without it. In the same way, she cannot experience love without him repeating that he loves her.
‘Remember, never to the hill and plain/ Valley & wood, without her cuckoo-strain.’
Hills were the first manifestation of the creation of the world, standing high enough to be set away from primeval chaos, but lacking the majestic size of mountains.
Biblical allusion Isaiah 40:4 ‘Every valley shall be raised, and every mountain and hill made low, the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. This suggests how everything will be complete and perfect when he repeats his love for her.
Plainssymbol of space and boundless earth. Horizontal and opposed to the vertical hill.
Valley -symbolic complement of a mountain. Eg yin (valley) and yang (Mountain).
Commonly a symbol of fertility and life. Valley is also a Biblical allusion to Psalm
23:4
‘Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me (lots of sexual connotations here!)
Wood- Symbolises superhuman wisdom and knowledge. The carpenter uses tools symbolic of the divine power of bringing order out of chaos.
Through the use of these natural and Biblical symbols . EBB suggests that they will not find perfection, complementing unity or order in their love without him repeating he loves her.
Note the personification of “sweet Spring in all her green completed’ to herald a fresh start/rebirth/growth. Green is also the colour of the Goddess of love Aphrodite who was born from a green sea-so mythological allusion .
In lines 7 – 9 she admits to doubts about his love. “darkness”, “doubtful spirit”, “doubt’s pain” and “Cry” have powerful negative connotations, suggesting that the process of deciding whether he really loves her has been very painful. (Are these doubts in the past or the present?)
The use of ellipsis in line 9 suggests hesitation, making the use of the imperative (“Cry
..speak “) seem a little desperate.
In lines 9 – 11 the rhetorical question suggests renewed confidence. She argues that just as you cannot have too many stars or too many flowers, so you cannot say “I love you” too often. This continues the association of his love with positive aspects of nature begun in line
6. Stars are symbols of divinity and constancy much like their love. Flowers in contrast are

transitory (they don’t live forever). EBB again uses symbols to show how their love whilst mortal, can remain eternal.
In lines 12 – 13 she again uses the imperative mood, combined with repetition to urge him to continue to say he loves her.
“toll” metaphorically compares declaring his love to ringing a bell and “silver utterance” has positive connotations. (Note that she used “silver answer” in Sonnet 1) We discussed silver as being less precious than gold and therefore their love whilst still precious is more real rather than ideal. The bell is a symbol of joy and freedom and in some senses is also phallic- so there are sexual connotations here again.
In line 13 the dash introduces a change of idea, and a change to a more serious tone. While she enjoys hearing him say that he loves her, she also wants him to love her “in silence”, with his “soul”. This repeats the idea at the end of Sonnet 14 – she wants a deep and lasting love.
In terms of the sonnet form, this is the first sonnet for study that does not employ half rhyme in the sestet. Thus the full rhyme could signify her growing confidence in their love.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning Sonnet 22
Theme:
The tone of this sonnet is very different to that of Sonnet XXI. It is extremely serious but also confident, suggesting that the poet is absolutely sure of the truth of what she is saying.
EBB suggests that their love can take them into a spiritual realm away from earthly concerns, but then rejects this. She prefers them to remain earthly lovers, even though she recognises that physical love is not permanent because it cannot overcome death. She argues that nothing in life can harm them because they love each other.
There is also a sense of equality in this poem. There is no masculine or feminine aspect.
She’s become a man/woman voice (note the allusions to masculine mythological figures.
Angels are gender neutral).
Analysis:
In this sonnet the poet uses the first person plural (we / us / our). This is a development from the previous ones set for study, in which she used the first and second person singular.
The change reflects her growing certainty that they truly love each other.
In the octave she imagines their souls facing each other in silence, getting closer together until their “lengthening wings break into fire.” This image seems to refer to their deaths, when their physical bodies will be destroyed and their souls will escape to heaven together.
This interpretation is supported by the reference to angels. It links to the wish expressed in
Sonnet XIV to be loved “through love’s eternity.” and in Sonnet XXI to be loved with his
“soul.”

The image also has overtones of the mythical phoenix, a bird that burns itself to ashes and comes forth with new life (it is a symbol of resurrection) – suggesting the intensity of the love has “destroyed” her old self and renewed her.
‘Until their lengthening wings break into fire’. Here we have the use of classical/mythological allusion to Icarus who flew to close to the sun and had his wings melt. Could this suggest that their love is so passionate it could be dangerous? Fire is also a symbol for knowledge and wisdom and again refers to the classical story of Prometheus who stole fire from the gods to give to the mortals and was punished for eternity. Maybe she is suggesting that to elevate their love to a heavenly status could endanger it.
Some commentators believe that the image is a much more physical one, suggesting a passionate sexual encounter which metaphorically takes their souls to heaven. If this is the case, it would be quite daring for a woman in Barrett Browning’s context to express such an idea.
The poem seems to be influenced by the C.17
th
. Metaphysical poet John Donne who wrote sonnets which presented sensual ideas in religious language and religious themes in powerful sensual language. There is a definite allusion to John Donne’s poem A Valediction
Forbidding Mourning. In the compass conceit, used in his poem the woman is passive and constant while the man has freedom, power and control, however in EBB’s poem, there is a sense of equality ‘When our two souls stand up erect and strong,/ Face to face, silent drawing nigher and nigher.’ ‘erect’ of course has sexual connotations and there is a build up of tension in the repetition of ‘nigher and nigher’ to the ‘climax’ of ‘fire’ in their burning passion.
From lines 6 – 9 she imagines the silent communion of their souls being interrupted the sound of angels singing as they reach heaven. This was a conventional view of what heaven might be like at that time.
The alliterative phrase “deep, dear silence” draws attention to its delicate preciousness and the assonance elongates the stillness and perfection of silence. “silent” was also used in line
2, so this emphasises that she imagines that their love is so spiritual that it does not need words, music or sound. The image of the golden orb ( orb – a sphere.) of perfect song dropping suggests something beautiful and perfect, but intrusive in this situation.
In lines 9 -14 she rejects the previous idea of their souls escaping from earth. ( The word
“rather” means instead ). This change (volta) is typical of the sonnet form but not always found in Barrett Browning’s sonnets.
She argues that if they remain earthly lovers, the strength of their love will cause people to leave them alone. ( recoil away – jump away in fear or horror).
“The unfit contrarious moods of men” links to “bitter wrong, can the earth do us” (lines 4 -5).
This appears to refer to opposition to their love, perhaps from her father, which seemed to

worry her in the octave but no longer concerns her because of her confidence in the power of their love. The confidence is reflected through the full rhyme in the sestet.
In lines 13 -14 she acknowledges that, unlike spiritual love, earthly love can only last briefly
(“for a day”) because death must end it ( rounding it – finishing it).
The use of the indefinite article in ‘a place’ suggests that their love is better experienced in a simple, domestic setting whilst the temporal reference to ‘a day’ reflects the brevity yet fulfilling and rewarding nature of their love in this ‘real’ state.
The alliterative ‘d’s in “darkness and the death-hour” makes death sound frightening, but it no longer seems to concern her because of the strength of their love. The adjectival reference ‘rounding’ with regards to mortality shaping their love, suggests the wholeness and totality their love will reach when experienced in a mortal realm.
EBB is saying you can’t expect to achieve ideal love-she represents a contrasting view to that of Romantic poets.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning Sonnet 28
Theme:
This poem is relatively straight-forward. In it Barrett Browning describes the powerful effect on her of Robert’s love letters.
Analysis:
In lines 1 – 2 the poem begins dramatically with two exclamations.
“My letters” refers to the letters written by Robert, but “My” shows that they are very important to her and she now considers them hers.
She establishes the contrast between the physically unimpressive paper, which is “dead”,
“mute” and “white”, and the contents which seem “alive and quivering”.
In line 3 “tremulous ( trembling ) hand” shows their effect on her.
From lines 5 – 12 she refers to what Robert wrote (including quotes) and the effect on her.
The dashes and ellipses suggest that she is re-reading bits of each letter which she particularly remembers. The selection shows the development of their relationship.
The letters began with an expression of friendship and the desire to meet, but even this had a powerful effect, revealed in the exclamation “Yet I wept for it!”
When he expressed love, the effect was even greater.
“Sank” suggests she collapsed into a chair, overcome with emotion.
“Quailed ( became afraid
) / As if God’s future thundered* on my past” is a little obscure, but seems to suggest that she felt as if God was offering her a totally different future from her previous unhappy life if she was brave enough to accept it. It may also suggest that she now regarded her previous suffering as God’s test of her faith, which has been rewarded. This would be compatible with C.19
th . Christian ideas.
(*“God’s future thundered” is a metaphor).
In the last two lines she addresses Robert directly. “Thy words have ill-availed” ( have failed) suggests that to reveal the contents of this letter would be to ignore his request that she keep them secret. The exclamation, “If …I dared repeat at last! -” suggests that what he wrote was extremely important, and the dash leaves the reader wondering what this was.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning Sonnet 32

Theme:
In this sonnet the persona/poet reflects on her response to her lover/ Robert’s proposal of marriage. At first she feared that their relationship might not last because they had fallen in love too quickly and because he might be disappointed when he realised her shortcomings.
However, she now recognises that she underestimated him and his ability to rise above her limitations and love her truly as she loves him.
Analysis:
In the first quatrain the persona describes the morning after her lover/ Robert proposed ( a lasting troth - a pledge to love someone forever). In poetry, sunrise often symbolises a new beginning or new hope, but in her case it brought doubt and she looked forward to night “the moon”, which might suggest that she looked forward to more time having passed in their relationship or just to the cooling of the early excitement. The sun is symbolically seen as the universal FATHER whilst the moon is seen as the universal MOTHER. The sun is the centre of knowledge, warmth, glory and splendour whilst the moon represents the rhythm of time as it embodies the cycle. The phases of the moon symbolise immortality, eternity, enlightenment or the dark side of nature. Therefore it is interesting she should observe his proposal to her through the lens of these two natural phenomena. It could suggests that she reverts back to her feminine self and reality in order to keep herself safe.
The metaphor “to slacken all those bonds” seems deliberately ambiguous. “bond” can mean a strong relationship, but (especially associated with “slacken” and “quickly tied”) it can refer to being tied up (bound). She seems uncertain whether a loving bond has been formed or she has allowed herself to become a prisoner of her emotions. The bonds can also be seen as the beginning of the musical metaphor if you are to interpret these as the string of the viol.
In lines 5 – 10 she explains the reasons for her doubt.
In line 4 she referred to the fact that the bond was “ quickly tied”.
In line 5 she says that those who fall in love quickly can quickly come to loathe each other.
This is emphasised with the antithesis between “Quick-loving” at the start of the line and
“quickly loathe” at the end. The repetition of quickly within the span of two lines increases the tempo and hence heightens her anxiety.
In line 6 and 7 she expresses her doubt that he could actually love someone like her. The exclamatory suggests her amazement that his could happen.
In line 7 she begins an extended metaphor (sometimes called a conceit) which continues to the end of the poem. She describes herself as “an out of tune Worn viol”. A viol was a C.16
th
. musical instrument like a violin. This comparison suggests her low opinion of herself. It suggests an instrument that is old-fashioned and in poor condition, which probably reflects her consciousness of her age and poor health.
She argues that a good singer (Robert) would be angry (“wroth”) to hear himself accompanied by such an instrument. She suggests that having picked it up without really

thinking (“in haste”) the singer would quickly discard it when he heard “its first ill-sounding note.” She worries that the proposal has also been hasty and he may regret it when he recognises what she is really like.
The volta or change of attitude comes in line 11(instead of the conventional line 9). She declares that she was not wrong about her own faults but was wrong about him/Robert, emphasised by placing
“thee” in italics.
Continuing the musical metaphor, she describes him as a “master’ who can make beautiful music even with a defaced ( damaged ) instrument.
She has assumed the passive position here/traditional Petrarchan image.
In the final line she states confidently that “great souls” can fall in love (“doat”) quickly. She seems to use “great souls” to refer only to him/Robert, rather than both of them, because “at one stroke” refers to one stroke of the bow on the viol – his brief relationship with her.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning Sonnet 43
Theme:
This is the second last sonnet in the sequence and the best known.
In it the persona/Barrett Browning declares her love for her lover/ Robert in a joyful and confident way which reveals none of the doubts present in some of the earlier sonnets. For example, in Sonnet XIII she claimed that it was too dangerous to try to put her love into words.
Analysis:
The sonnet is simple and artless in comparison to the previous poems. This reflects the simplicity of her resolution.
The structure of the poem is very straight-forward. She begins dramatically (as usual) with a rhetorical question: “How do I love thee?” She then says she will “count the ways”.
The rest of the poem is a list, expressing her love in different ways.
Traditional syntactical period at the end of the octave, which she hasn’t often.
She still reworks the traditional sonnet sequence by transforming gender roles. She utilises the female voice instead of the traditional male voice.
The language has high modality. She makes a series of definite statements without any conditions or qualifications.
Six lines begin with “I love thee” (this type of repetition is known as anaphora), each introducing a new description of her love.
The poem includes a lot of religious language, which suggests the intensity and spiritual dimension of her love.
The exclamations in lines 1 and 13 suggest her joy and excitement.

In the first quatrain she compares her love to achieving a religious state of Grace – a state of harmony with, and acceptance by, God usually only achieved in death (the ends of Being).
Grace and Being are abstract nouns
The listing of “depth & breadth & height” suggests the absolute limits. Grand spatial metaphor. Statistical/numerical parody of utilitarian discourse and our attempt to measure love. The language of ‘depth and breadth and height’ comes from Ephesians 3;17-19.
The three lines also introduce a lot of sound play. In line 2 the words have a ‘th’ sound.
These breathy syllables soften the line making it difficult to fit into the traditional iambic pentameter rhythm which shows us that Barratt Browning is still playing with the form. The breathy syllables could reflect her exuberant state.
In lines 3 and 4 the poet uses assonance repeating long ‘e’ vowel sounds ‘reach’ ‘feeling’
‘Being’ and ‘Idea’. This heightens the sense of endlessness which she is trying to convey.
In the second quatrain the imagery is more secular ‘the everyday”, suggesting a different dimension to her love. Her love extends from the simplicity of everyday needs to ideals such as freedom and purity. The similes “as men strive for Right” and “as they turn from Praise” suggest the unselfishness of her love. Insistent use of anaphora in lines 7 and 8 to affirm her love. In the second quatrain the imagery is concrete ‘sun’ and ‘candlelight’ as opposed to the abstract imagery of the first quatrain. This again shows that her love knows no bounds. She also uses antithesis . The sun is natural whilst candlelight is man made, again showing the limitlessness of her love.
In lines 9 – 13 she focuses on the intensity and “passion” of her love. She compares it to the intensity of her “old griefs” such as the intensity of extreme sadness and her “childhood faith”.
She suggests that children have a much more powerful faith than adults. It can also suggest the innocence and unquestioning trust children place on things.
“I seemed to lose with my lost Saints” similarly suggests the innocent, unquestioning religion of a child which is lost in adulthood. Lost Saint could also refer to her brother.
Lines9-10 emphasises the difficult nature of her grief through the subtle chiasmus of sounds using an ‘f’ and ‘s’ ad then repeating them in the reverse order. ‘griefs’ and then ‘childhood’s faith.’. This reversal highlights the reversal of her sadness to joy.
Lines 11-12 alliteration of ‘l’ and sibilance of ‘s’ sound. Increases the volume and reflects the joyful outpouring of her emotions.
In lines 13- 14 she makes the ultimate hyperbolic statement , as seen through the use of the superlative ,that if God allows it she will love him even
“better” after she dies than she does now.
This sonnet is almost a parody of utilitarian discourse and its attempt to count and measure human happiness.

The tone of the poem ironically includes both emotional idealism and subdued social satire.
Therefore EBB subverts the sonnet form to challenge Victorian social ideals and conventions.