Sonnet 43
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways...
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Paragraph 1 - Introduction – Include the title and author, a general explanation of the subject matter, a summary of what the poem is about, and what the key themes of the poem are (if there are any).
Paragraph 2 - Include detailed, stanza-by-stanza (or section-by-section, with line references) analysis of what is actually happening in the poem (without the greater depth of analysis coming later).
Paragraph 3 - Discuss the subtext and the implied. Look at the way that the poet hints at wider meaning, how a greater range of interpretation can be applied. This paragraph should lead in to the analysis of style in Paragraph 4.
Paragraph 4 - This paragraph should be a focused discussion of the way the poem is written and structured with regard to style – analysis of diction, rhythm and rhyme, figurative imagery, mood and tone, alliteration and assonance, the way that pace is controlled and atmosphere created – with detailed reference to the text in the form of quotation and line references.
Paragraph 5 - Link this poem with any other literature (especially poetry) you have read or studied. What are some common themes?
Paragraph 6 - Conclusion – Discuss your overall feeling about the poem, its abiding images, and whether it is successful or not in what it sets out to do.
The poem i am looking at is Sonnet 43. This was written by Elizabeth barrette browning. Who wrote all her work in the Victorian era. Her work was widely read in both the UK and the USA. The key themes she expresses throughout the poem are to do with love and her feeling towards a particular person.
ReplyDeleteIn the first line she uses a famous Shakespearian quote to begin the whole poem. She then uses descriptive words to add depth to the emotion she is feeling. She then uses the end of days to say that her love will be never ending. She then goes and focuses in on the smallest details of life such as my ‘most quiet need’. The repetition then used in lines 7, 8, 9 helps continue to get across the point that her love is never ending. She then also says that no matter what her state of life she will always love and her love will even surpass death.
She uses very small images along with larger views to make sure she compares her varying feelings of love for whoever she is saying this to. So her comparison of the sun and candlelight also make sure that she pinpoints the incredible range of feeling she experiences whilst being in love.
The poem is also different in the fact that its layout is compressed into as little space as possible. Theirs a lack of terminal punctuation throughout the poem continuing the feeling that the poem really typified and encapsulated her personal feelings of love in that particular poem. It also continues with the feeling that her love knows no boundaries and cannot be controlled; this lack of terminal punctuation gives the poem a freedom that can only be related to the feelings of love.
This particular poem is not the only sonnet in the collection. It is also not the only sonnet to deal with love. Sonnet 29 also deals with the image of love but from another angle, this being from the angle of someone who has lost love and yet stills feels deeply for that particular person. It also was written at about the same time as sonnet 43
In conclusion the poem is about the deepest feelings of love a person can have. But the clever thing about this particular poem uses the simplest literary techniques to describe incredible brilliant but also incredibly complex feelings. It encapsulates in a moment all the feelings of a reliable and never ending love for a person. Something which is incredibly hard to do.
Sonnet 43 is a love poem written by Elizabeth Barrett Browning in which a women describes her passionate love for a particular person.
ReplyDeleteIn the poem, there is no terminal rhyming couplet at the end of the poem. This therefore helps portray the lack of finality within the poem, suggesting that love will never die and there will always be love.
Furthermore, within this poem Browning uses the effect of exagerration to portay how much she loves this person. The polysyndeton and regular uses of ‘and’ help emphasise how every part of the charcter is filled with love for the man. Her love is so intense for this man that she says that it reaches spiritual level.
This poem is also to be read with religion in mind. The religious imagery which surrounds the poem such as her "soul" and the references to "God" and "saints" and the words "Grace" and "faith" already mentioned, means that this could be read as every much a praise to God as much as to the person she loves.
This Sonnet is a Petrachan sonnet, the typical rhyming pattern being ABBA. Furthermore, the Sonnet is written in iambic pentameter. In my opinion, the themes of the poem are both love and religion which she relates to in much detail.
Sonnet 43 is a romantic poem, written by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. In the poem she is trying to describe the abstract feeling of love by measuring how much her love means. She also expresses all the different ways of loving someone and she tells us about her thoughts around her beloved. The tone of the poem is deep, in a loving way. The variation in which she can love is the main theme in this poem.
ReplyDeleteThis is a sonnet and all sonnets have 14 lines where the two last usually have a broader meaning than the rest of the sonnet. In the final lines she has achieved this by bringing up the subject of the afterlife – “and, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death”. The sonnet is one large stanza, and the poem flows at times, while at others caesuras break it up. This break up encourages the reader to reflect on her love like she does in the poem because the lack of rhythm helps the reader to absorb the variation of love that Barrett Browning uses.
In the poem, Barrett Browning says “My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight”. This is an illustration of how much she trusts him. Even though she cannot see the ending of how this love will end, she trusts him and is willing to reach out in darkness, not knowing what’s coming for her. This could be seen in a wider picture because this can relevate to all forms of human relationships in that love and trust can bring people closer together. She also says “I love thee with the breath, smiles, tears of all my life!” This is implying that no matter what is going on in her life, whether something horrible happened or it’s just a normal day, she trusts him to stay by her side and that she will love every minute of it. Barrett Browning also mentions the sun and candle-light while talking about her love. This line is one of the only lines where she is using concrete imagery.
Sonnet 43
ReplyDeleteThis poem is By Elizabeth Barrett Browning and is about her love. She is so compulsively in love with this man (her husband to be Robert Browning) and can’t resist showing it, like it’s a secret she can’t keep. She gets comfort and pleasure through talking about their love.
Through the poem, she lists the ways in which she loves this man, and why she does so. This goes on the whole way through and we feel this poem to be beautiful because we understand how love can completely take over you. The last line states that she would love him better after death, which gives the poem a sort of sinister last note.
Browning uses polysyndeton to create a larger feeling of how love is obsessive and completely overtakes you: “Depth & Breadth & Height”. This repetition of ‘&’ further exaggerates this woman’s extent of adoration, there are so many reasons that she can’t think of too love this man. This them of this woman having such adulation for this man however could be contrasted by the view that this woman is actually saying she has a mundane love, filled with an almost tiresome amount of things to think about, she may want a simple man.
This poem is in petrachan form, a very regular structure, possibly symbolising the fluidity of this woman’s life now that she has found true love. Also, this poem is iambic pentameter (10 syllables in each line). There are also many caesuras throughout the poem: “I love thee freely, as men strive for right”. This is used to link the most basic of ideas to that of going through pain for happiness in the end. Men strive for right in order to have better lives, Browning may be suggesting that although there will be fights along the way, in the end, everything will be good. These caesuras also help keep the pace of the poem slower which keeps the pleasant feelings of love. Next, there is very little terminal punctuation to show that this love is continuous and never ending. The mood set for this poem is very calm and relaxing, because with such love, one can have no worry in the world.
Monty
Anna, part 1
ReplyDeleteSonnet 43, written by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, is a poem about the love this speaker feels. Love is everything for her and covers each aspect of life. The main theme that stands out in this poem is love and how it manages to touch the souls of people. This poem starts with a rhetorical question about how this speaker feels. They then use the phrase "let me count the ways" which works well as an introduction for the list that begins to develop throughout the poem.
The speaker states that it's "depth and breadth and height" that is filled with love in her life, so to extent, the entire capable volume of her human existence revolves around this love she feels.
The speaker then digs into the deeper meaning of life, including the aspect of souls being connected to love. In turn, it may be seen as blasphemy because here the speaker is claiming that love is solely the most important thing in life, including "Ideal Grace".
The smaller, more mundane parts of life are then brought forth in this poem as the speaker begins to talk about justice and selflessness.
An optimistic spin is put onto the idea of love, claiming that love has the ability to turn bad into good, darkness into light. Love is pure and sweet and the purity of that has stayed with her throughout her childhood. So much so, that she is now dependent on love, in the same way that some people depend on a religious faith.
Just like every human, this speaker has gone through tough times in life, yet they are still able to love. The speaker contains such a strong love, that she believes it is a type which will never die, and continues into the after life, reflecting the power love can have.
The ordered list which brings forth the different aspects of the speaker's life, places huge emphasis on the sheer number of points, which can include the influence of love. A person can't feel love just within their hearts; instead the use of polysyndeton emphasises the repetition but also shows that each aspect is equally important: "depth and breadth and height", here, it is not just depth which is important, but also breadth and height have the same level of importance.
Personally, I feel that "soul" is a universal; used here to create that universal impact. It's easy for people to lose themselves throughout life, yet the speaker knows that, even through the blindness of events which occur during a lifetime; they will only truly lose themselves to love.
"The end of Being" and "Ideal Grace" seem miniscule in comparison to the power of love, which the speaker is praising about throughout this poem. Stating that the matters of love have more importance is a daring statement. This could possibly be because the speaker has found a newly-grown type of confidence now that they are in love; resulting in making them willing to take bigger risks in life because they have the nurturing support if love to be there if all else fails.
Anna, part 2
ReplyDeleteEven at tranquil and quiet parts of a day, the speaker is still declaring their love - they never stop declaring this view, not even at "candlelight" whilst others are sleeping.
In the same way humans are continuously searching for justice throughout the world, the speaker won't give up the argument for love. It's not about gaining anything from this point of view because in this scenario, love is a selfless feeling that makes the other person feel the benefit of love.
In this poem, the speaker has been able to use love as a type of medicine to help heal their broken heart from the past. Love has taken on the force of the speakers’ distraught, and has managed to turn it into something sweet again. Much like how a childhood should be, the love the speaker feels contains an innocence and purity, which has now become their focal point in life.
Throughout every independent emotion the speaker has gone through, their life will subsequently continue to do so after their death. The Petrachan sequence allows the ending to emphasis this point because there is no terminal couplet, which reflects the speaker’s feelings: that there is no terminal stop for love.
By using the Petrachan structure in this poem, it makes this sonnet cyclical; jumping around in unpredictable, less regimented mannerisms, which is similar to love. The exclamation marks used in this poem bring across the excitement that the speaker can barely contain whilst they talk about love. The rare use of full stops also emphasises that point too.
The pace is quick which makes the reader feel that the speaker can't get their words out fast enough - the use of enjambment prove the impact of that point clearly. A lot of hyphens and commas are used, possibly reflecting the speaker’s unwillingness to stop talking about love. However the caesuras simultaneously let the reader focus on what the speaker has previously stated. The pace is slowed down with the use of commas during a triplet: "with the breath, smiles, tears," which makes the reader linger on these particular words.
The repetition of three words "I love thee" forms a list, which the speaker uses to show their dedication to love, resulting in a positive vibe being declared throughout the poem.
Due to this being an optimistic poem, it is hard for the reader to find anything negative, giving this a very light and cheerful persona.
I feel that Sonnet 43 is similar to the poems Amends and First Love. In Amends, the main theme throughout the poem is the beauty of the natural world. It also uses repetition at the start of some of the lines and caesuras are frequently used in the first two stanzas.
Anna, part 3
ReplyDeleteSonnet 43 is similar to First Love as well because First Love is about falling in love, so includes lots of romantic images. However the poem also includes a few negative images, and so it perhaps a more realistic poem because it includes the pain love can sometimes bring.
My overall view of for Sonnet 43 is a positive and uplifting response because this poem brings forth possibilities that love can create if it is with the correct person. I like how the poem includes a depressing past, but shows that love can conquer that negativity; possibly hinting love can cure all pain?
Sammi
ReplyDeleteSonnet 43 by Elizabeth Barret Browning is a poem about love and about the many forms of love that she personally feels.
The first line says 'Let me count the ways!' referring to the ways she loves and showing the reader that she is about to show them a list of the ways she loves. The next line shows how she loves with every part of her body. By saying she loves with the 'depth & breadth & height' is a mathematical way of showing she loves with all the capacity of her heart. In the third line she refers to her 'soul'. This shows her belief that it is not only her human body that loves him, it's her whole being. This is then contrasted with a religious notion in the next line when she mentions 'Ideal Grace', showing a the religious version of being completely at peace. Using both of these in such close proximity shows how her love fills her in every way and in every manner that has ever been associated with love. In this line she also mentions 'the ends of being' referring to death, stating she doesn't mind death now that she has found this perfect peace. In the sixth line she says she will love him 'by sun & candlelight' so says she loves him at any time-regardless of whether it is day or night. The next two lines align her love with greater selfless things, like 'men [striving] for Right'. This gives the reader an idea of how highly she regards this love. She then shows in the next couple of lines how she has taken the grief of other loved ones and turned it into love for him, 'in my old griefs'. The twelfth line mentions her 'lost saints' which is another religious comment, possibly referring to the loss of her mother and brother. In the penultimate line she mentions 'smiles and tears' which is another reference of how she is turning everything in her life-positive or negative-into love for him.
The poem is a Petrarchan sonnet. This fits the subject of the poem as it makes it less exact than a Shakespearean sonnet as there is not such an exact rhyming scheme. This fits love as it is unexpected and random. Another use of writing a Petrarchan sonnet is that it allows Browning to noticeably not use a terminal couplet. This mirrors the image of ever lasting love throughout the poem. Browning using polysyndethism, the repetition of and, in the second line while describing that she loves to the 'depth & breadth & height'. This emphasises how much she loves him and shows how they are all equal, so showing how she loves her with all parts of her body equally, and therefore she has no doubts about him. She repeats 'I love' as the beginning of 3 consecutive lines. This again emphasises the vast amount she loves him and how she loves him equally in every single form. She uses lots of punctuation throughout the poem to separate the ways in which she loves him and therefore to highlight how many there are.
This poem is similar to Sonnet 29 in that the main theme is love and they both use repetition to reinforce the main points, although they are different in that Sonnet 29 takes are more realistic or pessimistic view on love as love has just been lost where as in Sonnet 43 love has just been found. It is also similar to First Love as they are both based around finding love.
I think the poem is good as it clearly states her feeling on love and she uses good imagery to portray her feelings. The way she only focuses on the good points of love backs up the beginning of a relationship, when all your thoughts towards that person are positive.