How Does Elizabeth Barrett Browning Sonnet Form
Despite from her disquieting obstacles throughout her life, Elizabeth Barrett Browning became one of the most venerated poets of the Victorian era. Browning’s muse for writing sonnets was her undying love for Robert Browning in spite of her father’s disapproval. Standard sonnet form consists of 14 lines written in iambic pentameter. Elizabeth Barrett Browning works within the standard Italian sonnet tradition by using diction to create shifts throughout her sonnets from Sonnets of the Portuguese to reveal her thoughts regarding love. Sonnet 1 contrasts the optimistic beliefs of Theocritus, an ancient Greek poet who believes each year is a precious gift, to the speaker’s pessimistic view of life. The first shift occurs after the quatrain when the speaker explains that the more she ponders Theocritus’ postulation, the more memories flow back into her mind of all the years in her life filled with sorrow and depression. The second shift takes place after the octave when a shadow moves
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She uses repetition to emphasize and attempts to measure her love with rational language implying something intangible. The sonnet shifts during the sestet as the speaker is now looking to the past. Then, at the twelfth line the speaker says “I shall but love thee better after death” (Sonnet 43 Sonnets from the Portuguese) She begins to look to the future to a transcendent love.
Sonnet 28 actually varies from the standard sonnet form because it is not in iambic pentameter. At the 9th line, the speaker shifts from commenting on what the letters are to how the speaker feels about the letters. She describes the letters to be dead, yet the words make her feel alive. The last line states “If, what this said, I dared repeat at last!” (Sonnet 28 Sonnets from the Portuguese) This is because the speaker feels as if she can not repeat these words because they are only meant for her to
She uses repetition to emphasize and attempts to measure her love with rational language implying something intangible. The sonnet shifts during the sestet as the speaker is now looking to the past. Then, at the twelfth line the speaker says “I shall but love thee better after death” (Sonnet 43 Sonnets from the Portuguese) She begins to look to the future to a transcendent love.
Sonnet 28 actually varies from the standard sonnet form because it is not in iambic pentameter. At the 9th line, the speaker shifts from commenting on what the letters are to how the speaker feels about the letters. She describes the letters to be dead, yet the words make her feel alive. The last line states “If, what this said, I dared repeat at last!” (Sonnet 28 Sonnets from the Portuguese) This is because the speaker feels as if she can not repeat these words because they are only meant for her to