Author: Casey Morris

Few holidays inspire such strong emotion as Valentine’s Day. Love, lust, the pain of past relationships, and even loneliness all rise to the surface. Whatever the feeling, most of us are more attuned to, more drawn to others. We are moved to give cards and chocolates, buy flowers, or indulge a long, solo-binge of a favorite book or film series. Some may even read a love poem or write a limerick or sonnet. Love poetry, in fact, has a rich and varied history as old as literature itself. From Virgil’s Eclogues to Donne, Marlowe, Shakespeare, and more modern poets like Sylvia Plath and Philip Larkin, love’s evocation spans centuries to this day. One of the greatest and most recognizably English poets, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, is no less poignant. Browning’s “Sonnets from the Portuguese” stands as a testament to love’s powers of renewal and discovery. It carefully traces the poet’s path out of the grey idleness of celibacy to the life-affirming gifts of love and marriage. 

Originally published in 1850, the collection of 44 sonnets details the poet’s courtship with fellow English writer Robert Browning. Though the title suggests translation from Portuguese, Elizabeth was the sole author. She likely chose this title to protect her privacy, though critics and readers of the time largely attributed the sonnets to her. By moving from surprise to admiration and ultimately rapturous desire, “Sonnets from the Portuguese” is a celebration of and monument to her love for Robert. More than this, Browning immerses us in her very personal journey towards what proved to be a successful and passionate marriage. Though a tribute to her future husband, “Sonnets from the Portuguese” also evokes universal themes of human connection: love, in its myriad ways, transforms the inner and outer worlds of experience. Love fashions a renewed discovery of oneself alongside the beloved. It awakens and grounds us firmly in the world, not merely as passersby. For Elizabeth, love’s invigorating, enthralling force pushes us to the good, the true, and the beautiful. It is Keats’ urn not as aesthetic truth but as lived experience forever cherished in rhythm and rhyme. 

To this end, the first sonnet to explore is “Sonnet 1.” Before meeting Robert in 1845, Elizabeth’s intention was never to marry. Her father strictly forbade any of the Barrett children from ever marrying. Her father’s disapproval and a history of ill-health disheartened Elizabeth for most of her life. After suffering a few accidents from horse-riding, she was left an invalid and required near-constant care from relatives. Consequently, she spent years confined to family homes in London or Torquay, Devonshire. Though she welcomed her siblings and some fellow writers, Elizabeth largely spent time alone reading and writing letters, essays, and poetry. Her 1844 collection “Poems” was well-received by the public and critics alike, and it was this collection that caught the attention of the young Robert Browning. Over a year later, the prospect of courtship and marriage astounded her. Her confusion and anxiety are captured in the first sonnet. Following the Petrarchan structure, the sonnet opens with an octave followed by a sestet. The rhyme scheme for each is abbaabba cdcdcd. Here is “Sonnet 1:”

I thought once how Theocritus had sung

Of the sweet years, the dear and wished-for years,

Who each one in a gracious hand appears

To bear a gift for mortals, old or young:

And, as I mused it in his antique tongue, 

I saw, in gradual vision through my tears, 

The sweet, sad years, the melancholy years,

Those of my own life, who by turns had flung

A shadow across me. Straightway I was ‘ware,

So weeping, how a mystic shape did move

Behind me, and drew me backward by the hair;

And a voice said in mastery, while I strove,—

“Guess now who holds thee!”—”Death,” I said, But, there,

The silver answer rang, “Not Death, but Love.”

The sonnet opens with a reference to classical Greek poet Theocritus. Elizabeth had a deep knowledge of Greek literature, particularly poets such as Theocritus, Homer, and Pindar. Theocritus was influential to her as he depicted rural settings, much like the Herefordshire estate she lived at as a child. Theocritus’ poems, often called idylls, were among the first examples of pastoral poetry (individually referred to as “bucolics”) in classical Greek literature. Here she recalls their stories of shepherds pursuing nymphs and shepherdesses, in which every new year brought new gifts of happiness. The second half of the octave moves from the world of Greek myth and imagination to the real. For most of Elizabeth’s life, years of joy and beauty were merely imaginative. The “sweet, sad years, the melancholy years” refer to the pain of poor health, loneliness, and the grief of missed opportunities and unfulfilled dreams. This makes the sudden attention of Robert, then a young, aspiring poet six years her junior, ever more rattling and mysterious. What began with Robert’s letter of admiration quickly became regular correspondence leading to visits to the family home in London. Elizabeth actually began writing the “Sonnets from the Portuguese” in the midst of their courtship. As Robert’s pure intentions and feelings are confirmed, the notion of a more enriching, meaningful life seems more and more possible for Elizabeth. This auspicious feeling is realized in the sestet. From what seemed an irrevocable pit of misery and darkness, Elizabeth finds not death. Love, a “mystic shape” who ravishes her “backward by the hair” carries her off to a frontier of companionship and warmth. As the first poem, “Sonnet 1” sets the tone for the spiritual and physical awakening Elizabeth experiences with Robert. Though this awakening is at times tempered by fear, doubt, and a hesitation to love’s crossroads. 

“Sonnet 9” portrays Elizabeth’s mixed feelings. It shows self-doubt about her adequacy for Robert, specifically around her age and health problems. Though she is unforgiving in her self-assessment, we read again of her relenting to love’s gifts of patience and acceptance. Here is “Sonnet 9” in its entirety: 

Can it be right to give what I can give?

To let thee sit beneath the fall of tears

As salt as mine, and hear the sighing years

Re-sighing on my lips renunciative

Through those infrequent smiles which fail to live

For all thy adjurations? O my fears, 

That this can scarce be right! We are not peers

So to be lovers; and I own, and grieve, 

That givers of such gifts as mine are, must

Be counted with the ungenerous. Out, alas!

I will not soil thy purple with my dust, 

Nor breathe my poison on thy Venice-glass, 

Nor give thee any love—which were unjust. 

Beloved, I only love thee! let it pass.  

The sonnet opens with a rhetorical question. This steers the poem into a mire of self-judgment and fear. Elizabeth lists the reasons why Robert should reject her: her salty tears, “infrequent smiles,” her age, and ill-health all serve here as thorns and prickles in their blooming love. A significant detail comes in lines 9 – 10: “That givers of such gifts as mine are, must/ Be counted with the ungenerous.” For much of her life, Elizabeth’s father was wealthy from sugar plantations the Barrett family managed in Jamaica. But by 1832, years of negligence resulted in serious financial losses for the Barrett family. Her father was forced to sell the Herefordshire estate and move the family to the southwest coastal town of Torquay. The resulting shame and embarrassment hardened Mr. Barrett, so much so he alleged to disown and disinherit any of his eleven children who dared to marry. Being “counted with the ungenerous,” then, is likely a concern about toxic family politics and the tyranny her father exerted upon Elizabeth and her siblings. Elizabeth’s insecurities around her own and familial issues understandably impacts her faith in Robert’s love. Yet as seen in “Sonnet 1,” the doubts are quelled in the sestet. Her racing thoughts calm. She declares “Beloved, I only love thee!” The foregoing anxiety is left to pass. Love overpowers another upwelling of fear and doubt. Elizabeth’s awareness that Robert’s love, and her future with him, are secure heralds a shift in tone and style in subsequent poems.

“Sonnet 27” captures this shift, in which Elizabeth relishes in love and all its exciting possibilities. In this sonnet, Elizabeth’s tone is more confident, more exuberant as she finally accepts Robert’s love and the new life before her. Its imagery and style portray the mutual infatuation and passionate stage of courtship for the couple. Here is “Sonnet 27” in its entirety: 

My own Beloved, who hast lifted me

From this drear flat of earth where I was thrown, 

And, in betwixt the languid ringlets, blown

A life-breath, till the forehead hopefully

Shines out again, as all the angels see, 

Before thy saving kiss! My own, my own, 

Who camest to me when the world was gone, 

And I who looked for only God, found thee!

I find thee; I am safe, and strong, and glad.

As one who stands in dewless asphodel,

Looks backward on the tedious time he had 

In the upper life,—so I, with bosom-swell, 

Make witness, here, between the good and bad,

That Love, as strong as Death, retrieves as well.

In contrast to previous sonnets, Elizabeth’s life before falling in love is not treated at length. It’s mentioned in passing, as she describes being lifted “from this drear flat of earth” and given “a life-breath.” Signs of intimacy emerge, as “a life-breath” and more obviously “thy saving kiss” confirm Robert and Elizabeth have progressed in their relationship. A few interesting references also appear in the poem’s sestet. First, the line “I who looked for only God, found thee” implies not that the poet, who was deeply religious and committed to her Christian faith, has abandoned God for Robert. It is rather that Elizabeth has broadened her personal life to include romantic love alongside her Christian belief. The line that follows suggests the strength and resolve she feels now that her spiritual and interpersonal needs are met for the first time. Secondly, an allusion to “dewless asphodel” begins the sonnet’s final image. The asphodel flower is a white or pink perennial associated with death and the underworld in Greek mythology. For the ancient Greeks, the underworld was composed of regions or tiers into which souls sorted according to their character. The Asphodel Meadows was one such place where the majority of human souls went to after death. More specifically, the Asphodel Meadows were located between Tarturus (the region for evil, damned souls) and Elysium or the Elysian Fields (the region for heroic, good souls). The “dewless asphodel” is then a reference to Elizabeth’s life before falling in love. Like a disembodied soul pondering its time on Earth, in the “upper life,” she sees her past as a kind of distant, “tedious time” removed from the present. Interestingly, it is not too far removed; she concludes that “between the good and bad” both love and death abide. The framing of love as inherent to life as death departs from the doubt and fear of earlier sonnets. Elizabeth understands Robert’s love endures and transcends personal or familial troubles. It is not bound by time or place. 

Fittingly, “Sonnet 43” is one of the most quoted and famous of all love poems in the English canon. It is perhaps the one poem that, even for those who don’t read poetry or know who Elizabeth was, they know “Sonnet 43.”  At last, Elizabeth is able to declare her love for Robert. The sonnet reads as buoyantly as a tossed bouquet. Its imagery is rich and roving, strengthened by perfect end-stopped rhymes. Form and content converge here such that the poet and her materials, the lover and her beloved, find their long-awaited marriage and consummation. Here is “Sonnet 43” in its entirety: 

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 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 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.

This opening question is not rhetorical. Elizabeth proudly shares the many ways she loves Robert, weaving in her Christian background, domestic routines, and her difficult past. The first relates to her soul: her love is so great it surpasses her soul’s “depth” and “height,” challenging even the limits of “Being” itself. What Elizabeth does here is playfully juxtapose her immense love for Robert alongside bounds of the physical universe. But her love is greater than space and time; the “ideal Grace,” or metaphysics of Christian faith, is likewise insufficient for containing her love. We then read of love in more familiar, intimate terms. Love at the “level of everyday’s/ most quiet need” forgoes the grand, cosmic language of previous lines. Elizabeth instead dotes on Robert, adoring him in his private habits and behind closed doors. This sense of love persists into the sestet, in which the poet employs anaphora (i.e. “I love thee..” five times) to add nuance and depth of feeling. Loving “freely,” “purely,” and with the “passion put to use/ in my old griefs” shows Elizabeth entering a new phase of life. The chains of grief, the prison of isolation in Torquay or London have been erased. Love permeates where sadness once dwelled and drowned. Love draws the poet’s breath, and love fills her “smiles” and “tears” in life and in death. She is finally able to marry Robert and elope to Florence, where they would spend the rest of their lives. 

Though Elizabeth became internationally renowned in her lifetime for poems like “Sonnet 43,” neither she nor Robert could have imagined how powerfully these lines still resonate with readers today. What she achieves in “Sonnet 43,” and in the collection generally, is to give voice to the most sacred, highest of human experiences. In “Sonnets from the Portuguese,” the ineffable becomes descript. Love, its Protean and searching complexity, is held to account in vivid detail. The result is a collection of some of the finest love poems in the canon. Yet Elizabeth also tells a story. She unfolds a journey all of us, one way or another, must embark upon. Not one journey is the same, but it always presents a choice. Choosing love, choosing companionship over solitude is a sacrifice. But, as Elizabeth discovered, it is a worthy sacrifice. Love returns us to the kinship of youthful optimism. It brings full circle the well-trodden paths of relatives and friends. And, when we are gone, love persists in our children and their sons and daughters. In this way, Elizabeth’s and Robert’s love inspires in thought and word. Their story reminds us, as Philip Larkin famously wrote: “what will survive of us is love.”

Born and raised in Texas, Casey Morris studied literature, philosophy, and ancient Greek at St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland. He loves reading and writing about literature, especially old and new poetry. He is also a fan of historical fiction, documentaries, and shoegaze. Casey is a Staff Writer at Decadent Serpent, often analysing and dissecting great poetry. You can read his work here.

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