skills

Simple poem(شعر ساده)

Sonnet 43

Summary and analysis

What Is a Sonnet?

A sonnet is a 14-line poem with a specifc rhyme scheme and meter (usually iambic pentameter). This poetry format–which forces the poet to wrap his thoughts in a small, neat package–originated in Sicily, Italy, in the 13th Century with the sonnetto (meaning little song), which could be read or sung to the accompaniment of a lute. When English poets began writing poems in imitation of these Italian poems, they called them sonnets, a term coined from sonnetto. Frequently, the theme of a sonnet was love, or a theme related to love. However, the theme also sometimes centered on religion, politics, or other topics. Poets often wrote their sonnets as part of a series, with each sonnet a sequel to the previous one. For example, William Shakespeare (1564-1616) wrote a series of 154 sonnets on the theme of love. 

Browning's Sonnet Series

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861) wrote a series of 44 sonnets, in secret, about the intense love she felt for her husband-to-be, poet Robert Browning. She called this series Sonnets From the Portuguese, a title based on the pet name Robert gave her: "my little Portugee." "Sonnet 43" was the next-to-last sonnet in this series. In composing her sonnets, she had two types of sonnet formats from which to choose: the Italian model popularized by Petrarch (1304-1374) and the English model popularized by Shakespeare (1564-1616). She chose Petrarch's model. For an in-depth discussion and analysis of both sonnet models, click here.  

Rhyme Scheme and Divisions

The rhyme scheme of "Sonnet 43" is as follows: Lines 1 to 8–ABBA, ABBA; Lines 9 to 14–CD, CD, CD. Petrarch's sonnets also rhymed ABBA and ABBA in the first eight lines. But the remaining six lines had one of the following schemes: (1) CDE, CDE; (2) CDC, CDC; or (3) CDE, DCE. The first eight lines of a Petrarchan sonnet are called an octave; the remaining six lines are called a sestet. The octave presents the theme of the poem; the sestet offers a solution if there is a problem, provides an answer if there is a question, or simply presents further development of the theme. In Browning's "Sonnet 43," the octave draws analogies between the poet's love and religious and political ideals; the sestet draws analogies between the intensity of love she felt while writing the poem and the intensity of love she experienced earlier in her life. Then it says that she will love her husband-to-be even more after death, God permitting.    

Sonnet 43 Meter

"Sonnet 43" is in iambic pentameter (10 syllables, or five feet, per line with five pairs of unstressed and stressed syllables), as Lines 2 and 3 of the poem demonstrate. 

I LOVE..|..thee TO..|..the DEPTH..|..and BREADTH..|..and HEIGHT

My SOUL..|..can REACH,..|..when FEEL..|..ing OUT..|..of SIGHT

"Sonnet 43" expresses the poet’s intense love for her husband-to-be, Robert Browning. So intense is her love for him, she says, that it rises to the spiritual level (Lines 3 and 4). She loves him freely, without coercion; she loves him purely, without expectation of personal gain. She even loves him with an intensity of the suffering (passion: Line 9) resembling that of Christ on the cross, and she loves him in the way that she loved saints as a child. Moreover, she expects to continue to love him after death. 

Figures of Speech

The dominant figure of speech in the poem is anaphora–the use of I love thee in eight lines and I shall but love thee in the final line. This repetition builds rhythm while reinforcing the theme. Browning also uses alliteration, as follows:
thee, the (Lines 1, 2, 5, 9, 12).
thee,they (Line 8)
soul, sight (Line 3)
love, level (Line 5)
quiet, candle-light (Line 6) 
freely, strive, Right (Line 7)
purely, Praise (Line 8)
passion, put (Line 9)
griefs, faith (Line 10)
my, my (Line 10)
love, love (Line 11)
With, with (Line 12)
lost, love (Line 12)
lost, saints (Line 12)
Smiles, tears (Line 13) (z sound)
smiles, all, life (Line 13)
shall, love (Line 14)
but, better (Line 14)
but, better, after (Line 14)

Sonnet 43
By Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Published in 1850

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          A poetry analysis of Sonnet 43,by Elizabeth Barrett Browning will always end up talking about love for this one of the most famous and loved romantic poems in the world and is written as a sonnet. A sonnet usually has fourteen lines and an iambic pentameter rhyme. Sonnets are nearly always written about the theme of love, almost like a love song. This sonnet,like many others, shows how the poet, in this case Elizabeth Barrett Browning, must be disciplined in confining her thoughts to a particular structure.

The first eight lines of this Petrarchan sonnet,the octave,present the theme of love and the degree of the depth of love felt by Elizabeth for her husband. Here she compares her deep feelings to religious,spiritual and even political aspirations:

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 every day'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.

The last six lines compare the feelings she has at the moment to those emotions of love she experienced as a child. Concluding the poem, she hopes that she will go on to love her husband even more in the future if God permits. If not, then there is always Heaven!

I love with a 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.

At the beginning of the poem Elizabeth Barrett Browning discusses her own personal experience of love in terms of its intensity. She loves Robert Browning of her own free will in a very pure way expecting nothing more of it than the joy of love itself, comparing it to suffering - perhaps similar to that of Christ on the cross. She is reminded of the childlike love she had for Christian saints in her girlhood - although she does describe these as 'griefs.' Passion she says, is much better put to use in love than grief.

She uses repetition to reinforce the strength of her love (I love thee) and for its alliterative powers (th)

The poet aligns her love with life itself and its laughters and sorrows and breathing and concludes on a metaphysical note, believing their love as a couple will cross through the grave to the other side - to heaven

          Elizabeth Barrett Browning's sonnet 43 "How do I love thee, let me count the ways" is one of the most famous and widely quoted sonnets outside of Shakespeare. It is a delicately crafted piece of verse which captures the love and affection of one person to another beautifully.

In the poem the narrator almost ponders the opening question aloud "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways" it also strikes the reader as playful in nature and not overly sentimental. This is quite a clever aspect to the poem which is twisted emotively in the poem's closing lines. Before this however Elizabeth playfully extends expression of love in repetition and does this in order to maximise the closing tension of the conclusion:

Smiles, tears, of all my life!- and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

This belies the rhetorical motifs early in the poem as well as to capture a love which is to extend beyond this lifetime. With these closing lines she is able to take the meaning and value of love to a much higher, even spiritual, level. The delicacy with which she blends together soft imagery such as "candle light" "Grace" and "faith" helps to magnify this feeling enormously.

This poem needs also to be read with religion in mind. Not only is belief in the after-life a taken part of the poem, but 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.

Within the poem is also an expression of what could be taken as an early form of feminism. In particular the line "I love thee freely, as men strive for Right" is particularly significant for a person arguing for this case. It seems of great importance and vital to true loves aims that her love is chosen "freely" as is her "right" as an individual. Biographically it could also be significant that her father rejected her own love in real life. Here, it could be seen as solidifying and justifying the love which was to separate herself from the grips of her disapproving father. Her love is the pure form of love that comes from the heart and not tied to financial or social gain.

What adds an extra touch to the poem is the sense of movement that exists within the verse. As it says "My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight" and the expression of her love extends to the "depth and breadth and height" of visible plains. Such powerful movement of feeling adds to the energy of the poem as well as giving it a child-like integrity. Her love is that of "childhood's faith" as she says, it is the hope and innocent expression that her love will last forever.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning was married to the equally famous poet Robert Browning whose verses together captured the hearts and heights of popularity in Victorian England and across the Atlantic. Elizabeth was born in 1806 to a large relatively well off and respectable family. She was a very bright and well read child whose tastes and talents for literature and languages were developed quickly. From an early age she was fluent in Greek, Latin, Hebrew and Italian. The relationship with her family however strained at the thought of her marriage to Robert and as the couple left to Italy she was disowned by her upright father, but lived a happy and joyful life with her husband.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning in this poem brings together much in such a small space as great poets have the ability to do. At first glance it may appear an overtly sentimental piece, however the astute reader soon discovers that this poem is a poem with depth, and its writer a poet of supreme skill and compassion.