Sonnet 29 – ‘I think of thee!' (AQA GCSE English Literature)

Theme

Evidence

Poet’s intention

Complex relationships

The poem is a Petrarchan sonnet, an Italian love poem of 14 lines

Barrett Browning’s form is of a typical sonnet as she uses it to express intense emotions of romantic love, often regarding unrequited or frustrated love

Unlike typical sonnets, this one has a volta in line 5 rather than after an octave of 8 lines

The speaker breaks tradition by offering a shift in tone early in the poem to focus on a more rational solution instead of the complex problem of the distance in their relationship: this could present the speaker as impatient for her lover’s presence, or less emotional, thus defying conventional Victorian views of women in love

Barrett Browning presents complex romantic relationships by subverting a traditional form to offer a female perspective on longing and desire

Theme

Evidence

Poet’s intention

Desire  

The poem sometimes follows an iambic pentameter typical of a sonnet, but breaks this rhythm throughout the poem 

Barrett Browning does not adhere to the rules of the traditional sonnet: in this way she expresses a rebellious opposition to strict codes of conduct

The poet uses enjambment and caesurae which make the rhythm uneven: 

• The dramatic pause shows her complex emotions: “Drop heavily down,- burst, shattered, everywhere!”

The speaker’s tone is emotional at times as she tries to control her longing and desire

By the end of the poem, the speaker returns to her thoughts, but her final line contradicts the first line: she begins the poem thinking of him, and ends saying she will not think of him 

The poem’s structure suggests the speaker has reconciled her feelings by the end as she decides reality is better than fantasy

Barrett Browning challenges Victorian ideas of romance between the genders by presenting a female speaker who sways from convention and expresses intense physical desire

Theme

Evidence

Poet’s intention

Longing in romantic relationships

The poem uses an extended metaphor which compares her feelings of longing to the wild and tangled branches of vines around a tree

The natural imagery is described as suffocating, blinding the speaker to clear thought, to show her intense emotions

The speaker describes her lover as a strong tree and asks him to “rustle thy boughs”, “drop” the leaves and “bare” his trunk in order to “burst” and “shatter” their tangled daydreaming: 

• The auditory language and alliteration suggests physical closeness will relieve her

Here, the speaker asks her lover to physically release the tension of their frustrated thoughts: 

• The language is physical, perhaps sexual, and alludes to the freedom their physical connection will bring her

Barrett Browning uses elevated, archaic language to present her love as devoted and pure: “thee” and ”thy”

Traditionally, Petrarchan sonnets would elevate the idea of love as something sacred; here the poem’s exaltation of love is clear in the exclamatory first line, “I think of thee!”

Barrett Browning presents the complicated and intense emotions of longing and desire with imagery which suggests the sensory experience of physical love will free her from her thoughts

Topic sentence

Both poems suggest complex responses to feelings of desire

Evidence and analysis

'Sonnet 29 -  I think of thee!’

'Porphyria’s Lover'

Barrett Browning’s speaker longs for the physical presence of her lover: the sonnet’s rhythm is disrupted with enjambment, exclamations and caesurae to present her overwhelming longing: “I think of thee!—my thoughts do twine and bud/About thee, as wild vines, about a tree”

Browning’s first person dramatic monologue presents a passionate lover experiencing intense desire:

• Enjambment presents an unstable narrator

• The repetition of “And” as he narrates the events of the night show his obsessive observation of her

However, the speaker controls her emotions: the volta in line 5 suggests she has a rational awareness of the danger of too much fantasising: “Yet, O my palm-tree, be it understood/I will not have my thoughts instead of thee”

Browning’s speaker takes control of his emotions as he “debates what to do”: the caesura shows his calm tone, “And strangled her. No pain felt she;/I am quite sure she felt no pain”

The complex emotions of desire are presented in both poems with speakers who are, at times, composed, and at other times, emotional and not in control

Topic sentence

Both poets convey intense emotions in romantic relationships 

Evidence and analysis

'Sonnet 29 - I think of thee!’

'Porphyria’s Lover'

The poem uses an extended metaphor which compares the speaker’s feelings of longing to the wild and tangled branches of vines around a tree, described as suffocating, blinding the speaker to clear thought: “Put out broad leaves, and soon there's nought to see”

Browning evokes nature’s power with personification to represent his own intense emotions: “The sullen wind” tears down tree-tops and did its worst to vex the lake”

The speaker suggests her lover’s presence will release her from the agony of longing

• She describes her lover as a strong tree and asks him to “rustle thy boughs”, “drop” the leaves and “bare” his trunk in order to “burst” and “shatter” their tangled daydreaming

Browning’s speaker also connects Porphyria to nature, describing her love as warming the cottage and shutting out the cold and storm: “She shut the cold out and the storm,/And kneeled and made the cheerless grate”

Both poets convey their strong feelings related to romantic love and desire with natural imagery

Topic sentence

While Barrett Browning’s poem illustrates physical love as the way to harmony in relationships, Browning’s poem presents physical love as destructive

Evidence and analysis

'Sonnet 29 - I think of thee!’

'Porphyria’s Lover'

The speaker compares her lover to a tree whose presence will physically release the tension of their frustrated thoughts and bring harmony: “O my palm tree” 

In 'Porphyria’s Lover', the speaker describes disharmony within nature: the imagery connotes to his own dark and cold emotions 

The speaker asks her lover to “Renew thy presence” and “Rustle thy boughs” so that she can be relieved of longing

The closeness of Porphyria to the speaker does not seem to move him: “And, last, she sat down by my side/And called me. When no voice replied”

The speaker prefers physical unity to what she describes as tangled and confusing thoughts: “I will not have my thoughts instead of thee”

The speaker here, however, prefers his thoughts to the presence of his lover: he does not reply to her call and he debates what to do as she seduces him

Barrett Browning’s speaker is concerned with the physical unity of their love, rather than twisted thoughts, however Browning’s speaker chooses his own deluded thoughts

Both poets challenge gender expectations within relationships, but Barrett Browning’s poem shows a liberated woman, while Browning’s shows one who is vulnerable and overpowered

Topic sentence

Both poems show longing as a result of denied physical love in romantic relationships 

Evidence and analysis

'Sonnet 29 - I think of thee!’ 

'Love’s Philosophy'

Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s first-person speaker conveys strong  intense emotions in a romantic sonnet dedicated to a silent lover who is absent

Similarly, Shelley’s first-person speaker directly addresses a silent lover in a persuasive and romantic plea

The speaker here conveys similar frustration with broken lines: “Drop heavily down,—burst, shattered, everywhere!”

Shelley’s speaker, too, is frustrated with longing: “What is all this sweet work worth/If thou kiss not me?”

Elizabeth Barrett Browning uses natural imagery in an extended metaphor which connects the power of her feelings with the power of nature: “Renew thy presence; as a strong tree should”

Similarly, Shelley’s speaker personifies nature to present love as natural and full of desire: 

• The winds mix “for ever with a sweet emotion”, the mountains “kiss” the heavens and the waves “clasp” one another

The poets comment on the overwhelming power of denied physical love within romantic relationships, by connecting nature with their feelings

Topic sentence

Both poems comment on physical love as unifying   

Evidence and analysis

'Sonnet 29 - I think of thee!’ 

'Love’s Philosophy' 

Barrett Browning’s poem comments on the solution to her desire and longing as physical and sensory unity: “Because, in this deep joy to see and hear thee/And breathe within thy shadow a new air”

Shelley’s speaker, too, argues that it is a law of nature to come together in unity: “Nothing in the world is single” 

Both poems present physical love as natural and the answer to the painful emotions of longing and frustrated desire

Topic sentence

While Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s speaker presents a hopeful and positive resolution, Shelley’s speaker is left without an answer

Evidence and analysis

'Sonnet 29 - I think of thee!’

'Love’s Philosophy'

Barrett Browning begins describing her fantasies and thoughts as tangled like vines around a tree, but by line 5 she breaks conventions of the sonnet form with a volta and begins to present the solution

Shelley’s speaker, however, presents an argument throughout the poem, with two mirroring stanzas which end with rhetorical questions

The speaker answers her own question, ending with a sense of resolution: “I do not think of thee - I am too near thee”

Shelley’s speaker ends his poem without resolution, and still frustrated: “What is all this sweet work worth/If thou kiss not me?”

Both poems express passion in a frustrated relationship, however the speaker in Sonnet 29 - ‘I think of thee!’ ends the poem with a decision to be together and the speaker in Love’s Philosophy is left alone

Topic sentence

Both poems highlight the intense emotions of frustrated love in romantic relationships

Evidence and analysis

'Sonnet 29 - I think of thee!’ 

'The Farmer’s Bride'

The first-person speaker in Barrett Browning’s poem illustrates her frustrated thoughts and feelings with simile describing nature as untamed: “—my thoughts do twine and bud/About thee, as wild vines, about a tree”

Similarly, Mew’s speaker compares his frustrated desire with nature

• The farmer believes his bride to be too wild and untameable: “Sweet as the first wild violets, she,/To her wild self. But what to me?”

The speakers evoke natural imagery to suggest frustrated love is uncontrollable

Barrett Browning’s speaker expresses her frustration with exclamations and caesurae: “I will not have my thoughts instead of thee/Who art dearer, better! Rather, instantly”

Mew’s speaker’s frustration about his lover is similarly expressed:

• He uses caesurae and punctuation to present his longing: “Betwixt us. Oh! my God! the down”

The poets both comment on the frustration of thwarted desire to be close to their lover by creating speakers with unstable voices

Topic sentence

Both poets present speakers with intense desire for physical love

Evidence and analysis

'Sonnet 29 - I think of thee!’ 

'The Farmer’s Bride'

The first-person speaker uses sensory language to suggest her lover’s physical presence will bring her relief

• She calls on her lover to “Rustle thy boughs and set thy trunk all bare” 

Mew’s speaker’s frustration about his lover is similarly expressed: “The brown of her—her eyes, her hair, her hair!”

Barrett Browning’s speaker expresses her desire to be close to her lover with assertions about the distance between them: “I will not have my thoughts instead of thee”

The farmer, similarly, is aware of the barrier of distance: “Tis but a stair/Betwixt us”

The poets both comment on the desire to be close to their distant lover, presenting their need for physical intimacy

Topic sentence

While both poets explore the desire for physical love, Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s poem presents a speaker longing to be with an absent lover within a consenting and harmonious relationship, while Charlotte Mew’s poem depicts a speaker’s longing and desire within a disharmonious, forced relationship 

Evidence and analysis

'Sonnet 29 - I think of thee!’

'The Farmer’s Bride'

Barrett Browning’s speaker directly addresses her absent lover, instructing him to be with her with imperative verbs: “Renew thy presence”

However, Mew’s speaker presents the distance between he and his lover differently: here, the speaker and his lover do not talk and he has hardly heard her speak

Barrett Browning’s speaker ends the poem with a sense of physical harmony: “I am too near thee”

Mew’s poem, however, presents the farmer’s continued longing as a result of their lack of communication and his violent actions toward her

• She is “Alone, poor maid” and he wishes for the “soft young down of her”

Barrett Browning’s poem presents a female speaker within a harmonious and consenting relationship, whereas Mew’s poem illustrates the painful distance within a forced relationship from the perspective of a male speaker