Sonnet 43 by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (WJEC Eduqas GCSE English Literature)

Language, structure and form revision

What happens in the poem? 

Language: 

• Repetition

• Metaphor

• Religious imagery (“grace” and “saints”

• Emotive and hyperbolic language

Form: 

• Petrarchan sonnet

• Iambic pentameter

Structure: 

• Anaphora

• Caesura

• The speaker opens the poem with the question “How do I love thee?” and proceeds to answer it

• The speaker describes the depth, breadth and height of her love, suggesting that it meets her most simple needs

• The speaker describes their love as restorative, turning negative feelings (“old griefs”) to positive ones with the same intensity (“passion”) as they once felt pain

• The speaker implies a connection between her current love and past religious devotion

• She expresses that she loves with all her life’s breath, smiles and tears

• The poem concludes with the speaker declaring that if God allows, she will love even more deeply after death

Poems for comparison:

●     ‘Valentine’ by Carol Ann Duffy: unconventional love and its complexities

●     ‘Afternoons’ by Philip Larkin: ordinary life and marriage

●     ‘She Walks in Beauty’ by Lord Byron: love and adoration

●     ‘The Manhunt’ by Simon Armitage: love and external events

Context: 

Victorian poet

Romanticism

Social reform

Gender

Themes: 

Love

Devotion

Passing of time

Themes

Key quotations 

Language, form and structure

Love

“How do I love thee?”

“Let me count the ways”

“In my old griefs, and with my childhood faith.”

The poem centres around a first-person speaker’s expressions of intense love. The speaker implies a listener with whom they are intimate, “thee” (you). The rhetorical question and answer may suggest that the poem is a reply

The opening lines immediately establishes the theme of an all-encompassing love. The act of “counting” suggests a love so immense it cannot be easily defined, but the speaker is determined to express it

By juxtaposing passionate love with past griefs and childhood faith, the speaker conveys the intensity and purity of her love. The comparison suggests her love is as powerful as her deepest sorrows and as pure as her childhood beliefs

Devotion

“I love thee to the depth and breadth and height/My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight”

“I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;”

The hyperbolic language “depth and breadth and height” conveys the ceaseless nature of the speaker’s devotion. The metaphor suggests that her love extends beyond physical limitations suggesting a spiritual level of devotion

The simile compares the speaker’s love to the pursuit of moral righteousness: the capitalisation of “Right” suggests her devotion is as pure and noble as the highest moral ideals

Passing of time

“I shall but love thee better after death.”

“by sun and candle-light.”

Barrett Browning concludes with a declaration that the speaker’s love will not only endure but will grow stronger after death. The paradox of loving “better after death” highlights the eternal nature of true love

The imagery of “sun and candle-light” symbolises the passage of time from day to night, suggesting the speaker’s love is constant and unwavering

‘Sonnet 43’ is a poem about love.

Choose one other poem from the anthology in which the poet also writes about love. Compare the way the poet presents love in your chosen poem with the way Elizabeth Barrett Browning presents it in ‘Sonnet 43’.

In your answer you should:

• compare the content and structure of the poems – what they are about and how they are organised

• compare how the writers create effects, using appropriate terminology where relevant

• compare the contexts of the poems, and how these may have influenced the ideas in them

Thesis / Essay introduction: Both Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Lord Byron elevate and idealise love in their poems. However, while Barrett Browning’s poem, ‘Sonnet 43’ is a direct and passionate address to a beloved, expressing a deep love, Byron’s poem, ‘She Walks in Beauty’, suggests a silent, unrequited love for a mysterious woman. 

Similarities  

Differences 

Both speakers describe idealised romantic relationships through exaggerated language. Barrett Browning’s poem elevates the idea of love with listing and hyperbolic language: “I love thee to the depth and breadth and height/My soul can reach”. Byron similarly elevates the idea of romance and the woman is also described with the repetition and  hyperbolic language: “So soft, so calm” and “How pure, how dear”

‘Sonnet 43’ is a direct and passionate address to a specific listener, presumably her husband Robert Browning, and the poem uses “thee” throughout to create an intimate and personal tone. In contrast, ‘She Walks in Beauty’ is about a mysterious woman and the speaker observes and admires her from a distance, creating a more detached and contemplative tone

Both poems convey a deep emotional intensity. Barrett Browning’s sonnet is a passionate declaration of love, with fervent expressions of devotion and Byron’s poem conveys a deep admiration and awe for the woman’s beauty

While Barrett Browning’s poem expresses a deep, reciprocated love, Byron’s poem hints at a silent or unrequited love

Both poems describe romance with reference to constancy and enlightenment. Barrett Browning uses natural imagery related to the light to highlight the constant nature of their love: “by sun and candle-light”. Similarly, Byron’s natural imagery describes both dark and light and Byron alludes to the woman’s “tender light” in contrast to the “gaudy day”

‘Sonnet 43’ focuses on the nature and depth of love itself, whereas ‘She Walks in Beauty’ focuses on the women’s appearance and the effect it has on the speaker

Thesis / Essay introduction: The theme of love is a central focus in both Barrett Browning’s ‘Sonnet 43’ and Carol Ann Duffy’s ‘Valentine’. ‘Sonnet 43’ presents an enduring, spiritual love that transcends the physical realm, while ‘Valentine’ presents a more unconventional and realistic view of love, using the extended metaphor of an onion.

Similarities  

Differences  

Both poems explore the theme of love through  direct address to a loved one using the first person. This creates an intimacy and personal connection between the speaker and the addressee

In ‘Sonnet 43’ the speaker’s emotions are idealistic and elevated, whereas in ‘Valentine’ the speaker’s emotions are more realistic and complex 

Both poems explore the power of love. ‘Sonnet 43’ conveys the all-encompassing nature of love and ‘Valentine’ uses the onion metaphor to depict love’s complexity and potential for both beauty and pain

Love in ‘Sonnet 43’ is presented as a constant, spiritual force, whereas love in ‘Valentine’ is presented as a mixture of both joy and sorrow

Both poems explore the theme of mortality. In ‘Sonnet 43’ the speaker suggests their love transcends death while in ‘Valentine’, Duffy uses the onion as a metaphor for life itself

‘Sonnet 43’ uses a Petrarchan sonnet to convey order and elegance to the speaker’s declaration of love, whereas ‘Valentine’ uses free verse which reflects the poem’s focus on the unfiltered reality of love