Analysis-of-the-Sonnet-How-Do-I-Love-Thee.pptx

How Do I Love Thee by Elizabeth Barret Browning

1. An Analysis of " How do I Love Thee" by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

2. Lesson Objectives Familiarize with the composition of a Petrarchan/Italian sonnet; and Construct an analysis and criticism of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 43, “How Do I Love Thee”.

3. Motivation Question How do you tell someone how much you love him/her? Have you ever been in an “against all odds” relationship? > How did you manage to deal with it and go on with the relationship?

4. Discussion Questions Who is Elizabeth Barrett Browning? What was her family background and history in writing? What is a Petrarchan/Italian sonnet and how is it composed? What are the usual rhyme scheme and metric pattern of a Petrarchan/Italian sonnet ?

5. Points to Ponder How does Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s life experiences influence her compositions particularly in writing Sonnet 43? How was she able to express her pure and unending love to Robert Browning? How can the lines of Sonnet 43 be interpreted and analyzed using various literary theories? Are you going to give this sonnet to the one you love at present? Will you be willing to receive this sonnet if your partner would give it to you? Why?

6. How Do I Love Thee? is sonnet number 43 taken from The Sonnets From the Portuguese, a book first published in 1850. Elizabeth Barrett Browning chose this title to give the impression that she had translated the work from the Portuguese and would therefore avoid any controversy. It was dedicated to her husband, poet Robert Browning. But the work did cause a stir. For starters, the inspiration behind the work was Elizabeth's love for the man who had, for all intents and purposes, rescued her from a quietly desperate, reclusive lifestyle she led in London, following the accidental death of her closest brother. Elizabeth Barrett Browning, 6 March 1806 – 29 June 1861

7. Much to her father’s dismay, the two shared an unconditional love that would perhaps serve as the sole driving force behind Browning’s heartwarming poems. Allegedly, they exchanged more than 500 letters in a span of a year and a half. The couple traveled to the beautiful city of Florence in Italy, which proved an excellent location for the creative minds of the young poets. It is there where Elizabeth would publish her magnum opus, “Sonnets From the Portuguese”; these were a grandiose collection of poems, which would cement her place in the history of English literature and bring her great recognition and praise, and it would build the reputation of Elizabeth to surpass that of Robert by a long way. Edward Moulton-Barrett ( 1785 - abt. 1857)

8. The 43rd sonnet, which famously begins with “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways…” was just one of the 44 poems which were actually on hold by Elizabeth’s doubts and hesitation, but were luckily very supported by the insistence of her husband. The poems were becoming very popular among the Victorian communities. Alongside this positive outcome, her first and only child, Robert Wiedeman Barrett Browning, was born in Florence in 1849. Although her authoritative father disinherited her after hearing the news of the wedding, she managed to inherit some money anyway which secured a decent life for her in Florence. Robert Wiedeman "Pen" Barrett Browning (9 March 1849 – 8 July 1912)

9. By 1850, her work was highly regarded, so much so that she was considered a worthy contender for an honorary position as Poet Laureate. The title was reserved for the most prominent of writers and was held by William Wordsworth (portrait by Benjamin Robert Haydon) until his death. She lost to the almighty poet, Lord Tennyson. She published many political and social works like “Casa Guidi Windows”, and “Poems Before Congress” (which addressed slavery and the Italian fight for independence), as well as “Aurora Leigh”, her longest work, which challenged male dominance and female subjugation. At the age of 55, Elizabeth Barrett Browning succumbed to her disease in Florence on June 29, 1861, and died in the arms of her husband. She would still continue to posthumously garner the attention of many readers.

10. Of all the female poets in England, none were as successful and held to such great critical acclaim as Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Influencing and motivating many great poetesses, such as Emily Dickinson and much later, Virginia Woolf, she captured the attention of many English, as well as American readers, despite being plagued by diseases, the death of her brother, and the tyrannical attitude of her father . Today, her illness is still a mystery among medical scholars, as there are debates about whether or not the opium that the doctor prescribed to her made the illness much stronger. Perhaps her moving away from the English air to Italy in the pleasant southern atmosphere was an excellent location for her frail lungs, as the age of 55 was quite long time to live for that era of medicine. The tomb of the poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning in the English Cemetery, Florence, Italy

11. Dominated by her possessive father, Elizabeth spent most of her time alone in an upstairs room. She was a frail, sick woman who needed opium and laudanum in an effort to cure her pain . Her only consolation was poetry and at this she was very successful. When Robert Browning read her work he was so impressed he wrote asking to meet her. The two eventually fell in love and decided to secretly elope to Italy in 1846, despite the father's resistance and anger. He ended up disinheriting his daughter.

12. Elizabeth and Robert exchanged hundreds of love-letters over the two years from 1845-46. In them you get a clear idea of just how much they adored one another. Take this excerpt from Elizabeth in 1846, near the time of their elopement : 'For I have none in the world who will hold me to make me live in it, except only you - I have come back for you alone...at your voice...and because you have use for me! I have come back to live a little for you. I love you - I bless God for you - you are too good for me, always I knew .' Elizabeth was close to 40 years of age when she broke free from the control of her father. You can imagine her pent up strength of feeling and sense of relief. She went on to give birth to a son and was happily married for sixteen years, until her death in 1861.

13. How Do I Love Thee? is her most well known sonnet. It has a female narrator which was highly unusual for the time. This Petrarchan sonnet has fourteen lines, the first eight being the octet and the final six the sestet. At the end of the octet comes what is known as the turn, more or less a subtle change in the relationship between the two parts.

14. The Petrarchan Sonnet The Petrarchan, also known as Italian, sonnet displays in an octave of eight lines and a sestet of six lines. The octave features two quatrains (four lines), and the sestet contains two tercets (three lines). The traditional rime scheme of the Petrarchan sonnet is ABBAABBA in the octave and CDCDCD in the sestet. Sometimes poets will vary the sestet rime scheme from CDCDCD to CDECDE. Barrett Browning never veered from the rime scheme ABBAABBACDCDCD, which is a remarkable restriction imposed on herself for the duration of 44 sonnets.

15. In this sonnet the octet is basically a list set in the present that reflects a very deep love; the sestet looks back in time and then forward to a transcendent love, which helps put the whole work into perspective. The rhyme scheme is traditional - abbaabbacdcdcd - and the end rhymes are mostly full except for: ways/Grace and use/loose/choose. The full rhymes bring closure and help bind the lines together. Iambic pentameter is dominant, that is, there are ten beats and five feet/stresses/beats to most lines.

16. Line By Line Analysis: Lines 1-4 This sonnet helped kick-start many more on the theme of modern (Victorian) love, from a woman's perspective. Note the emphasis is on the repetition and reinforcement of the speaker's love for someone; there is no mention of a specific name or gender, giving the sonnet a universal appeal. The first line is unusual because it is a question asked in an almost conversational manner - the poet has challenged herself to compile reasons for her love, to define her intense feelings, the ways in which her love can be expressed. There then follows a repetitive variation on a theme of love. To me this conjures up an image of a woman counting on her fingers, then compiling a list, which would be a very modern, 21st century thing for a female to do. This poem comes from another era however, a time when most women were expected to stay at home looking after all things domestic, not writing poems about love.

17. Line By Line Analysis: Lines 1-4 The second,third and fourth lines suggest that her love is all encompassing, stretching to the limits, even when she feels that her existence - Being - and God's divine help - Grace - might end, it's the love she has for her husband Robert that will sustain. Note the contrast between the attempt to measure her love with rational language - depth, breadth, height - and the use of the words Soul, Being and Grace, which imply something intangible and spiritual. Her love goes beyond natural life and man-made theology. These are weighty concepts - the reader is made aware that this is no ordinary love early on in the sonnet. The clause, lines 2-4, contains enjambment, a continuation of theme from one line to the next. Is she suggesting that the simple notion of love for a person can soon flow into something quite profound, yet out of reach of everyday language and speech?

18. Line By Line Analysis: Lines 5-8 The speaker, the poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning continues with her passionate need to differentiate the many ways her love for her husband manifests. In line five she clearly tells the reader that, be it day or night, her love fills those quiet moments, those daily silences that occur between two people living together. Her love is unconditional and therefore free; it is a force for good, consciously given because it feels like the right thing to do. She doesn't want any thanks for this freely given love; it is a humble kind of love, untainted by the ego.

19. Line By Line Analysis: Lines 9-14 The sestet starts at line nine. The speaker now looks to the past and compares her new found passions with those of the old griefs . Elizabeth Barrett Browning had plenty of negativity in her adult life - she was mostly ill and lived like a recluse, seeing only old family friends and family. Her father in particular oppressed her and wouldn't allow her to marry. There were no romantic relationships in her life by all accounts. She must have been driven to the point of willing herself dead. Little wonder that when Robert Browning came along she was given a new lease of life. In contrast her childhood had been a happy one and it's this she refers to in the second half of line ten. A child's faith is pure and innocent and sees fresh opportunity in everything. Turning to religious feelings in line eleven, the speaker refers to a lost love she once had for the saints - perhaps those of the christian church, of conventional religion. Or could she be looking back at the saintly people in her life, those she held in great regard and loved ?

20. Line By Line Analysis: Lines 9-14 She suggests that this love has now returned and will be given to her husband. In fact so stirred up is she with these innermost feelings she goes on to say in line twelve, with just a dash to separate - this returned love is her very breath. Not only that, but the good and the bad times she's had, is having, will have - this is what the love she has is like. It is all enveloping. And , in the final line, if God grants it, she'll carry on loving her husband even more after she dies. So her love will go on and on, beyond the grave, gaining strength, transcendant .

21. Sonnet 43 (How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.) Glossary griefs Troubles and disappointments; distress over affliction or loss . praise The act of expressing approval or admiration . breadth An extent or piece of something of definite or full width. In the poem, the term is used metaphorically to describe the extent of the speaker's love . strive To exert oneself vigorously; to try hard. turn To direct oneself away from a particular direction; to resist or avoid. right In accordance with what is good, proper, or just; righteousness. faith Confidence or trust in a person or thing.

22. Text of the Poem Annotations How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.  thee: the poet's husband, Robert Browning I love thee to the depth and breadth and height  depth, breadth: internal rhyme My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight when . . . Grace: when my soul feels its way into the spiritual realm For the ends of Being and ideal Grace. (out of sight) to find the goal of being alive and living uprightly I love thee to the level of everyday's I love you enough to meet all of your simple needs during the  Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light. day (sun) and even during the night (candle-light) I love thee freely, as men strive for Right; freely: willingly—and just as intensely as men who fight for freedom  I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise. purely: genuinely, without desire for praise I love thee with the passion put to use with an intensity equal to that experienced during suffering or In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith. mourning; I love you with the blind faith of a child I love thee with a love I seemed to lose with . . . saints: with a childlike fervor for saints and holiness that I  With my lost saints!—I love thee with the breath, seemed to lose when I grew older. breath: echoes breadth, Line 2 Smiles, tears, of all my life!—and, if God choose, Smiles . . . life: perhaps too sentimental I shall but love thee better after death. their love is eternal, never ending

23. Excercise 1. Identify the type of sonnet it is categorized. 2. Cite at least three figures of speech and evidences of each type of figure of speech. 3. Describe the metrical structure of the poem. 4. Explicate your interpretation of the following lines in the poem:

24. End of Presentation