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My sight from seeing thee,-that if I had died, Thee speaking, and me listening! and replied Have heard this word thou hast said,-Himself, beside The silver answer rang, “Not Death, but Love.”

“Guess now who holds thee!”-“Death,” I said, But, there, Straightway I was ’ware,īehind me, and drew me backward by the hair Īnd a voice said in mastery, while I strove,.

Those of my own life, who by turns had flungĪ shadow across me. The sweet, sad years, the melancholy years, I saw, in gradual vision through my tears, To bear a gift for mortals, old or young:Īnd, as I mused it in his antique tongue, Of the sweet years, the dear and wished-for years, Sonnets from the Portuguese by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Analysis of Sonnet 43, “How do I love thee?”.

Jstor: The Female Poet and the Embarrassed Reader.

She had a wide following among cultured readers in England and in the United States.” “Among all female poets of the English-speaking world in the 19th century, none was held in higher critical esteem or was more admired for the independence and courage of her views than Elizabeth Barrett Browning.ĭuring the years of her marriage to Robert Browning, her literary reputation far surpassed that of her poet-husband when visitors came to their home in Florence, she was invariably the greater attraction. The Literary Love Story of Elizabeth Barrett and Robert BrowningĪccording to her biography on Poetry Foundation: Sonnets from the Portuguese is in the public domain. The title alludes to one of his pet names for her, when he called her ‘my Portuguese.’ The couple had one of the most romantic of love stories between two major literary figures. It contained what is now considered one of her masterpieces, Sonnets from the Portuguese, the collection of forty-four love poems she wrote in secret to her husband, Robert Browning, presented here. In 1850, her collection, Poems, was published in a new and expanded edition. A Drama of Exile: and Other Poems (1845) cemented her reputation. Her first collection, Poems (1844) was an immediate success in Europe and the U.S.

Her individual poems were becoming known and respected in these circles. Following is the full text of what is arguably her best-known work, Sonnets from the Portuguese, a fragment of one of her major collections, Poems (1844/1850).īorn in County Durham, England, Elizabeth Barrett grew up in an atmosphere of privilege and culture, which allowed her to develop a precocious talent in poetry.Īfter having a collections of her poetry published while still in her teens, Elizabeth was introduced to British literary society in the 1830s. Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806 – 1861) was immensely accomplished and respected in her own lifetime, no small accomplishment for a female poet.