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Sonnets from the Portuguese and Other Poems
This beautiful book of perennially popular love poems contains all 44 poems from the Sonnets from the Portuguese series plus six additional love poems by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Illustrated in black and white. 64 pp.
Paperback, 64 pages
Published
February 5th 1992
by Dover Publications
(first published 1850)
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Marts (Thinker)
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I've got this in audio and thoroughly enjoyed listening. Its beautiful poetry, that 'stream of conscientiousness' flows within Browning's text.
Quote: "How do I love thee, let me count the ways, I love thee to the depth, breadth, and height, my soul can reach...." (Sonnet 43)
Quote: "How do I love thee, let me count the ways, I love thee to the depth, breadth, and height, my soul can reach...." (Sonnet 43)
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XXIII
Is it indeed so? If I lay here dead,
Wouldst thou miss any life in losing mine?
And would the sun for thee more coldly shine
Because of grave-dumps falling round my head?
I marveled, my Belovèd, when I read
Thy thought so in the letter. I am thine--
But...so much to thee? Can I pour thy wine
While my hands tremble? Then my soul, instead
Of dreams of death, resumes life's lower range.
Then, love me, Love! Look on me--breathe on me!
...more
Is it indeed so? If I lay here dead,
Wouldst thou miss any life in losing mine?
And would the sun for thee more coldly shine
Because of grave-dumps falling round my head?
I marveled, my Belovèd, when I read
Thy thought so in the letter. I am thine--
But...so much to thee? Can I pour thy wine
While my hands tremble? Then my soul, instead
Of dreams of death, resumes life's lower range.
Then, love me, Love! Look on me--breathe on me!
...more
There are many lovely, rich pieces of verse throughout Sonnets from the Portuguese. They capture the paradoxical and alternating uncertainty and passion of a new love. I also enjoyed the poems extracted from some of EBB's other works, which have more varied themes and use a bit less of the stylisticarchaic language than the 44 sonnets.
Particular favourites were 'The Cry of the Children', XXIX 'I think of thee! -My thoughts do twine and bud', VI 'Go from me. Yet I feel that I shall s...more
Particular favourites were 'The Cry of the Children', XXIX 'I think of thee! -My thoughts do twine and bud', VI 'Go from me. Yet I feel that I shall s...more
Although on a personal level I can't really get in tune with the self-abasing tone of these verses and still less their idealization of love as a spiritual timeless etherean thing, there are quite a few really good passages here, I can see that even on first reading. I liked both the metaphor and the sentiments of XXIX ("I think of thee!---my thoughts do twine and bud..."), and XXXVIII ("First time he kissed me, he only but kissed...") is elegant in structure, use of imagery,...more
Christ. I don't even know what to say, here.
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 everyday'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.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In m...more
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 everyday'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.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In m...more
This is one of the 52 books that feature in my novel Crossing Paths: the BookCrossing novel and I chose it before I had actually read the poems (by reputation alone). I'm so glad I did make this the centrepiece of the lovers' conversations through BookCrossing. There are some wonderful poems, especially sonnets VII, XVII and XXII.
http://budurl.com/CPSaleAmazon
Here is the journal entry from the novel for this book:
"My Darling, this book is for you. I have had it for some ti...more
http://budurl.com/CPSaleAmazon
Here is the journal entry from the novel for this book:
"My Darling, this book is for you. I have had it for some ti...more
Beautiful poetry...love Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count The Ways...
Robert Browning was so impressed with his wife's love sonnets that he urged her to make them public. He convinced her to share them with the world. To conceil the fact that they were love poems written for him, they came up with the nickname of "my Little Portuguese" which he called her, Sonnets from the Portuguese became the title.
These poems are beaut...more
How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count The Ways...
Robert Browning was so impressed with his wife's love sonnets that he urged her to make them public. He convinced her to share them with the world. To conceil the fact that they were love poems written for him, they came up with the nickname of "my Little Portuguese" which he called her, Sonnets from the Portuguese became the title.
These poems are beaut...more
Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote these forty-four beautiful, somewhat exhausting poems for her husband, fellow Victorian poet Robert Browning. (The title alludes to his nickname for her, "my little Portuguese.") To my modern ears, some of the sonnets sound a bit repetitive and overwrought, particularly the first six or eight, in which the poet enumerates the ways in which she finds herself unworthy to be loved by someone as extraordinary as her husband. But the images used by Barrett B...more
EBB's sonnets are a strange, yet wonderful treat. You can see why feminists fans of her shy away from discussing them and why not so feminist audiences love them. Some of them are not quite as clever as I think EBB is, but among ridiculously well known ones (such as number 43 - 'How do I love thee? Let me count the ways') and really weepy ones, you do get some unexpected gems - for example, sonnet 29 (I think of thee!- my thoughts do twine and bud) which is my favourite poem from the collected. ...more
I had this in my purse so I'd read a poem or two at a time over the course of months, only when caught unexpectedly idling. That was good, because this is not something you'd want to read straight through or with any haste. I was able to watch as the maiden cycled irregularly through infatuations and insecurities and passions. Some allusions were definitely too obscure for me - but I liked this edition and I am satisfied with my appreciation of it. The edition I read is a slim hardcover, 44 ...more
Beautiful, but SO depressing. I can't understand (well, I can, but it's a long, feminist kind of understanding) why people read this and think, "Wow, that's love!" Barrett Browning writes into each sonnet how lucky she is to be loved -- a supposed privilege she doesn't deserve because of her invalid status and advanced age (she was six years older than Robert Browning, to whom the sonnets are written). Her entire self-worth is wrapped up in Robert's approval and that doesn't make me...more
(read: Sonnets only)
Hurrah! I have found poetry that spoke to me, poetry that I understood, poetry that I enjoyed! Loved, in fact. Elizabeth Barrett Browning, you wonderful poet! You have proved that my search for poetry that I can connect with was not futile as many (including myself) suspected it would be!
When my sister Becky got married a couple years ago, she bought Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnets from the Portuguese for her husband, Rami, as a wedding gift. Sonnets ...more
Hurrah! I have found poetry that spoke to me, poetry that I understood, poetry that I enjoyed! Loved, in fact. Elizabeth Barrett Browning, you wonderful poet! You have proved that my search for poetry that I can connect with was not futile as many (including myself) suspected it would be!
When my sister Becky got married a couple years ago, she bought Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnets from the Portuguese for her husband, Rami, as a wedding gift. Sonnets ...more
This is an early example of what now is called a sonnet cycle, as pretty much all of the poems are concerned with her secret love with Robert Browning. The forty-four poems are basically confessional and range in emotions, from despairing to elated to fretful. What I like so much about them (other than the fact that they're all tightly written sonnets) is that they're so indicative of female emotions because they fluctuate to extremes. Also, this collection includes one of the most famous poems ...more
Barrett Browning's sonnets are beautiful and lyrical. The way they trace the course of a romance is touching and fascinating. I'm not sure what else I could add to the previous reviews which already trace the story of their creation. (My personal favourite is VII)
Her following poems are spirited and I always feel that one really gets a sense of the woman who created them. They add to the narrative of the sonnets and reveal different facets of the writer.
Her following poems are spirited and I always feel that one really gets a sense of the woman who created them. They add to the narrative of the sonnets and reveal different facets of the writer.
Oh, what wonderful poetry. I can not say that Sonnets from the Portuguese are my favorite poems in the collection. The other poems I enjoyed much more. I do not like the sonnet. I really try Mr. White but I just can not do it. The a-b-a-b c-d-c-d rhyming just irritates me. An 14 lines is just to many.
The other poems are so musical. A Musical Instrument, "the great God Pan, is a thoughtful poem. Even the gods when creating something as beautiful as a pan pipe must de...more
The other poems are so musical. A Musical Instrument, "the great God Pan, is a thoughtful poem. Even the gods when creating something as beautiful as a pan pipe must de...more
My ex girlfriend, Ashleigh, gave this to me years ago, before she was forced by her family to marry this guy. Long story but she sent this book to me and signed the inside.
Next to Shakespeare, this is the most bittersweet and poetic
poems of love that I have ever read.
It was said that a husband and wife team wrote these so one can only imagine how passionate their marriage was, huh?
Next to Shakespeare, this is the most bittersweet and poetic
poems of love that I have ever read.
It was said that a husband and wife team wrote these so one can only imagine how passionate their marriage was, huh?
Remember how, in the Song of Songs, love is described as "strong as death"? Barrett Browning has a sequence of sonnets that begins with Love, personified as a god, being mistaken for Death. It is out of this world good. Some interesting other stuff as well, including especially her Cry of the Human, the refrain of which is "be pitiful, oh God!"
How do I love it? Let me count the stars.
Um, there are five. Five stars.
How do I love it? Let me count the stars.
Um, there are five. Five stars.
Beautiful, just beautiful. Heartache, delicate mythological allusions and revelations about love and its endless paradoxes make this especially striking (to me at least)in the timeless conflict that love brings out in everyone. Also, I'd really like to be Elizabeth Barret Browning's best friend, anyone have a time machine? Pretty please?
This book was the subject of my first term theme in high school. Many years later I do not enjoy it as much as I did then. I gave it three stars because it is hard to write a sonnet, much less many of them. It is my poetry book of more than fifty pages for the twenty point item.
XLI
I thank all who have loved me in their hearts,
With thanks and love from mine. Deep thanks to all
Who paused a little near the prison wall
To hear my music in its louder parts
Ere they went onward, each one to the mart's
Or Temple's occupation, beyond call...
I thank all who have loved me in their hearts,
With thanks and love from mine. Deep thanks to all
Who paused a little near the prison wall
To hear my music in its louder parts
Ere they went onward, each one to the mart's
Or Temple's occupation, beyond call...
Best when paired with a romantic novel (I chose The Time Traveler's Wife) or read after a bright, sunny day spent with someone you're in love with.
I actually read this on google books, so really I read it in the Harvard library by proxy--very exciting.
On one hand I am disturbed by how much Barrett Browning feels diminished by love and on the other hand I am impressed by how evocative her writing is.
On one hand I am disturbed by how much Barrett Browning feels diminished by love and on the other hand I am impressed by how evocative her writing is.
What can I add to:
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 everyday's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
...more
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 everyday's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
...more
I must say that I was slow to warm up to the poems and don't think I would have liked them as well without having read the Introduction first. Lovely, very personal. You can really see the path of the love affair between EBB and Robert Browning.
I cannot express how lovely I find this collection of poems. Well constructed and beautifully written, it is among my favorite books of all time, probably my favorite collection of poetry. I'm partial to the sonnets as I find them traditionally romantic. I guess the conservative poet in me likes the meter and rhyme. When I first read this collection I was a third-year at UVA and was in major seduction with Sylvia Plath and Virginia Woolf and glossed by this treasure. Years later, I see what I co...more
A set of poems dedicated to her husband, Sonnets from the Portuguese traces the Brownings’ relationship through their courtship. From sonnet to sonnet, Elizabeth Barrett Browning confronts her loneliness, her sense of unworthiness, her fears of love’s vanishing, and slowly unfolds faith, gratitude, and the depth, strength, and fierceness of her love. Although I’m not much of a poetry reader, I found myself caught up in the language and rhythms and subject of this slim little volume. I’m certain...more
Lovely. But so very, very Victorian...
Your Q: And what are the pictures in this edition all about?
My A: I really couldn't say.
Your Q: And what are the pictures in this edition all about?
My A: I really couldn't say.
XXII
When our two souls stand up erect and strong,
Face to face, silent, drawing nigh and nigher,
Until the lengthening wings break into fire
At either curvëd point,—what bitter wrong
Can the earth do to us, that we should not long
Be here contented? Think! In mounting higher,
The angels would press on us and aspire
To drop some golden orb of perfect song
Into our deep, dear silence. Let us stay
Rather on earth, Belovëd,—where the unfit
C...more
When our two souls stand up erect and strong,
Face to face, silent, drawing nigh and nigher,
Until the lengthening wings break into fire
At either curvëd point,—what bitter wrong
Can the earth do to us, that we should not long
Be here contented? Think! In mounting higher,
The angels would press on us and aspire
To drop some golden orb of perfect song
Into our deep, dear silence. Let us stay
Rather on earth, Belovëd,—where the unfit
C...more
All these sonnets are beautiful & many are very profound as well. Contridictory to the common belief that the subject of each sonnet is romantic love, these poems have a fairly wide array of messages and tones. Overall, brilliant.
What I do and what I dream include thee... as the wine must taste of its own grapes.
She knew love.
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Elizabeth Barrett Browning was one of the most respected poets of the Victorian era.
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“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 candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for right.
I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.
I love thee with the 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.”
—
199 people liked it
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 candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for right.
I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.
I love thee with the 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.”
“Quick-loving hearts ... may quickly loathe.”
—
17 people liked it
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