To be a successful women writer was quite high in Elizabeth Browning's day. Quite surprisingly, she was more famous then her husband Robert Browning. This was quite impressive to see that the women in the family could possess a higher status than the male. Unfortunately, Elizabeth was diagnosed with tuberculosis. She lived in solitude in her room, and "her spirits sustained only by her poetry"(528).
Sonnets from the Portuguese was written with intimacy and affectionate feelings towards her husband Robert. It is deep and you can see it as being very personal and intimate 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" (532).
At first it seems as if she doesn't want to fall for him because she thinks it all is happening so fast, "the first time that the sun rose on thine oath to love me, I looked forward to the moon to slacken all those bonds which seemed too soon and quickly tied to make a lasting troth" (531). I found it ironic they had to have a secret love and she wanted to keep her authorship secret when first publishing it.
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3 comments:
Linh,
OK general comments on Barret Browning and her sonnets and her relationship with Browning. Not much depth or specificity in your analysis, though.
You said that you found it ironic that E. Browning kept both her love and poetry a secret, how so?
I was kind of confused as well how you found it ironic with her love and poetry a secret. what do you mean by that. it was quite funny how she had to keep her relationship a secret from her own father because she was 40 years old!!! wow. her father was strict wasn't he.
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