For example, “purely” and “praise” in line eight. here, she compares the amount that she loves her partner to the strength with which men “strive” for what is right, or just.Īlliteration is an effective device that’s used to increase the overall rhythm and rhyme of a piece of poetry. There is a great example of a simile in this line: “I love thee freely, as men strive for right”.

A good example comes from these lines “I love thee to the level of every day’s / Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light”. These are things that can be seen, touched, heard, or smelt in one’s mind. It can be seen through the poet’s ability to create images that appeal to or activate the reader’s sense. The first of these is one of the most impactful literary devices that a poet can use. These include but are not limited to imagery, simile, and alliteration. In ‘Sonnet 43,’ Browning makes use of several literary devices. The first of these is unstressed and the second is stressed. this means that each line contains five sets of two beats. (The other is the Shakespearean sonnet which rhymes ABABCDCDEFEFGG).The poem also makes use of the usual metrical pattern associated with standard sonnet forms, that is, iambic pentameter. This is the traditional pattern of a Petrarchan sonnet, one of the two major sonnet forms. ‘Sonnet 43’ is classified as a sonnet because it contains fourteen lines of poetry and has a fixed rhyme scheme of abba abba cdcdcd. It becomes clear at the end that her love is a spiritual one as much as it is a romantic one. She hopes that God will allow her to love her partner even in death. As the poem progresses the language becomes more figurative with the poet making various nature-based comparisons in order to depict her love accurately and movingly.ĭeath comes into the poem at the end as the speaker talks about the length and durability of their relationship. She addresses her listener, likely her husband Robert Browning, and tells him that there are many reasons why she loves him and that she’s going to list them out.

She loves him with all of her beings, and she hopes God will grant her the ability to love him even after she has passed.īrowning engages with themes of love/devotion and relationships in ‘Sonnet 43’. From the first lines, it’s clear that this is going to be a love poem. She tells her lover just how deeply her love goes, and she also tells him how she loves him. In the poem, the speaker is proclaiming her unending passion for her beloved. It is easily one of the most famous and recognizable poems in the English language. Sonnet 43′ by Elizabeth Barrett Browning describes the love that one speaker has for her husband.

Eb browning sonnets from the portuguese