The atmospheres of Sonnet 43 and Sonnet 29 allude to Browning and Millays outlooks on their respective marriages.

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Love’s many contradicting forms are portrayed in two dramatically different sonnets, Sonnet 43 and Sonnet 29.   Though both poems are written in Petrarchan sonnet form, Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Edna St. Vincent Millay chronicle two contrasting marriages and their distinct attitudes towards love. Millay’s pessimistic Sonnet 29 depicts unrequited love as a passive force causing her disillusionment. On the other hand, Sonnet 43 attempts to quantify Browning’s endless and divine love for her spouse, Robert Browning. Through their respective poems, the writers convey outpours of emotion and how their personal experiences with love have changed both their lives. Common themes explored in the two poems consist of marriage, love and loyalty. Elements of the poems that enable this include their atmospheres, diction, tones and various poetic techniques.

The atmospheres of Sonnet 43 and Sonnet 29 allude to Browning and Millay’s outlooks on their respective marriages. Sonnet 29 exposes a woman’s grief for her deteriorating marriage and her husband, who “no longer looks with love on me (the poet)”. Readers are overwhelmed by an anger-filled, threatening opening atmosphere in which the poet imposes on them to “pity me not” for the “light of day [that]…no longer walks the sky”. Millay’s despair is seen through the metaphor of her happiness and spirit as a diminished “light”, repressed by the turmoil of her relationship.  A sense of helpless sympathy is thus evoked by the melancholic, oppressive imagery and bitterly ironic diction.

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In contrast to Sonnet 29, Elizabeth Barrett Browning begins with a grand portrayal of her love using numerous hyperboles, thus creating a majestic atmosphere. The poet loves her husband “to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach…for the ends of Being and ideal Grace”. Enjambment is employed to represent the ceaseless flow of love in Browning’s marriage. However, the sonnet concludes with a darkly ambiguous atmosphere that contrasts greatly to its optimistic introduction. The poet confesses that she shall “but love thee (Robert Browning) better after death”. In addition to its implications of Browning’s eternal love, this ...

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