Elizabeth Barrett Browning was born on March 6th, in 1806. She was the eldest daughter of Edward and Mary Moulton-Barrett. She was a fairly talented child, reading rapidly and writing odes at the age of nine. At 15, Elizabeth contracted some sort of disease. Elizabeth was much slower to recover for some reason, and, it was around then that she started talking about her constant illness. However, she never let anything stop her from reading and writing.
Later in her life, she married Robert Browning and six months after the wedding, Robert’s mother died and in order to cheer Robert up, Elizabeth presented him with the "Sonnets from the Portuguese" that she had written during their engagement.
Wilfred Scawen Blunt wrote the other sonnet I am going to evaluate. This Shakespearian type sonnet is called ‘Farewell to Juliet.’ Wilfrid Scawen Blunt was born in 1840 and died in 1922. He was an English poet and a political writer. His poetry is noted for its emotional strength, which includes The Love Sonnets of Proteus, written in 1880 and The Wind and the Whirlwind, written in 1883.
As a result of the sonnet containing only fourteen lines, the sonneteer has to express all of their emotions in a concise manner. This way, the poet states true, factual feelings.
‘All white and fresh and virginally plain.’
Wilfrid Blunt expresses his emotions in a very factual way, mainly emphasising the visual aspect of his love. This quote symbolises his love in many ways. ‘White,’ fresh’ and ‘virginally plain’ symbolise purity, clarity and some relevance to innocence. Wilfred Blunt’s words are thought out and uses of imagery are often used in his sonnets.
In sonnets, imagery is used extremely often. This is an excellent device of writing because it helps the reader understand what the sonneteer is trying to explain. For example, if someone reading the sonnet has never experienced love and the sonneteer explains the feeling of a love with imagery, it helps the reader understand. This is because the reader, will, without doubt relate to the imagery used. Sometime adjectives add to the feeling.
‘It was the reddest rose in all the world.’
By the sonneteer expressing his love in that way, it is perfect for those who have never experienced love. This is because they can now relate to the rose and get a feel for what love feels like. For someone who has never experienced love still knows and can identify what a rose is, therefore can understand what the sonneteer is stating.
Factual and true feelings in a sonnet express how it is a perfect poetic form to express love, because the sonneteer has to structure their feelings and emotions into such a tight, compact structure of writing, therefore the words are meaningful and full of strong emotion. Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s love is expressed in the sonnet ‘How Do I Love Thee?’ with extremely strong feelings. This is shown by the way she counts and quantifies her love:
‘Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height,’
This furthermore shows that she loves him with all her heart, and it proves how much she loves him by having to count the ways in which she does. Her love felt for him is tri-dimensional; this meaning in three ways that she loves him, ‘to the depth, breadth and height.’ Elizabeth expresses her love with a strong sense of passion in this particular sonnet. The strength of the writing shows so much power towards the feel for love. Even though a sonnet is written as fourteen lines, the strength used in her writing makes the reader feel that the words are almost spilling over the limit of a sonnet. The intensity of the sonnet seems so passionate and meaningful that the reader thinks there are more words than there actually are. Elizabeth uses extremes of emotions to express her feelings.
‘I love thee to the level of every day’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight.’
Uses of imagery are used in this quote, by the ‘sun and candlelight’ representing night and day. This expresses that her love is everlasting.
This counteracts with the sonnet ‘Farewell to Juliet’ by Wilfred Blunt. He expresses his love in a more apparent and visual way, compared to Elizabeth Barrett Browning. All his words are put down to pure beauty and the elegance for his lover:
‘There a rose lay curled.’
Once again, this is an example of imagery. It shows that Blunt thought that Juliet was the most perfect lady in the whole world. By comparing his abstract love to a tangible item, in this case, a rose, the reader is able to understand the passion he held for his love. The rose in this situation represents love, romance and the colour of the rose, which is most probably red. Red might indicate blood and indeed symbolise death. This is appropriate because the sonnet explains Blunt leaving Juliet.
Sonneteers use repetition to enforce their feelings and opinions. By repeating a phrase or a certain word their ideas are enforced upon the reader. Repetition is used often in sonnets, and it has a great impact on the reader, because they keep reading the same word, or phrase a few times and if the right words are repeated then the emotion felt by the sonneteer is also experienced by the reader. In How Do I Love Thee?’ the words, ‘I love thee’ are repeated five times and the emotion felt by the reader is a strong sense of passion and a true feeling for love. When phrases like that are recurrent, there is a large impact on the reader. This, once again, is why the sonnet is the best poetic form to express love. The fixed, dense structure of the sonnet helps the fact of repetition be such a helpful factor of writing. The tight formation of the poem helps the reader notice the repeated words as there are only fourteen lines provided.
In conclusion, the sonnet is the perfect poetic form to express love. This is because of its tight, compact structure, its repetition and its rhythm. The imagery used in sonnets is also an exceptional structure of writing and it makes the sonnet extremely romantic by comparing love to a tangible item. This is because most substantial objects symbolise what the sonneteer is trying to express. Wilfred Blunt mainly writes examples of imagery and Elizabeth Barrett Browning deeply expresses her passion. Throughout the variety of love sonnets, the tight, compact structure will always remain there. This helps the sonneteer craft their writing into fourteen lines making the wording extremely expressive and significant. Repetition enforces on the words repeated making the reader focus on either the word or the phrase. Overall, the sonnet is the most perfect poetic form to express love.
