Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Sigh. The sappiness of the story of Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning is almost too much to take. Two poets, a forbidden marriage, their long-lasting and supportive love for one another... The Victorian age is known for its valuing of sincerity, kindness, love, and beauty, and here I am in the age of irony and sarcasm. And I feel that I can relate strongly to both. Nevertheless, I am a child of my environment, and upon first reading Elizabeth's "Sonnets From the Portuguese - V", I was initially overcome by a sense of... nausea! "But how can this be?!", my romantic side demanded. "Look at this poem, with its talk about souls, and angels, and pure spirits - how can they take themselves so seriously?", retaliated my sense of irony. (haha - so here's your look into my psyche.) And thus, I stand conflicted. For your reading curiosity, the poem in question:
Sonnets From the Portuguese - V
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 curving point,--what bitter wrong Can the earth do 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, Belovèd--where the unfit Contrarious moods of men recoil away And isolate pure spirits, and permit A place to stand and love in for a day, With darkness and the death-hour rounding it.
~ E.B.B.
Clearly a skillfully written Italian sonnet (apparently the hard kind), with the most sincere possible description of someone's love. Thankfully, I was able to step past my feelings of it as cliché (since it wasn't cliché when she wrote it!) and appreciate it for the emotion it conveys. Robert Browning, on the other hand, was known for being the more experimental of the two poets. He was into dramatic monologues in which a character would convey what they felt indirectly, often in what they did not say, or what they said in a roundabout way, as if in denial. In fact, I found "My Last Duchess" (which I will link to here, as it's quite long) to be quite charming and amusing! The speaker, a Duke whose last wife has died, shows and describes her portrait to a visitor. He describes her as having had "A heart -- how shall I say? -- too soon made glad, / Too easily impressed; she liked whate'er / She looked on, and her looks went everywhere" (22-24), and complains that "She thanked men, -- good! but thanked / Somehow -- I know not how -- as if she ranked / My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name / With anybody's gift" (31-34). What a guy! He seems so innocent, and as though he doesn't really mean any harm, but I think it's more that he's just naïve. The very things he complains about in her generally add up to her being polite, high-spirited, and lacking an interest in his high status in society. He should be so lucky. Then suddenly when he reveals "Oh sir, she smiled, no doubt, / Whene'er I passed her; but who passed without / Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands; / Then all smiles stopped together" (43-46), this seems to be the point where he realizes that maybe what he's saying isn't going over so well. This is also the point where it may interest the reader to know that the man he's addressing is in fact the father whose daughter he hopes to marry next! But alas, the Duke's true character has already shown through. He seems to have been jealous of his last duchess's undiscriminating friendliness, wishing to have greedily kept all her affection for him alone.
So all in all, Robert's poem comes off as more contemporary in my opinion, for its use of humour and uncertainty, but the sincerity of Elizabeth's love sonnet is surely something that should be admired, almost envied. God, what a pair.
Love (sincerely),
Laura <3
Sonnets From the Portuguese - V
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 curving point,--what bitter wrong Can the earth do 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, Belovèd--where the unfit Contrarious moods of men recoil away And isolate pure spirits, and permit A place to stand and love in for a day, With darkness and the death-hour rounding it.
~ E.B.B.
Clearly a skillfully written Italian sonnet (apparently the hard kind), with the most sincere possible description of someone's love. Thankfully, I was able to step past my feelings of it as cliché (since it wasn't cliché when she wrote it!) and appreciate it for the emotion it conveys. Robert Browning, on the other hand, was known for being the more experimental of the two poets. He was into dramatic monologues in which a character would convey what they felt indirectly, often in what they did not say, or what they said in a roundabout way, as if in denial. In fact, I found "My Last Duchess" (which I will link to here, as it's quite long) to be quite charming and amusing! The speaker, a Duke whose last wife has died, shows and describes her portrait to a visitor. He describes her as having had "A heart -- how shall I say? -- too soon made glad, / Too easily impressed; she liked whate'er / She looked on, and her looks went everywhere" (22-24), and complains that "She thanked men, -- good! but thanked / Somehow -- I know not how -- as if she ranked / My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name / With anybody's gift" (31-34). What a guy! He seems so innocent, and as though he doesn't really mean any harm, but I think it's more that he's just naïve. The very things he complains about in her generally add up to her being polite, high-spirited, and lacking an interest in his high status in society. He should be so lucky. Then suddenly when he reveals "Oh sir, she smiled, no doubt, / Whene'er I passed her; but who passed without / Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands; / Then all smiles stopped together" (43-46), this seems to be the point where he realizes that maybe what he's saying isn't going over so well. This is also the point where it may interest the reader to know that the man he's addressing is in fact the father whose daughter he hopes to marry next! But alas, the Duke's true character has already shown through. He seems to have been jealous of his last duchess's undiscriminating friendliness, wishing to have greedily kept all her affection for him alone.
So all in all, Robert's poem comes off as more contemporary in my opinion, for its use of humour and uncertainty, but the sincerity of Elizabeth's love sonnet is surely something that should be admired, almost envied. God, what a pair.
Love (sincerely),
Laura <3