#SONNET 43 ELIZABETH BARRET BROWNING FULL#

Needless to say, it culminated in a wedding вЂ“ in secret, naturally вЂ“ an elopement, and the birth of their only child, Robert вЂњPenвЂќ Browning.

#SONNET 43 ELIZABETH BARRET BROWNING FULL#

The full story, including her fatherвЂ™s objections, ElizabethвЂ™s initial reluctance to be more than friends, her success as an emerging writer, their age difference (he was six years younger), her frequent illness, his failure as a London playwright, played out over the next three years.

I shall but love thee better after my death. Smiles, tears, of all my life! вЂ“ and, if God choose, With my lost Saints, вЂ“ I love thee with the breath, I love thee with the love I seemed to lose I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise I love thee freely, as men strive for Right, вЂ“ Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight вЂ“ My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight I love thee to the depth & breadth & height In January 1845 he wrote a letter to Barrett saying that, вЂњI love your verses with all my heart.вЂќ IвЂ™m not sure if Robert knew that Elizabeth had an engraving of him on her writing desk! That was the start of a frequent correspondence which soon developed into something more, and inspired this sonnet: How do I love thee? Let me count the ways! вЂ“ On reading Lady GeraldineвЂ™s Courtship, a story of how a dashing young poet of limited means but considerable ardour seduced the daughter of an Earl, he must have been quite taken to see one of his own works, Bells and Pomegranates, name-checked (alongside Tennyson, Wordsworth, Petrarch and other luminaries). Two volumes of her poetry had caught the publicвЂ™s attention, and thus found their way onto RobertвЂ™s to-read list.

The courtship of Elizabeth Browning (then Barrett) by her future husband Robert Browning could have come, appropriately enough, straight from the pages of a nineteenth century romantic novel. вЂњInspired by the flash of true geniusвЂ¦вЂќ Virginia Woolf

Sonnet 43 elizabeth barret browning