Sonnets from the Portugue
Bay 2017105063
Before analyzing the sonnets, I’d like to share with you some background knowledge about Elizabeth Barrett Browning and her husband, which can help you to understand the sonnets better.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning，a famous and influential poet, has a tortuous and legendary life path乔埃. she became ill at 15years old，suffering inten head and spinal pain for the rest of her life．She was struck with illness at 31 years old again, with symptoms today suggesting tuberculous ulceration of the lungs. Soon after, her brother Samuel died of a fever and her favorite brother Edward was drowned in a sailing accident. She developed an almost morbid terror of meeting anyone apart from a small circle of intimates. However, she was well known in literary circles. Her talent drew attention to another famous poet— Robert Browning. When Robert expresd his love，she was full of suspect，hesitation and struggle，becau she clearly knew there was a huge gap between them．She was w
eak and disabled，but Robert was healthy, energetic and enthusiastic．In her mind, Robert was so good that she didn’t derve Robert. Therefore, she was very inferior at the beginning. After a long hesitation, she finally decided to love bravely becau of her pure and passionate desire for love and got a happy ending. 什么是风险She recorded her thoughts of the love cour with Robert in Sonnets from the Portugue, from the hesitation at the very beginning to the prai of love in the end.
After knowing the background, I don’t think Mrs. Browning wants her readers to identify her as the speaker. Firstly, the emotions in the sonnets are so strong, personal and private, recording the whole process from her initial hesitation to her final decision to love bravely. For example, sonnet 28 describes the emotions when she reads the letters from Robert. In sonnet 28, when Robert says he wants to come and touch her五彩文鸟 hand, she weeps for it; when Robert says he loves her, she “sank and quailed, as if God’s future thundered on my past”. To some degree, it is more like her love diary than literary works. The repeated u of the first person doesn’t mean Mrs. Browning wants her readers to identify her as the speaker, it is more reasonable that she has never thought to publish th
e sonnets. It is said that Mrs. Browning begins to write the sonnets after Robert Browning’s courtship but keeps them in a notebook for many years. S事宜愿为he even does not show them to her husband until the third year of their marriage. In fact, the reason that the sonnets can be published is Robert’s insistence. After read the sonnets, Robert was so impresd with their beauty that he insists on their appearing in her forthcoming new edition of Poems. Secondly, from the title, Sonnets from the Portugue, I think this suggests that Mrs. Browning expects to protect the privacy of her love and published种鲜花 the sonnets as if they were translations of foreign sonnets．It is said that in order to make it appear that the sonnets have no biographical significance, the Brownings lect the ambiguous title Sonnets from the Portugue, as if they are translations.
After reading the sonnets, I think Mrs. Browning is a master of metaphor and she truly us some symbols especially effective． The vivid images bring readers enough poetic space of imagination. In the sonnets, she mainly us two images to symbolize death and love and shows us how love conquered death. For example, in sonnet 28, she us“all dead” “mute” and “white” to describe her paper. The adjectives imply her negat
ive attitude towards life. However, with Robert’s words, the papers become “ alive and quivering”. Robert’s love give Mrs. Browning’s courage to live. In sonnet 37, Mrs. Browning us sand to describe Robert, becau sand was fit to shift and break. That showed she is very inferior and not confident about their relationship. Then she says “As if a shipwrecked Pagan, safe in port; His guardian a-god to commemorate; Should t a sculptured porpoi, gills a-snort; And vibrant tail, within the temple-gate.” Mrs. Browning compares herlf as a shipwrecked pagan, saving by her guardian a-god——Robert. “Pagan” suggests Mrs. Browning didn’t believed love in the past, but when Robert comes, she begins to believe love and gets a chance of new life. The images are cloly related to her low lf-esteem and show us how love conquers death. There are still a lot of images to symbolize her desire for love，which reprenting huge contrast with her inferiority，generating the beauty of images．For example, in sonnet 29, she compares Robert to “wild排球教学 vines” and “palm-tree”; in sonnet 26, she us “river-water” to describe her love with Robert. All of the imagines are very energetic and lively, and vividly illustrate the vitality of love. The imagines not only can show her desir
e for love, but also her optimistic attitude to life, giving the readers of the impression of life，the vigor and passion of life. As far as the images concerned，the poetess employed creative images in her sonnets，which is full of imagination and creation．All the images directly reprent the theme of whole sonnets——death and love．The images enrich the contents of the sonnets and depict a vivid picture in a poetic language．
I think the “strange, heavy crown” is an apt metaphor, which is from the prai of his wife. When Sonnets from the Portugue are published, it gets a great success. Mrs. Browning’s reputation rests largely upon the sonnets, which constituting one of the best-known ries of English love poems. All of people know the sonnets are written to Robert. In her sonnets, Robert is described as a perfect man who wins a talented woman’s heart totally. For example, in the sonnet 29，the poetess us the metaphor of “wild山西特色美食 vines” and “palm-tree” 为伊憔悴to express her love and thoughts，which is full of vitality．“I think of thee! my thoughts do twine and bud about thee，as wild vines，about a tree．"Then she emphasizes that she doesn’t want to affect the growing up of the“tree”．
She hopes that Robert would grow up to be strong tree．She even encourages him to “drop the bands of greenery heavily down”， meaning that she totally centeres on him．Therefore, it is not strange that Robert wears a “strange, heavy crown” after Sonnets from the Portugue are published.
In conclusion, Mrs. Browning is a famous poetess in the history of Victorian poetry. Her masterpiece，The Portugue Sonnets，has been widely circulated from generation to generation. It is ingenious，beautiful and appealing. Her creative and new metaphors make readers feel fresh and soul. The bursting of their imagination wandered around the lines of the sonnets．The metaphors were always unexpected and unimaginable．It’s definitely a feast of communication with the readers．Some of her sonnets are even comparable to Shakespeare, making people believe love and encourage people to love bravely.
