Sonnet 43 by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

She wrote it for her husband Robert Browning
English poet from the Victorian period
She suffered from a lot of pain in her childhood and adulthood, so took Laudanum (an addictive drug) as a pain killer
Her Dad disinherited her after she married Robert as he wanted her to take care of him
She married Browning and moved to Italy, so she chose Browning over her family
She published this poem under her real name, which was unusual for a woman of that time as it may not have been as well respected
There is an anaphora of 'I love thee' on lines 7,8 and 9, but it is repeated throughout the whole poem . This underscores how much she loves Browning
There's a semantic field of spiritual thoughts such as 'grace','faith','God' and 'purely'. This suggests that there love is pure and that it is natural
The use of a triple 'depth and breath and height' underscores her love for him. By using and instead of a comma it makes her love for him seem larger
The use of direct address makes it seem personal to Browning, making the poem seem more romantic as it is based on actual feelings
Petrarchan sonnet, so it has a rhyme scheme of abba abba cdcdcd
The iambic pentameter mirrors that of a heart beat, adding to the idea of this being a love poem

Resource summary

	Created by Maddy Christopher over 3 years ago