Elizabeth Barrett Browning ~ Sonnets from the Portuguese

Dear Love'rs,

 

Elizabeth Barrett Browning was one of the most prominent poets from the Victorian Era.  Some of her most acclaimed work was included in the collection of forty~four love sonnets, named Sonnets from the Portuguese.  This collection of poems was secretly written throughout her courtship with Robert Browning (a fellow Victorian poet), leading up to their marriage in 1846.  She initially didn’t want to publish the poems for she thought they were too personal.  However, with the encouragement from her husband she published them under a title that would disguise them as being translations of foreign poems.  They settled on Portuguese because that was Robert’s nickname for her (“my little Portuguese”).  

I found it an awe~inspiring irony that as I was searching for Historic Love Letters I fell upon some of the greatest; written by a woman with whom I now share most of her name.  I will be sharing the collection throughout my blog, but let’s start with Number 43, as it holds one of the most well~known opening lines of the English language…

Number 43

    How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

    I love thee to the depth and breadth and height

    My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight

    For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.

    I love thee to the level of everyday's

    Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight.

    I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;

    I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.

    I love thee with the passion put to use

    In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.

    I love thee with a love I seemed to lose

    With my lost saints,—I love thee with the breath,

    Smiles, tears, of all my life!—and, if God choose,

    I shall but love thee better after death.

Love,

Elizabeth

Sources: Wikipedia, picture ~ http://fran.sneeknet.nl/homepage/show/pagina.php?paginaid=216358