English Poetry II II Elizabeth Barrett Browning 6

English Poetry II (영국 시 II)

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (6 March 1806 – 29 June 1861) was born in Durham, England. Elizabeth was the eldest of 12 children (8 boys and 4 girls). She was educated at home and was a studious, talented child.

At 6, she read novels and at 10 studied Greek. She also wrote poetry. However, Elizabeth could not attend university. In 1826, she published her first collection of poems, An Essay on Mind, with Other Poems. It drew the attention of many scholars and poetry lovers.

At 15, Elizabeth started suffering from an illness, which the medical science was unable to diagnose. This illness made her fragile and weak. She took morphine and became dependent on it for much of her adult life.

In 1838, her family moved to London. Here Elizabeth met poets like William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Alfred Lord Tennyson. In 1838, The Seraphim and Other Poems was published.

Between 1841 -1844 Elizabeth wrote prolifically. Due to her illness, she had no domestic duties, so Elizabeth could devote herself to poetry. She was so popular that she was a candidate for poet laureate in 1850 after Wordsworth’s death.

In 1845, Elizabeth met the young poet Robert Browning and so began one of the most famous courtships in literature. He had a great influence on her writing, as did she on his writing. In 1856, she published the novel Aurora Leigh.

Their relationship was a secret as her father disapproved. In 1846 they married and moved to Italy. Mr. Barrett disinherited Elizabeth. In 1849, she gave birth to a son Robert. She continued to write poetry to critical and popular acclaim.

In 1861, Elizabeth died after becoming physically and mentally weak due to her sister and father’s death. She died in Robert’s arms and apparently her last word was “Beautiful. ” Elizabeth was one of the most well-loved poets of the Victorian age.

Sonnet 43 is from Barrett’s collection Sonnets from the Portuguese, published in 1850. This collection includes 44 love sonnets. The poems record the courtship before her marriage to Robert Browning in 1846. The collection was extremely popular in the poet's lifetime and it remains so today.

Elizabeth was hesitant to publish the poems, because they were personal. However, her husband Robert Browning insisted they were the best sonnets since Shakespeare’s sonnets and urged her to publish them. Therefore, she decided to publish them as translations of foreign sonnets. Robert suggested that she pretend the original language was Portuguese as his nickname for her was "my little Portuguese. "

Sonnet 43, often called “How do I love thee? , ” is the probably the best-known poem of the collection. Indeed, it is one of the most-quoted love poems in English literature. The first line of the poem asks a question and the other 13 lines answer it. The answer involves 7 different aspects of love and an 8 th eternal love in the future.

The poem describes 8 different ways the speaker loves her partner and discusses the different aspects of love. In the octave (the first 8 lines) of the poem she lists the following; 1. She speaks about the spiritual side of her love, which aspires toward God. (L 2 -4) 2. She mentions love’s earthly/material aspect, the love that enriches daily life. (L 5 -6)

3. She mentions the fact that her love is given freely, almost as if it were prompted by the conscience. (L 7) 4. She says that her love is pure and selfless, like the action of a humble man unwilling to accept praise. (L 8)

In the sestet (the final six lines), the poet looks at her love in 3 more ways. 5. She explains that this love makes use of the emotions she once spent on grief or on religious faith. (L 9 -10) 6. She then proceeds to tell us that in loving Browning, she has rediscovered a love like that she once felt for the saints of religion. (L 11 -2)

7. She explains that her love is all-encompassing, involving her entire life, including moments of unhappiness as well as happiness. Her love is as much a part of her as breathing or the very act of living. (L 12 -3) 8. The speaker asserts that, if God allows, this love can transcend death and continue in the next world or heaven.

In most sonnets, there are 8 or 12 lines stating a question, a problem or a possibility. In the final 6 lines, the question is answered or the problem solved. This sonnet is unusual in that the question is stated and the rest of the poem offers various answers to that question. Even the last line, which could provide a resolution, is really only another answer to the original question.

As a complete sequence, Sonnets from the Portuguese describes the development of Elizabeth Barrett’s love for Robert Browning. As the 43 rd poem in a sequence of 44, “How do I love thee? ” describes a fully realized love. Earlier poems often mention that the poet could not dream that such happiness would ever be hers.

However, in this poem she shows her present happiness by explaining how her love incorporates and transcends her past spiritual and emotional experiences. For example, she compares her love as being like her soul’s desire for the divine and for “Grace”. The 7 th and 8 th lines suggest that her love is like the spiritual quests for morality (“Right”) and for humility (“Praise”).

Her love has brought her back to the kind of innocent faith she knew in her childhood, but seemingly had lost. All these descriptions indicate that the kind of love Elizabeth now feels for Robert is akin to the love that enables a human being to love God and to experience God’s love in return.

This poem has almost no descriptions. The only real images is the light in the 6 th line and the reference to “breath, / Smiles, tears” in the 13 th. Barrett-Browning doesn’t use sensuous imagery to describe love and instead uses abstract ideas. For example, love is compared to the soul in search of “the ends of Being” (or the meaning of life) and of “ideal Grace” (the grace of God).

However, even though the poem stresses the spiritual, the poet also makes it clear that the relationship is solidly based on earthly needs. In the real world, day alternates with night (“sun and candlelight”), happiness with unhappiness (“Smiles, tears”). Barrett-Browning does not expect a heaven on Earth, but all she needs is the presence of her loved one during the changes that define life in this world.

Finally, she emphasizes her awareness of the final change: that from life to death. In the final lines, the heavenly and the earthly, the spiritual and the temporal are united. The rhyme words are significant. With the help of God, the lovers will proceed together from a last “breath” into a new life and an even more devoted love “after death. ”

From the Renaissance, sonnets have typically been used by men for the expression of their own emotions. In this sonnet a woman poet expresses her love for a man in her own unmistakably feminine voice. Sonnet 43 focuses on Elizabeth, not on Robert. It is the revelation of a woman’s own heart and soul, fortunately inspired by a man who was worthy of her love and praise.

Robert Browning (7 May 1812 – 12 December 1889) was born in London. His parents were liberals who cared greatly about his education and personal growth. He wrote poetry as a child and at 12 had written a collection of poems. He was influenced by Percy Bysshe Shelley.

However, Browning’s earliest poems were viewed negatively, so instead he wrote plays, however they were also not a success. Browning turned back to poetry and in 1835 published Paracelsus, which achieved popular success.

In 1842 Browning enjoyed further success with Dramatic Lyrics (1842). In 1845, Browning met Elizabeth Barrett, a semiinvalid famous poet. In 1846, they eloped to Italy to get married because their parents did not approve of the relationship. They had one child.

Robert and Elizabeth lived in Italy until Elizabeth’s death in 1861. In 1864, he published Dramatis Personae (1864) which contains most of the poems today considered central to the Browning canon.

Later Browning achieved big literary fame with The Ring and the Book (1868), a historical tragedy. Robert Browning societies were even created during his lifetime because he was so well-regarded.

In the last years of his life Browning travelled extensively and did not re-marry. Browning died at his son's home in Venice on 12 December 1889. He was buried in Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey and his grave now lies next to Alfred, Lord Tennyson.

‘My Last Duchess’ was published in Dramatic Lyrics (1842), and is an excellent example of Browning's use of dramatic monologue. Browning's psychological portrait of a powerful Renaissance aristocrat is presented as though we’re simply ‘eavesdropping’ on a casual conversation.

This poem is based on historical events involving Alfonso, the Duke of Ferrara, who lived in the 16 th century. The Duke is the speaker of the poem and he is entertaining an ambassador who has come to negotiate the Duke’s marriage to the daughter of another powerful family.

In this dramatic monologue, Browning depicts the inner workings of the mind of the speaker, which causes the speaker to reveal his own failings and imperfections. This is a picture of Lucrezia di Cosimo de' Medici. This picture is the inspiration for the poem.

Through the Duke’s words, he tells us that he is entertaining an ambassador. He has come to negotiate the Duke’s marriage to the daughter of another powerful family. He shows the visitor through his palace and stops before a portrait of the late Duchess (his previous wife), apparently a young and lovely girl. The Duke begins reminiscing about the portrait sessions, then about the Duchess herself.

Then he begins to attack her behaviour: he claims she flirted with everyone and did not appreciate his “gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name. ” The reader realizes that the Duke caused the Duchess’s early death: “[he] gave commands; / Then all smiles stopped together. ” The Duke then returns to arranging another marriage with another young girl. As the Duke and the ambassador leave, the Duke points out other artworks in his collection.

Lines 1 -2: The beginning note tells us that the speaker of the poem is the Duke of Ferrara: It provides the location (Italy) and class environment (aristocratic). The opening lines focus the reader's imagination on the painting and thus the dead wife will only come back to life through the picture. Thus we think of the Duchess as a real person which creates a "relationship" with the reader. Once we begin to feel sympathy for her, the Duke’s behaviour seem more terrible.

Lines 3 -4: The artist "Fra Pandolf" is introduced as he painted the picture of the Duchess. These lines also introduce the Duke's subtle, mocking tone with phrases "piece of wonder" and "busily a day". These words ridicule and disparage both the Duchess and artist. It appears the Duke was jealous of the artist who "fussed" over his wife. Fra Pandolf is not a historical figure but an imaginary one.

Line 5: The word "you" informs the reader that there is an immediate addressee within the poem - the speaker is not addressing the reader, but another character(the ambassador). It indicates that the Duke is now addressing the ambassador, asking him to sit and look at the picture. The reader may imagine the ambassador sitting in a chair while the Duke talks.

Line 6 -9: The words ‘by design’ imply that the artist was well-known. The Duke suggests that it was his own talent for hiring the correct artist that was responsible for its quality. The Duke also stresses that all of the painting's viewers, "strangers like you, ” comment on the painting's lifelike look. The Duke is more interested in the painting than with the real woman. The image of emotion, the "passion" in the "glance, ” seems more valuable to him than real emotion.

Line 6 -9: The use of the word "its" instead of "her" suggests that the Duke has more of a relationship with the painting than he did with his dead wife. With these details, Browning begins to insert the notion of the Duke's jealousy. That "passionate glance" might have been encouraged by the painter, whom the Duke probably sees as a rival for his dead wife's affection.

Lines 10 -13: These lines suggest the depth and emotions of the image are very striking, since all previous guests have wanted to know what excited the Duchess enough to inspire that look in her eyes. The Duke also shows his possessiveness and desire for control when he comments that "none puts by/The curtain. . . but I. ” This means no one but him controls the curtain which normally covers the painting.

Lines 14 -15: Browning suggests more of the Duke's possessiveness, when he tells the ambassador that it wasn't his presence that made his wife happy or caused the "spot of joy, " which may be a blush. The Duke insinuates that this blush must have come to her face due to being in the company of a lover or from her far too impressionable and undiscriminating nature.

Lines 16 -21: The Duke begins to offer his guesses at what might have caused the Duchess to blush. One, the painter was the Duchess’ lover. Two, if the painter was not the Duchess' lover, then her nature was simply too susceptible to flattery for the Duke's liking.

Lines 22 -34: This section of the poem begins the Duke's list of complaints against the Duchess. First, she was innocent, too easily pleased and impressed. He blames her for not seeing any difference between being the wife of a "great man" and being able to see the sunset or receiving cherries from someone of a low status or even riding a white mule. While he thinks it's fine to be courteous ("She thanked men, — good!"), she gave all men respect that only a man with his family's rank and distinction deserves.

Lines 35 -43: The Duke then announces that, even though she had many faults, he would not lower himself ("stoop”) by telling her. The Duke describes himself as a "plain-spoken" man, and one who has no "skill" in "speech. ” At this point, the reader realises the Duke is wellskilled in the uses of language. Therefore, he is lying to the reader.

Lines 35 -43: The Duke explains that, even if he had the skill to tell the Duchess just how much she disgusted him, he would not have explained to her how and why her actions bothered him. On one hand, he betrays a fear that she would have argued with him: "plainly set/Her wits to yours. " On the other hand, he explains that the very process of having to explain his feelings to her would have constituted a compromise (or "stoop") to his authority.

Lines 44 -48: The Duke recalls his dead wife's smile and how she never reserved her smile for him. The lines "gave commands; / Then all smiles stopped together" tell us that the Duke used his power to restrain his wife's friendliness, but the words are ambiguous. He may have restricted her behaviour so that her passion for life was stifled or he may have ordered her assassination. The next lines, with the emphasis on "as if alive, " underscore her death.

Lines 49 -53: The Duke redirects his attention to his upcoming marriage. He tells the ambassador that he is certain his future bride's father will give him a generous dowry. However, the Duke wants to be seen as a man who is more interested in his fiancee than her money. At this point, the reader is unlikely to trust this declaration and is likely to fear for this young woman's life.

Lines 54 -56: The poem ends with the Duke showing a statue to the ambassador. It is of a god, Neptune taming a sea-horse. This powerful god controlling a creature suggests the relationship between the Duke (Neptune) and the last Duchess (seahorse). The Duke is restating his power over his future bride, as well as his general power in the world. They also emphasise another power, the Duke's desire and ability to possess rare objects of beauty.

The poem is a dramatic monologue. A dramatic monologue in poetry has been defined as the following: 1. A single person, who is not the poet, makes a speech that makes up the whole of the poem, in a specific situation at an important moment. 2. What the speaker says reveals to the reader the speaker's temperament and character.

Although the dramatic monologue was utilized by Romantic poets like Wordsworth and Shelley, Robert Browning is usually credited with perfecting the form. Browning is the poet who produced his finest and most famous work in this form.

Like many Victorians, the Duke sees sin lurking in every corner. The Duchess appears to be a victim of a male’s desire to control and fix female sexuality. This desperate need reflects Victorian society’s desire to mold the sexual and moral behaviour of individuals. For people confronted with an increasingly complex modern world, this impulse may come naturally: to control appears to be a way to stabilize.

The Renaissance (15 th-16 th century) was also a time when immoral men like the Duke exercised absolute power and the Victorians were fascinating by these figures. The specific historical setting of the poem is significant: the Italian Renaissance held a particular attraction for Browning and his contemporaries.

The engages its readers on a psychological level. Because we hear only the Duke’s thoughts, we must put the story together. Browning forces his reader to become involved in the poem in order to understand it. We must also independently decide what happened in the poem. Did the Duke actually murder the Duchess? Or did his cruel behaviour just lead to an early death?

It also forces the reader to question their response to the subject. We are forced to consider what is worst in the poem: the horror of the Duchess’ fate or the beauty of the language and the powerful dramatic development? Thus the poem tests the reader’s response to the modern world— does art have a moral component or is it merely an aesthetic exercise?