PROSODY AND ELIZABETH BARRETT-BROWNING’S ‘SONNETS …€¦ · PROSODY AND ELIZABETH BARRETT-BROWNING’S ‘SONNETS ... English Advanced for the sake of their ATAR) ... PROSODY

English Teachers Association of NSW • mETAphor Issue 2, 201440

PROSODY AND ELIZABETH BARRETT-BROWNING’S ‘SONNETS

FROM THE PORTUGUESE’David Strange, Pittwater House

T he versification of Elizabeth Barrett-Browning’s Portuguese sonnets is a notoriously difficult (albeit optional) element of the Module A: Comparative Study unit. As teachers, should

we place prosody in the too-hard basket for a one-term Advanced unit in which we are also expected to teach F Scott’s Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby? Or else do we cynically encourage students to place token references to trochaic substitutions and spondees throughout their October essays in the hope for a glorious Band 6 result that reflects well upon us as teachers? Or instead, should we embrace the challenge of educating an esoteric skill that will later assist students in their tertiary studies and trust it will carry over immediately into the compulsory study of Shakespeare’s verse unlimited?

The following article is written to assist teachers to perform their own versification of Barrett-Browning’s sonnets, and to offer students a starting point to understand the significance of prosody (describing the rhythm, meter and acoustics of verse) in the art of poetry.

A useful starting point for teachers is to read Stephen Fry’s The Ode Less Travelled. You will find barely a single reference to Elizabeth-Barrett-Browning’s poetry in its 250-odd pages, however you will experience several moments of illumination (whether you call these revelations ‘light-bulb moments’ or ‘epiphanies’) that will make you wonder why you were ever so scared of prosody in the first place.

Lamb (soft sound / hard sound)

Trochee (hard sound / soft sound)

Anapaest (soft / soft / hard)

Spondee (hard / hard)

Dactyl (hard / soft / soft)

Pyrrhic (soft / soft)

Six types of poetic feet common in Barrett-Browning’s verse

Portrait of Elizabeth Barrett-Browning in her youth. Source: Wikimedia Commons

English Teachers Association of NSW • mETAphor Issue 2, 2014 41

It will first be necessary in this teaching exercise to instruct students how to read or hear a poetic foot. Essentially, the art of reading the foot in a line of verse is to first hear where the stress (or accentuation) lies. That is, where do the hard sounds fall in the line? This is largely open to interpretation but, as teachers, we are already accustomed to telling our students in the Stage 5 study of Macbeth – ‘Listen for the five hard sounds in the line which indicate the iambic pentameter.’In truth, whenever we encourage students to listen for the five hard sounds in Shakespeare’s dramatic lines, we are asking them to locate the meter (or pentameter in this case), but not the prosody. Whenever we say ‘iambic pentameter’ and ignore the iambs, we do ourselves an injustice as teachers, and the students interpreters of text, by ignoring when Shakespeare or Barrett-Browning break the iambs and substitute the soft/hard sound for another type of poetic foot (i.e. the trochee, pyrrhic, anapaest, spondee, et cetera). As Fry points out, iambic pentameter would be a boring old game if the iambs were never meant to be broken. But what does it mean when Shakespeare or Barrett-Browning break the iambs and include a trochaic substitution, anapaestic substitution or pyrrhic foot? Herein lies the problem, but also a unique means of critical interpretation which points the way to an informed personal response. A good way to begin the lesson is to ask students to raise their hand if they know what a ‘bar’ means in sheet music (a bar in sheet music is wholly equivalent to a foot in poetry). Watch the frowns lift on your Extension 2 Maths students sitting in the back rows (suffering English Advanced for the sake of their ATAR) when you tell them: ‘Versification is the study of the underlying mathematics of poetry.’ Prosody offers something for everyone and will transform the way your students appreciate and enjoy poetry. With any concerted effort, it also offers your top students the opportunity to gun for an A-range mark in their poetry units on the score of originality, insight and critical interpretation.

Sonnet 1I thought once how Theocritus had sung…Sonnet 1 initially appears to read in iambic pentameter if only because the lines are all decasyllabic (ten syllables long) except lines 9, 11 & 12 which are hendecasyllabic (eleven syllables

PROSODY AND ELIZABETH BARRETT-BROWNING’S ‘SONNETS FROM THE PORTUGUESE’

long). The problem of reading the poem as iambic pentameter is that should we do so, our accentuations (or hard sounds, stresses) fall on particles (smaller words such as prepositions, conjunctions, relative pronouns and definite & indefinite articles – e.g. the, in, of, who).As in Shakespeare’s 1592 Richard III, the first line of the sonnet begins with an alarming and self-declaring trochee – ‘I thought’ – with the emphasis or ‘hard sound’ on the personal pronoun ‘I’. The prosodic choice here (trochaic substitution) is significant for the reason that it underscores the sonnet’s aim of announcing the dramatic arrival of a female poet – a woman who boldly enters the male space of the sonnet form traditionally reserved for Theocritus, Petrarch, Shakespeare and Spenser.In the very next line, (Line 2), anapaestic substitution (a foot with a soft, soft, hard sound) places emphasis on ‘sweet’ to convey the rich sentiment of the female persona for the illusive passage of time. And the personified ‘years’ which ‘bear a gift for mortals’. Having employed anapaestic substitution in the opening foot, the line reverts to alternating anapaestic and iambic tetrameter for the remaining feet (in order: anapaest, anapaest, iamb, iamb).

Analysis of the prosodyThe prosodic significance to the poem’s underlying concept is apparent: the contemplation of time slows down the rhythm of time itself. The first caesura occurs in the volta on line 9 following the full stop after, ‘A shadow across me.’ The pause is intended to be dramatic and signifies the fear and confusion of the female persona. Consider too that the line is hendecasyallbic (eleven syllables long). That is, we cannot comfortably read the line in iambic pentameter given that the last syllable (‘ware) is not weak. What is the opening foot? It would appear to be tribrachic (the ternary version of the prryhic – soft, soft, soft – a sha – dow). This tribrachic substitution (replacing the iambs) represents the mystery and ominous arrival of the shadow – a darkness which suddenly and pervasively sweeps over the female persona. The next two caesuras (or breaks) occur in the final couplet when the female persona reaches the dramatic climax of her imprisonment having encroached on the patriarchal realm of the Petrarchan sonnet. To the question of her tormentor’s identity, the female persona replies ‘Death’. In the final line of the sonnet, ellipses carry the caesura and herald the epiphany, ‘Not Death, but Love.’



Sonnet 13And wilt thou have me fashion into speech…Sonnet 13 initially appears to read in iambic pentameter until we recognise that should we read the poem aloud, the rhythm jars in iambic pentameter. That is, if we read the poem in iambic pentameter our stresses (or hard sounds, accentuations) fall on the poem’s particles (or small joining words, prepositions and conjunctions) – e.g. how, the, for, in, etc.Should we realise that the poem has seventeen (17) separate personal pronouns (e.g. thou, me, I, our, etc.) and that the poem’s underlying concept is that of the problem of communication and locating the individual voice in the romantic entanglement and loss of self in marriage – we have another possible reading of the prosody.If we now hit the stresses on the personal pronouns in our reading, we find that the verse may be read as alternating anapaestic and iambic tetrameter. That is, alternating feet of anapaests and iambs (e.g. soft, soft, hard – anapaest, and soft, hard – iamb). If we do so, the poetry’s prosody now sounds like: ‘And wilt thou have me fash-ion into speech /The love I bear thee, finding words en-ough’

Analysis of the prosodyBarrett-Browning’s shifting prosodic form and surface meter effectively represents the poem’s central theme of the difficulty of communication. The more pertinent and underlying concept of the poem is the notion that a woman was expected in the Victorian age to articulate her love in words, language and elegant phrases. The volta in line 9: ‘Nay, – let the silence of my womanhood / Commend my woman-love to thy belief ’ denotes the conflict or antithesis to the octave’s argument in the traditional mode of a Petrarchan sonnet. The sestet reverts to iambic pentameter as if to represent the calm resolution and firm resolve of the female persona; her voice is measured, rhythmic and finds it natural balance. The rhyming scheme of the octave is in the traditional Petrarchan mode of two quatrains of abba, abba – with the sestet ending in cdcdcd. The purpose of the rhyming scheme in the sestet is perhaps to reinforce the balanced thinking and strong resolution of the female persona that her voice and individuality is ironically more truthful and authentic when silent.

Sonnet 14If thou must love me, let it be for naught…Sonnet 14 continues on from its precedent (Sonnet 13) and thus forms a part of Barrett-Browning’s famous sonnet sequence or sonnet corona. That is, the theme of communication and the particular problem of articulating love is further explored in this poem. The sonnet is without a volta, however the rhyme scheme of the sestet is unusual in its cdcdce pattern, where the ‘e’ rhyme of the poem’s final word ‘eternity’ represents a note of hope and a break in the tone of an otherwise didactic sonnet. It carries the voice of a female persona anxious in the octave that her male lover not focus his love on articulating a particular aspect of her appearance and manner. In the sestet, her plea is that his love will not rest on the fallow grounds of affectation, emotion and pity. The plea of the female persona in the octave is that the male lover not voice his feelings in a verbally constructed and hollow romantic cliché; a set of well-worn words which underscore by their very contrived expression the brittle, vulnerable and ephemeral nature of love itself. The sestet shifts to an ironic plea that the male lover not fall victim to his emotions and sense of pathos (ironic for the Victorian age in that the female was traditionally considered to be most susceptible to this whim).

Analysis of the prosodyThe word ‘love’ is mentioned six times in the sestet and four times in the final couplet alone. The strong weight and frequency of this word in the final couplet at once demonstrates Barrett-Browning ironically standing apart from her female persona and observing the paradox and circular logic of ‘love for love’s sake’, and furthermore carries the hypnotic rhythms and painful repetitions of ‘love’ itself.As in Sonnet 13 (its antecedent poem), the meter at first appears to be in iambic pentameter. A closer reading reveals a far more varied approach if we initially hit the stresses (or hard sounds, accentuations) on the personal pronouns. Should we do so, we find that the meter is once again iambic and anapaestic tetrameter: “If thou must love me, let it be for nought”. The prosodic significance to the sonnet’s concept is apparent – the varied prosody represents the problem of finding true love in the



expression of language alone. Language is deceptive and only presents a surface reality whose artificiality may only be penetrated when we consider whom its signs and symbols represent beneath the speaker’s voice. In the sestet, the repetition of the word ‘love’ seems to imply that beneath the construction of personality and the notion of an individual lover is the thing itself – love – swirling in an endless vortex to eternity.A curious element of the sonnet’s prosody is its use of enjambment. The rhythm of the lines and their thought-sequences appear to be end-stopped (e.g. ‘If thou must love me, let it be for nought’) however the enjambment of the poem is, in fact, never broken throughout the entire sonnet. The effect is to depict the anxiety and scepticism of the female persona, with lines apparently ending in phrases such as : ‘for nought’, ‘Do not say’, ‘her way’, ‘love so wrought’, ‘who bore’ until we recognise the enjambment of each line and the uneasy flow of the female persona’s doubtful cast of mind.

Sonnet 21Say over again, and yet once over again…Sonnet 21 is written in iambic pentameter and dominated by weak endings (or an eleventh syllable) in each line of the octave (e.g. again, repeated, it, plain, strain, completed, greeted, pain).This scudding (or series of weak endings) complements the voice of the female persona pleading for the validation of her love. That is, the weak endings are a type of aural pun representing the weakness or vulnerability of the female persona desperate to have her own love requited.The volta appears to arrive in line 7 following the caesura (or pause) of ‘Beloved! – I, amid the darkness greeted / By a doubtful spirit’. As in Sonnet 1, the female persona is accompanied by darkness and an apparent ‘doubtful spirit’ in the contemplation of her love; the volta carries the fear of the moment. The frequent caesuras in the sonnet (especially so in the sestet) further convey the hesitation and doubt of the female persona who paradoxically desires that her lover audibly declare and repeat the declaration of his feelings – but also wishes that his love be expressed in a more authentic ‘silence’ beyond language. This inherent paradox (desiring the silent affirmation of love beyond the artificial construction of language) is captured as a mood of doubt and overflowing thoughts by the sonnet’s frequent enjambment (only lines 6 & 11 are end-stopped).

Analysis of the prosodyThe repetition of words and images in the sonnet (e.g. ‘again and again’, ‘too many stars... too many flowers’, ‘Say thou love me, love me, love me’) predominantly occur in the sestet. In terms of its prosodic significance, the persona employs the traditional space of the sonnet’s resolution (its sestet) to further declare a frantic, enraptured and mesmerizing love. The irony of this approach is apparent when we consider that it contrasts strongly with the traditional Petrarchan sonnet. That is, the sestet does not reveal the solution to the initial problem, but rather a heightening of the octave’s dilemma. This approach further enhances Barrett-Browning’s attempt to recreate the sonnet form for an identifiably female voice. Its bold and unorthodox prosodic approach inherently asks the question: is female desire and doubt any less compelling, authentic and resolved than the patriarchal logic of the thesis/antithesis/synthesis approach of the traditional Petrarchan sonnet? The final line employs a pyrrhic substitution (two soft sounds in place of an iamb) with ‘To love me also in silence, with thy soul’ to capture the female persona’s demand for the spiritual reflection and quiet contemplation of her lover.

Sonnet 22When our two souls stand up erect and strong…Sonnet 22 is a poem about the value of sexual love and its equivalence to spiritual epiphany. The lovers are content to remain on earth and make love rather than seek their spiritual epiphany in heaven. It is a poem about the spiritual unity of two lovers whose ‘lengthening wings break into fire’ (an image of the entangled arms of the lovers breaking into a frenzied passion playing upon an image of angelic ascension). The female persona urges her male lover to ‘think’ of the consequences of their love ‘mounting higher’ and reaching into the sphere of angels who would ‘drop some golden orb of perfect song into our deep, dear silence’.The volta on line 9 immediately follows a caesura and urges that the lovers remain on earth and partake of their earthly pleasure: ‘Let us stay’. The imagery of the sonnet is wholly ironic in that the sexual is metaphorised as the spiritual (‘Think, … in mounting higher, / the angels would press



on us,’) and the spiritual is metaphorised as the sexual (‘When our two souls stand up erect and strong’). That is, the imagery is so confused and indistinguishable throughout the poem that the female persona urges her male lover to regard their sexual experience as a spiritual epiphany; an epiphany which protects them from all else on earth.

Analysis of the prosodyThe meta-structure of the sonnet is deeply ironic given its subject matter: the tension and pressures of the octave’s argument build to a climactic resolution in the volta, and thereafter the sestet acts as a type of petite-mort of reason… the female laments how the ‘unfit / Contrarious moods of men recoil away / And isolate pure spirits’. That is, the female persona returns to her isolated state of mind at the end of the sexual union and the prospect of death and darkness once again surrounds her. As such, the poem deals with the same themes of love and mortality as Sonnet 1, and furthermore the concept that romantic love defeats time.In terms of its prosody, the poem shifts between decasyllabic (10 syllable) and hendecasyllabic (11 syllable) lines, stretching and breaking the pentameter throughout the octave with multiple caesuras and forcing a reorganisation of the meter. For instance, in only the second line the iambic pentameter is broken by the trochaic substitution of ‘Face to face’, immediately followed by a double pyrrhic ‘silent, drawing’ until the incendiary effect of the lover’s embrace in line 3.

Sonnet 28My letters! all dead paper, mute and white…Sonnet 28 is a poem about the way that letters carry the romantic memory of lovers and therefore are simultaneously ‘dead’ and ‘alive’. It is a poem which subverts the cliches of Victorian romantic love with ironic references to the letters which ‘drop down on my knee tonight’ and ‘its ink has paled / With lying at my heart’. Conceptually, the sonnet again traverses the notion that the articulation of love through language is problematic (‘thy words have ill availed’). However it also plays upon a meta-image: the female persona constructs her romance upon an epistolary (or letter-writing) basis which afterwards is paradoxically both alive and dead.

The male lover’s gaze is fixed firmly on the female persona: ‘he wished to have me firmly in his sight’ (as in a Petrarchan sonnet) however the roles have here been switched –the female persona idealises her lover and wonders whether her love is requited. This gender reversal ironically places the female persona in a strong position, despite her breathless and melodramatic voice faintly satirising a Victorian romantic convention.

Analysis of the prosodyThe volta is the female persona’s remembrance of declared love (her lover’s declared epistolary love), and once again subverts the Petrarchan sonnet. The volta’s resolution of the octave’s argument is an emotional recognition of the truth of her male lover’s feelings – not the beginning of a counter-argument. That is, the sonnet firmly establishes the legitimacy of a female voice in a traditional male arena by upholding the authenticity of a woman’s experience, logic and intuition. The poem carries a fiercely-varied set of poetic feet in that the opening line alone bears two caesuras (effectively beginning with a volta) and arguably begins in trimeter with molossus (hard, hard, hard – ‘My le/tters!’) an ionic major (hard, hard, soft, soft – ‘all dead paper’) and anapaest (soft, soft, hard – ‘mute and white’). Later the verse returns to iambic pentameter but has frequent variations including a pyrrhic substitution in line 9 immediately following the volta: ‘I sank’. The effect of the pyrrhic here is to emphasise the desultory state of the female persona at the realisation of her requited love.

Sonnet 32The first time that the sun rose on thine oath…In Sonnet 32 the female persona worries in the octave that her lover’s heated declaration of affection will just as quickly fade when the moon changes. She then compares herself to a ‘worn viol’ or a well-used musical instrument whose masterful singer accompaniment might shrink from the imperfection of the old instrument. The volta occurs in line 11 when the female persona recognises that her misjudgement was to underestimate the male lover, metaphorised in the analogy as a musician: ‘For perfect strains may float,/’Neath master=hands, from instruments defaced,-‘.



Analysis of the prosodySonnet 32 is a poem in iambic pentameter which arguably employs a very rare spondee (hard, hard sound) in the self-deprecating image of line 8: ‘Worn viol’). The volta in line 9 arguably jars and breaks the iambic pentameter with the caesura of the comma before the conjunction ‘but’ – symbolising the jarring arrival of the female persona’s epiphany that her self-deprecation has been at the cost of performing ‘wrong’ upon her male lover, whose ability as a lover she has underestimated.

Sonnet 43How do I love thee? Let me count the ways…In Sonnet 43 the female persona employs the traditional poetic form of the sonnet (with its argument and resolution mode) to explore the depth of her feelings, intuition and affection for her male lover. The inherent concept of the poem is that the sonnet form is adequate for the female voice to express a female logic and reason (if such a thing can be generalised).

Analysis of the prosodyThe poem is an act of deep literary subversion in the Victorian age whereby Barrett-Browning’s female persona deliberately breaks the conventions of the octave, sestet and volta with an outpouring of feeling and emotion which overwhelms or inundates the traditional structure of a Petrarchan sonnet. Such is the subversion that line 9 (where the volta

should occur) is instead the third line in a set of anaphora (or lines beginning with the same phrase): ‘I love thee’. The use of a rhetorical question and an exclamation mark in the opening line, along with the use of two personal pronouns denoting the female voice, again marks out the ambition of the poet that this poem will boldly claim the sonnet form for a uniquely female voice. The poem’s exploration of the ‘depth & breadth’ of female love is curious for the trajectory it takes from the basis of the individual soul, through to the metaphysical ‘everyday’s most quiet need’ to justice, humility, passion, ‘childhood’s faith’ and old Christian love to the hope that ‘if God choose’ her love will continue beyond death itself into eternity. As such, the poem’s concept aligns with that of Sonnets 1 & 22 that romantic love may provide a transcendental experience that will defeat time and death itself.Once again, as in Sonnet 13, should we hit the accentuations (or stresses and hard sounds) on the personal pronouns as opposed to a strict search for iambs, the poetic feet appear to be vary between anapaestic and iambic tetrameter. Such is the outpouring and flow of love from the female persona that the inclusion of ellipses and dashes to indicate caesura seem almost ironic. That is, the ellipses in line 10 and the comma and dash in line 12 hardly pause our breath as we read the female persona’s inspired burst of love.

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PROSODY AND ELIZABETH BARRETT-BROWNING’S ‘SONNETS …€¦ · PROSODY AND ELIZABETH BARRETT-BROWNING’S ‘SONNETS ... English Advanced for the sake of their ATAR) ... PROSODY