Sonnets from the Portuguese

By: Elizabeth Barrett Browning

This is the finality of this particular piece, and it begs that she be loved for the sake of love, not for all the simple things that make up a woman, but for the innermost feeling.

Sonnet 14: But love me for love’s sake, that evermore thou mayst love on, through love’s eternity…

This section of the depicts the joys she had experienced fading away, and the joys she once knew vanishing. The rest of the piece conveys how love remains constant even though other things cease.

Sonnet 26: Of this worlds dust, their lutes did silent grow, and I myself grew faint and blind below their vanishing eyes.

This section of the piece uses just the right words to convey a message, that her love is so vast it is all encompassing. Not only is it meaningful, but the language is beautiful.

Sonnet 43: 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.

About the Author

Elizabeth Barrett Browning, was a poet, who at the age of thirteen had her first poem published. Two years later, she had an accident which rendered her slightly infimed. As she could not do much else now, she devoted herself to poetry.

At the age of 38, she published her collection of works entitled Poems. This caught the attention of the famous poet Robert Browning, who, after many corresponding letters, took a fancy to her and married her two years later.

The rest of Elizabeth’s large collection of poems, both spoke out against civil and social injustices, and spoke of her love for her husband, until her death in 1861