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Sonnets from the Portuguese A Celebration of Love Elizabeth Barrett Browning 9780312745011 Books

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Sonnets from the Portuguese A Celebration of Love Elizabeth Barrett Browning 9780312745011 Books

Finally, via a very circuitous route, I decided to read these poems, my first reading of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Recently I read Donald Richie’s The Inland Sea, based on his travels in the early ‘60’s, in and along the Inland Sea of Japan. Richie meets a prostitute who is convinced that Browning was also a prostitute. Certainly, the historical record does not support this, yet deeply held beliefs can be hard to shake. Separately, I also remember that Browning was in my tome-like high school English anthology… and I promised to myself that I would read all the authors therein, “one day.”

Browning was English; she lived in the first half of the 19th century and died at the age of 55. She married a fellow writer, Robert Browning (the unnamed subject of her love poems), was disinherited for her efforts, and would live in Italy the rest of her life, dying in Florence.

“Sonnets to the Portuguese” constitutes only the first 20% of this volume. I had no idea that she was the author of the poem that commences with the famous subject line. It is Sonnet 43. Tellingly, it concludes with the following line: “…and, if god choose, I shall but love thee better after death.” A strong religious outlook, of the bearded patriarch father type, sitting on his throne (a specific line in a poem) shades her work. One of her poems heaps heavy praise on the Pilgrims and focus on the aspect of the religious freedom they sought (while omitting the fact that they too would rigidly deny others their own religious freedom) – “The soil where first they trod. They have left unstained what there they found. Freedom to worship God.”

She was a strong anti-slavery advocate, and two of her longer poems dealt with that theme, mockingly referencing to its prevalence in the “land of the free.” She was also an advocate of the ideas of Mary Wollstonecraft, so it should be no surprise that she effusively praised one of my “heroines,” George Sand in a couple poems. And reading these poems is again a reminder how many of the perceptive writers of the day were far more in-tune with the natural world (ah, those nightingales!) before the advent of electronic distractions.

Not all is sweetness and light, however. A rival rankles her, and the venom flows across the page: “A worthless woman! Mere cold clay. As all false things are! But so fair, she takes the breath of men away, Who gaze upon her unaware, I would not play her larcenous tricks, to have her looks! She lied and stole, And spat into my love’s pure pyx. The rank saliva of her soul.” And her rival’s technique: “If she chose sin…” and thus, forcing Barrett: “I think of her by night and day, Must I too join her… out, alas!” Plus le change…

Concerning a topical subject that is now dominating the news: “The Lady’s ‘Yes,”, she concludes with the line “And her Yes, once said to you, SHALL be Yes for evermore.” We can only hope… Overall, 4-stars.


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Sonnets from the Portuguese A Celebration of Love Elizabeth Barrett Browning 9780312745011 Books Reviews

Ok
I purchased this copy as a gift to accompany other gifts at a bridal shower. It's a very nicely bound volume, suitable as a gift, and a way to introduce yet another generation to these beautiful love sonnets and their back story.
Printed and bound in the most economical fashion possible. The type is large and clear, but in general the page layout is not kind to the poems. I can only hope the poems are as written with no introduced errors - but the misspelled "Portugese" on the cover is not reassuring!
I purchased this several weeks ago in order to read/re-read the sonnets. I especially liked that the book has a section with biographical info on EBB's life. I've re-read these poems after many years and, for the most part, they retain their lyrical beauty. EBB was a woman for the ages.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning poems were published in 1850. They were written for her husband Robert Browning. They're lovely poems about love and devotion for her husband. Her poems were beautifully written and the love she had for Robert Browning only enhanced as she wrote her poems giving her heart and soul to her husband. Elizabeth Barrett Browning's poems were magnificently written. Her words of love capture your heart. There are so many of her poems, and I enjoyed reading and liked all of them. This one especially took hold of my heart. It is the ending of How Do I Love Thee?

"How do I love thee? Let me count the ways..."
I love thee with the Breath,
Smiles, Tears, of all my life! And, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.
In my own opinion, Elizabeth Barrett Browning at her best and most seductive; lie there reading them in bed and let them ravish you! To read them, so intimately sweet as they seem, is almost to feel EBB herself there, her small form snuggling happily in your arms. Of course nobody would have known better than EBB herself what dulcet love songs these sonnets were, since she had never intended them for publication. They were secret, often quite confessional, love poems she wrote about her Robert while he was courting her, all unawares, and then for awhile after their marriage, in which they continued carrying on as two of recorded history's most passionate lovebirds.

It was only after Robert Browning somehow discovered and read them that he managed to convince EBB that they were really too good not to be published. He was right, of course. Even so, Elizabeth was sensitive enough about the matter to want to screen the work off under a somewhat misdirecting title. SONNETS FROM THE PORTUGESE might hope to create a casual impression that they were foreign translations of some mysterious sort ... which, of course, obviously they aren't, but who's philologically analysing; read and enjoy!

In fact, the name settled on was a mere lover's in-joke. Because of her somewhat exotic looks and olive-colored skin, Browning's pet name for EBB, other than the baby-talk "Ba," was "my Portugese;" hence the title. The collection was tremendously successful and deservedly so, and this edition of it, gorgeously illustrated, is very nice indeed.
I'm sorry to say that I cannot recommend this edition of Barrett Browning's sonnets. It is formatted poorly and printed in miniscule type -- quite an amateur job. The book lists the first lines of the sonnets, then presents the sonnets themselves. Five times! Yes, the list of first lines plus the sonnets five times in sequence. If you want to make notes over one set and keep one unmarked, you will still have three sets left over! If there is method in this madness, I am missing it.
Finally, via a very circuitous route, I decided to read these poems, my first reading of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Recently I read Donald Richie’s The Inland Sea, based on his travels in the early ‘60’s, in and along the Inland Sea of Japan. Richie meets a prostitute who is convinced that Browning was also a prostitute. Certainly, the historical record does not support this, yet deeply held beliefs can be hard to shake. Separately, I also remember that Browning was in my tome-like high school English anthology… and I promised to myself that I would read all the authors therein, “one day.”

Browning was English; she lived in the first half of the 19th century and died at the age of 55. She married a fellow writer, Robert Browning (the unnamed subject of her love poems), was disinherited for her efforts, and would live in Italy the rest of her life, dying in Florence.

“Sonnets to the Portuguese” constitutes only the first 20% of this volume. I had no idea that she was the author of the poem that commences with the famous subject line. It is Sonnet 43. Tellingly, it concludes with the following line “…and, if god choose, I shall but love thee better after death.” A strong religious outlook, of the bearded patriarch father type, sitting on his throne (a specific line in a poem) shades her work. One of her poems heaps heavy praise on the Pilgrims and focus on the aspect of the religious freedom they sought (while omitting the fact that they too would rigidly deny others their own religious freedom) – “The soil where first they trod. They have left unstained what there they found. Freedom to worship God.”

She was a strong anti-slavery advocate, and two of her longer poems dealt with that theme, mockingly referencing to its prevalence in the “land of the free.” She was also an advocate of the ideas of Mary Wollstonecraft, so it should be no surprise that she effusively praised one of my “heroines,” George Sand in a couple poems. And reading these poems is again a reminder how many of the perceptive writers of the day were far more in-tune with the natural world (ah, those nightingales!) before the advent of electronic distractions.

Not all is sweetness and light, however. A rival rankles her, and the venom flows across the page “A worthless woman! Mere cold clay. As all false things are! But so fair, she takes the breath of men away, Who gaze upon her unaware, I would not play her larcenous tricks, to have her looks! She lied and stole, And spat into my love’s pure pyx. The rank saliva of her soul.” And her rival’s technique “If she chose sin…” and thus, forcing Barrett “I think of her by night and day, Must I too join her… out, alas!” Plus le change…

Concerning a topical subject that is now dominating the news “The Lady’s ‘Yes,”, she concludes with the line “And her Yes, once said to you, SHALL be Yes for evermore.” We can only hope… Overall, 4-stars.