Love is Unquantifiable... Wider Reading 5: Sonnet 43

Victorian poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning was initially unwilling to publish her collection of 44 love sonnets, feeling that they were too personal. Her husband Robert Browning, however, persuaded her that they were the best sequence of English sonnets to be written since Shakespeare, and the collection was published under the title "Letters from the Portugese."

Sonnet 43 mainly describes Browning's love for her husband, and there are many examples of the romantic, unquantifiable love which she must have felt. The sonnet is the length of a traditional one, that is, 14 lines but otherwise does not conform to the traditional rules of the form. The rhyme scheme is fairly irregular and flexible, and Browning often makes use of assonance, for example "Praise" and "Faith". Strikingly so, because the poem is about defining one's love, and yet it avoids perfection. The sonnet liberally employs repetitive language; "I love thee" is used eight times, reflecting the persistent nature of the poet's love. This could also suggest breathlessness and excitement. Repetition is also used in a list on line 2 "depth and breadth and height". To suggest that one could measure this love is to imply that it is comprehensive and all-encompassing.

The poem also has a religious element underlying the sentimentalities - perhaps the poet has exchanged the worship of God for devotion to a much earthlier being. Interestingly, Browning also compares herself to men - "I love thee freely, as men strive for Right", possibly implying that if she were a strong man she could love him more.

Sonnet 43 - quotations by

Love is Dangerous... Wider Reading 4: Tess of the D'Urbervilles

"The business of the novelist," author Thomas Hardy once wrote, "is to show the sorriness underlying the grandest things, and the grandeur underlying the sorriest things." It is the latter Hardy captures in one of his best and most well-known novels, and equals even the likes of Charles Dickens in his ability to move the reader on behalf of those who society and history have discounted. Tess, a milkmaid, is scarred by her encounter with her calculating, usurping "cousin," and is a heroine without wealth or position. Despite this, her story has a heart-breaking pity within it that reveals the universal condition of people and society in the late 19th century.

The action of the novel is largely confined to the rural back lanes and fields of Wessex - the fictional corner of south-west England made so brilliantly real by Hardy - a technique employed by the author to demonstrate how actions have far-reaching consequences, even if they only affect a small number of people. However, the skill of the writer means that the reader is left with such an exact impression of rural life in the late 19th century, that the whole of society can be found in the one place.

Love is the dominant theme in "Tess of the D'Urbervilles," and is the driving force behind most of the tragic events within. The desire that Alec D'Urberville feels for Tess is the main reason for his attack, and her hatred of him because of this is partly what drove her to murder. Contrastingly, the love that Angel Clare and Tess feel for each other is the conventional, romantic kind, which makes it all the more tragic when they are separated because of his prejudices.

Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Quotations