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