Elizabeth Barret Browning, the author, was
a Victorian poet. She married the poet and
playwright Robert Browning, who infulenced
her work, and Sonnet 43 is addressed to
him. Despite her lifelong illness, she has
been able to successfully get married and
write successful poems, Sonnet 43 being
one of them. There are 44 Sonnets in total,
and Sonnet 43 is part of this long sequence
of Sonnets. The sequence is called Sonnets
from the Portugese.
About
The poem is about a woman who is about to
get married and expresses her deep love for
the man she is about to marry.
Techniques
1) The length of the Sonnet is of
tradition, 14 lines. Other than this, the
poem does not follow any other rules.
The poem is all about her 'perfect love',
but the poem lacks perfection, as it does
not perfectly follow the structual rules of a
Sonnet. This has possibly been placed
in deliberately. It could symbolise that
her 'Perfect Love' may still lack
perfection, although her feelings are
strong for her love.
2) "I love thee" is repeated a total of eight times, and this
repitition could be a representation of the authors love and lust for
the one whom she will marry. The repitition keeps a constant
reminder in the readers head as to what the poem is based on.
(The one who she loves).
3) Within the poem the author refers to "my old
griefs", this is referring to her past, when she had
major disagreements with her parents and
eventually disinherited out of the family. However
when referring to her griefs, she applies it more
positively with the love that she holds, which could
possibly show us her bright, positive view on love,
a 'way out' of her griefs.