This seems to me the sonnet that all sonnets aspire to. Sonnet 43, is the sonnet that when any person sits down to write a love poem, this is their model, myself included. In the sonnet, the speaker is telling his/her love, that there are no limits to his/her love.
The sonnet uses repetition to drive home love and how and why he/she loves. For me, one of my favorite lines in the sonnet are "I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;/I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise." These two lines express every sentiment that love has endured since time began. In the first line the speaker is simply saying that as man is continuing it's uphill battle for "Right" that his/her love will never waver. Their love is steadfast. Also with that line, the speaker knows that man will always strive for right, which also tells the reader that his/her love is never ending.
In the following line, the speaker tells the reader that his/her love will still be there when they turn away from Praise. Not to belittle the sentiment of this line, but it's a matter of standing by the person through good and bad. Again, it love that stands the test of time, as well when he or she is in favor or out.
I believe that the speaker of this poem is expressing a love that fairytales and love songs are based upon. This sonnet is about understanding that when one loves, it should be with every fiber of their being and it should be done without limitations. As the speaker states in the last lines of the poem, "and, if God choose,/ I shall but love thee better after death."
Tony,
ReplyDeleteGood insights into Elizabeth Barrett Browning's classic love sonnet to her future husband, Robert. (Note that since the poem is so autobiographical, you can refer to the speaker as female and avoid all the clunky "his/her" constructions.) Good attention to the meanings of particular passages. Be sure to provide parenthetical citations with the line numbers when you quote poetry in your subsequent posts.