Elizabet Barret Browning's Sonnet 28, in my opinion is about her affair with writing. She is using the paper to represent how with this affair/relationship there is a mutual understanding. In lines, 6 through 9 the speaker states:
Once, as a friend: this fixed a day in spring
To come and touch my hand...a simple thing,
Yet I wept for it! - this,...the paper's light...
Said, Dear, I love thee; and I sank and quailed
These lines express the intense relationship between the speaker and the paper. In my opinion it is a very co-dependent relationship; as it should be given that the speaker is a writer. Line six seems to show when love was realized. It shows that this love was gradual and not spontaneous. It's fascinating to see that finding and realizing one's true passion in many ways is like a relationship. One must love wholeheartedly and understand that the relationship though it may get rough but the end product is worth it. It also shows that one must love what they do, otherwise it becomes a chore. The last lines solitifies this. The speaker wanted this relationship and when the speaker understood that the object of affection wanted the same, then everything feel into place.
The speaker of this poem, also speaks with a voice of disbelief. The reason why I say disbelief is that the speaker is gratful that the paper chose him/her. This poem in many ways is the story of a relationship and how it began and how even in life, one moment this person is a friend and then next a new relationship has occurred.
Lastly, this poem is to me a simple and straight forward poem, about love and its origins. From the first line, we have the speaker getting ready to write and how he seens this paper almost "quivering" to be used. I love EBB's word choice because words like quivering, wept etc leads the speaker to get a better mental picture and it also gives the poem a flow that words like shaking or crying could not.'
Tony,
ReplyDeleteYou select a good poem to analyze and provide some interesting comments on the passages you quote. I like your attention to specific lines and words. I would prefer that you avoid such extensive editing of the longer passages you quote, though; those ellipses always make me suspicious about what you left out, and why. I find your thesis in this post a bit odd, though; surely Elizabeth Barrett Browning is not in love with paper, but with the person who wrote the letter and sent it to her!