William Wordsworth once described poetry as "the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings..."(1). He could not have described Barrett's Sonnet 43 more succinctly, despite predating it by half a century. Barrett wrote 44 sonnets about her love for fellow contemporary poet and later husband, Robert Browning, a series she titled "Sonnets from the Portuguese". Critics' opinions vary on this subject, but most agree that his choice refers to one of his early compositions on the love between a young girl and Camoens (2), a 16th century Portuguese poet. century. Others believe that the title is a private joke between Barrett and Browning, the latter of whom liked to call her his little "Portuguese" (3). For the purposes of this essay, we will assume that the sonnet is written in homage to his beloved Browning. Regardless, Sonnet 43 comes towards the end of the series and, as such, inevitably possesses a climactic appeal when read in the context of the other sonnets. This essay will briefly discuss the genre and other technical aspects of this particular poem, before analyzing it in more detail to determine its impact and effects on the reader. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original Essay As we have already briefly mentioned above, “How Can I Love You?” is a sonnet, a 14-line poem with a rhyme scheme of ABBA ABBA CD CD CD in Petrarch's favorite style. The composer used iambic pentameter (there are five iambics, or two feet of unstressed-stressed syllables per line), which adds to the musical quality of the piece. Sonnets originated in Sicily in the 13th century - the English name is derived from the Italian "sonetto" meaning "little song" (4) - and were often accompanied by the lute, reminiscent of a serenade or perhaps the ballads of courtly love of the Middle Ages. . So it is obvious from the beginning of the poem that love will most likely play a role in this particular genre of poetry, as it does in this case. Petrachan's sonnets differ from other poems of the same genre in their formal structure. In the first eight lines, or octaves, we are introduced to the theme of the piece: love. Next we have a volta, or twist, followed by the final six lines (or sestet) which further develop the theme. In Sonnet 43, Barrett takes this style to another level. In the octave, she describes the greatness of her love in abstract and spiritual terms, drawing parallels between her intense love and her religious or political fervor; in the sestet she includes her feelings of grief and the loss of her innocence, giving her love a more realistic stance. She uses a conclusory speech act (5), in which she describes her love in a relatively calm, logical - and even philosophical - way. The accomplishment of the speech act “consists in its recognition” (6) as this case clearly illustrates. Yet the poem still manages to have the impact of a passionate declaration of love, convincing us that this love is not a passing fantasy but real and eternal. Let's examine the poem in more depth. It begins with a question: “How do I love you?” » (l.1) Is this a rhetorical question? Barrett wants the reader to think about the question in anticipation of what comes next. There are so many ways in which the speaker loves the object of her affections that she feels the need to count and list them one by one, using anaphora with her repeated phrase "I love you... . ": "I love you to the end. depth and width of height..." (l.2) We have here not only an internal rhyme(depth, breadth), but also a kind of paradox: she uses abstract analogies to describe her love as being three-dimensional and therefore truly part of the real world. His love extends to the limits of the physical world. There is also an element of intertextuality, as this could also be a reference to an epistle of St. Paul to the Ephesians, where the Apostle desires to understand "the length, breadth, depth and height of Christ and the fullness of God » (7). This is directly linked to the idea of ​​her love as a spiritual thing, as she reiterates in the next line, with the mention of her soul: "My soul can reach, when it feels out of sight..." (l. 3) This line suggests that this love is part of his very being, relating to his body and soul. Barrett was very religious, and as such this would have made more sense to her than to someone less inclined to such beliefs. For her, this love had become the very heart of her being, the meaning of her existence. A result of the extensive use of “th,” these lines also introduce soft, “breathing” syllables into the sonnet, recalling the act of living. There are also elements of assonance in these lines, with the words "feeling", "Being" and "ideal", which help the poem return to a more lively expression, lest it fade into weak breaths and sighs. In this verse: “For the ends of Being and of ideal Grace” (l.4), we can assume that it refers to God, Beginning and End of all things. With this in mind, she compares her love for Browning to her love for God, elevating it to something that is out of this world. She brings him back into our spectrum with the words "I love you at the level of every daily/quietest need, in the sun and in the candlelight" (l.5-6), suggesting that her love is one of the strictest necessities of life. life, as necessary as air, food, water or shelter. But she always chooses this “necessity” of her own free will (“I love you freely, as men fight for the good” (l.7)). It may also be another reference to God, echoing the Christian belief that love has free will, loving God, and doing what is right in order to achieve perfect happiness. Likewise, in the next line, describes his love as "pure." , because she does not desire any “praise” for her action. Then comes the volta, where her tone changes: she begins to describe her love as a passion that hurts, the passion she has in old sorrows and childhood days. She loves him with a love that she seemed to lose with her childhood innocence, or her "lost saints" - it's as if she loved him in the same way that we love when we are young, of his whole being, entirely and naively blind faith. of a child, “probably because of a lack of life experience which would go against it” (8). His last lines are sentimental, echoing the intensity of this love: “I love you with my breath, with my smiles, with my tears, with all my life! - and, God willing, I will only love you better after death. (l.12-14)This may strike some critics as gross hyperbole, but when one keeps in mind the religious nature of the speaker and the poet's belief that there is life after death, it takes on a timeless dimension, romantic meaning. We can understand the emotional complexity and maturity of the speaker's character and feel uplifted by the intensity of pure love she describes to such an extent that it is far more effective and creates a greater impact than n any modern love song. W. Wordsworth and S. Taylor Coleridge, Lyrical Ballads, with other poems: in two volumes, Biggs and Co. Bristol, London: 1800, Preface.(2) Anonymous, “ARTS1030 »,.