Customer Reviews

Sonnets from the Portuguese: A Celebration of Love

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You couldn't make this stuff up... well, maybe you could, but strictly for the Harlequin Romance market. Famous poet and man about London Robert Browning reads a poem by Elizabeth Barrett, a girl he never met... mainly because nobody else ever did either, since she lives in her bedroom in Emily Dickinson-style seclusion, in her case as an invalid, lifelong victim of some Victorianly-obscure wasting disease, under the care of a tyrannically possessive, somewhat demented father... and falls in love with her at long distance. Being who he is, Browning manages to wangle an interview, then further meetings, until, inevitably, he and this strange, ethereally beautiful (in Browning's eyes, at least) bedridden woman, six years his senior, fall in love. Browning knows he must spirit this creature away and possess her for his own, a challenge for which he must enlist the assistance of others of her (not entirely unsympathetic) family members, because of the father. Barrett senior, it seems, descended from a family of West Indian plantation owners, is possessed of the notion that none of his offspring should ever marry. The reason: he suspects his bloodline to be tainted by the tarbrush of slave ancestry somewhere along the line, and therefore not fit to be perpetuated.

Not to be so easily put off, Browning arranges an abduction/elopement, spiriting "Ba" (his pet name for Elizabeth) out of the paternal tower in which she has been imprisoned for years, gets the two of them married on the fly before her father even tumbles to what has happened, and the couple decamp to Italy and the British expat community there, where they continue to spout poetry while living happily ever after, becoming in due time the darlings of the international high cultural set, Elizabeth even managing to have a darling son at age 43. Or approximately ever after. They did have some score of good years together, until Ba, who really was ill with something, finally died at age sixty, and her heartbroken husband took their son back to be educated in England and never married again.

The kicker here, though, comes after the Brownings have been living some months of connubial bliss in Italy, when Robert happens to discover a secret collection of beautiful love sonnets among his wife's personal effects, and asks her what they might be. She confesses to him that during those months of meetings in her Wimpole Street bedroom, when all they did was talk, she had secretly fallen in love with him already, and was consoling her fantasies during his absences by writing secret love poems to him. Browning was flabbergasted, insisting that she ought to publish. The poems are indeed beautiful, thought by some to be EBB's best work, the most famous among them being the one that includes the lines "How do I love thee? / Let me count the ways..." Ba resists; for her, the poetry is too personal to expose to the public gaze. Robert comes up, accordingly, with a solution. Publish under a pseudonym or false title, one artfully chosen to misdirect authorship from herself, at least for awhile.

As it happens, EBB was herself somewhat dark and exotic in appearance. The tarbrush, perhaps? Whatever the case, another pet name of Robert's for her was, accordingly, "Portugese." Ultimately, they decided to publish the collection under EBB's name, but as "Sonnets From the Portugese," the implication being that the poems were not authored by EBB, but merely translated from a foreign tongue. The ploy worked, more or less, and the rest is history.

EBB's poetry shows great talent and flair, her perhaps most ambitious work being an experimental novel,"Aurora Leigh," written entirely in poetic verse. It is not a complete success, not because the poetry was bad; it isn't. Rather, a reading will show that there are some aspects of novel plot construction that are bound to present problems that the poetic tool kit simply lacks the appropriate tools to overcome. "Sonnets From the Portugese," however, is a perfect poetic gem.

This is a wonderful collection of poetry by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, telling the story of her meeting Robert Browning and how she discovered her love for him, and his love for her. The introduction to this volume is especially helpful, in that it gives a brief summary of her life before she met and Browning, so that one can follow the narrative fairly easily. Some of the references in the poems are a bit obscure, so it would have been nice if there were notes accompyaning them, but on the whole this is a very nice introduction to a talented poet.

I read this poems when I was about 16- 17 years old. Now in a age of 50 I still adore them. And I have performed them a lot of times. They are just lovely.

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.

This magical collection of verse was written by the incomparable Elizabeth Barrett during her courtship with Robert Browning. It speaks of a love so deep and yearning to be expressed that it has been acclaimed by each and every generation since it was first published in 1850.

This is one of the greatest works of the English language, and quite possibly *the* great poetry every penned in English. Give your heart and your soul a treat, and read this wonderful work of art!

(Review of Sonnets from the Portuguese: A Celebration 0f Love by Elizabeth Barrett Browning)

My ex girlfriend, Ashleigh, gave this to me years ago, before she was forced by her family to marry this guy named Tyler. Long story but she sent this book to me and signed the inside.

Next to Shakespeare, this is the most bittersweet and poetic
poems of love that I have ever read.

It was said that a husband and wife team wrote these so one can only imagine how passionate their marriage was, huh?

The book brings together the best of Elizabeth barret Browning. It is a wonderful, emotional book. I enjoy poetry, especially good kind. this is it.

I was pleasantly surprised when I looked at this book. The cover is very attractive as is the layout and wording inside. It makes a very nice gift or a nice addition to ones own library.