Customer Reviews

Sonnets from the Portuguese

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Barrett Browning's sonnet sequence is far from the sloppy, sentimental doggerel it has been made out to be. Instead, the poems examinge Barrett Browning's guilt over her brother's death, her awakening passion for Robert Browning, and her fear of an inability to love. If one looks very closely at these poems, what appears is not a tribute to Browning, but in fact a brilliant woman's realization that her life has been totally sterile, and that she has now been placed in the precarious position of having to make choices that will alter the course of her life. Tehcnically, the poems are brilliant; written with all of Barrett Browning's characteristic blend of caution and verve.

This book of sonnets and poems is just wonderful. Elizabeth Barrett Browning's writing is able to get to the very heart of the reader with honesty and beauty. This collection really speaks to the romantic soul with passion and truth. I find her writings to be incredibly moving and this volume touched me deeply.

I personally enjoy these poems very much. They are very deep & contain many beautifully worded expressions of the author's deep love & blazing passion. I see these poems as a satisfying dose of romance for a woman, & a window into any woman's heart for a man.

It was free, so I downloaded it. You get what you pay for. The formatting is awful. Whoever formatted this needs to remember that poetry needs to be formatted as poetry, or it is just prose with some capital letters thrown in. This edition reads like a novel, not as a collection of poems. Find another edition and pay the buck or two for it -- it will be worth it. Now I need to figure out how to get this stinker off my Kindle download list... If I could give this no stars, I would, but I have to give it something.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning's poems are heartfelt and sincere. The devotion and loyalty she showed her husband was extraordinary, and this compilation of her poems are just a mere example of how much she loved him. Mushy or not, this book moved me to tears.

As far as poetry goes, Elizabeth Barrett Browning should be included as required reading. Formatting is not conducive to poetry, but I didn't find that it was so horrible you couldn't read it. It's good if you just want to get the gist of it.

In my own opinion, Elizabeth Barrett Browning at her best and most seductive; lie there reading them in bed and let them ravish you! To read them, so intimately sweet as they seem, is almost to feel EBB herself there, her small form snuggling happily in your arms. Of course nobody would have known better than EBB herself what dulcet love songs these sonnets were, since she had never intended them for publication. They were secret, often quite confessional, love poems she wrote about her Robert while he was courting her, all unawares, and then for awhile after their marriage, in which they continued carrying on as two of recorded history's most passionate lovebirds.

It was only after Robert Browning somehow discovered and read them that he managed to convince EBB that they were really too good not to be published. He was right, of course. Even so, Elizabeth was sensitive enough about the matter to want to screen the work off under a somewhat misdirecting title. SONNETS FROM THE PORTUGESE might hope to create a casual impression that they were foreign translations of some mysterious sort ... which, of course, obviously they aren't, but who's philologically analysing; read and enjoy!

In fact, the name settled on was a mere lover's in-joke. Because of her somewhat exotic looks and olive-colored skin, Browning's pet name for EBB, other than the baby-talk "Ba," was "my Portugese;" hence the title. The collection was tremendously successful and deservedly so, and this edition of it, gorgeously illustrated, is very nice indeed.

Reiterating what has been said before. Poetry requires formatting and if you can't be bothered to maintain the format, then don't bother to offer the book. Amazon should know better than to allow something sloppy like this, even if it is free!

Line breaks don't show up--successive lines run together, which is bad formatting in general and absolutely unacceptable for poetry. The formatting needs to be fixed.

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 by Elizabeth Barrett Browning)