ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

(cswnet/browning)

(1806-1861)

The most romantic poet of all time, Elizabeth Barrett Browning was born in 1806, in Hope End. She was the oldest of 12 children. She was very intelligent and dedicated to becoming a poet. Elizabeth had started writing poetry at age 8 and by the time she was 20, she had 3 pieces published. In 1835 her family moved to London and Elizabeth saw this as her chance to meet with literary giants. Unfortunately her health took a turn for the bad and she had to move to a warmer climate. She became depressed and writing helped her get through it.

(yudev/mfo/britlit)

In 1850, Elizabeth's best known book of poems was published "Sonnets from the Portuguese". They are not translations, but a sequence of 44 sonnets recording the growth of her love for Robert. He often called her "my little Portuguese" because of her dark complexion. (cswnet/ebbio)

XXII

When our two souls stand up erect and strong,

Face to face, silent, drawing nigh and nigher,

Until the lengthening wings break into fire

At either curved point,--what bitter wrong

Can the earth do to us, that we should not long          5

Be here contented ? Think. In mounting higher,

The angels would press on us and aspire

To drop some golden orb of perfect song

Into our deep, dear silence. Let us stay

Rather on earth, Beloved,--where the unfit                 10

Contrarious moods of men recoil away

And isolate pure spirits, and permit

A place to stand and love in for a day,

With darkness and the death-hour rounding it.

(mith2.umd.edu/WomensStudies)

The poem we are going to analyse is the number XXII of the book. It is a short poem which was written in the Victorian period (1837-1901) in where a lot of things happened, both good and bad; “the continuation of the economic development, the colonial expansion of the European countries, the population growth, the machination, and the Victorian moral. This is a sociologic phenomenon which is correlated with the material prosperity of the bourgeoisie of that time and it caused that the ethical values of this social group converted in the only set of values socially acceptable: the patriarchal authority in the family, the hypocritical condemnation of any fact related with sex, the prudishness in the customs, the escape of any reference to the unpleasant of the life, and in general, the defence of the established order based on a false respect. Those were the clues of that social life that hardly refuse to accept any kind of change or innovation that disturbed any of those values”.

(mural/jorgon)

In addition, in the Victorian area the most important political changes took place.

It was also very important that there was a “general acceptance that women could work outside of these homes as well;

“Another view on the appropriate situations is found in The Quarterly Review article. Though it focuses on Deaconesses in this period, this article also addresses working women in general. As far as the place that women should be allowed in the workforce, the author articulates that "It would surely be a great mistake to limit the Divine law of woman's mission on earth to the mere relation of marriage...motherly and sisterly care are often most needed when they can not be had within the sphere of domestic life" (The Quarterly Review, p. 347). Women, therefore, should be allowed to work outside of the home as long as they remain in the role of caretaker for neglected children, the elderly, the sick and the poor. Industrial work is not considered appropriate for women because it is "not suited to the talents and dispositions of women and...would interfere with work assigned to their more athletic brothers" (The Quarterly Review, p.346). Despite the fact that there exist definite limits on what work was considered suitable for women, there is, apparently, general acceptance that they will work. “(victorianweb/authors)

The presence of Queen Victoria was relevant. She became an icon for all women; “The Victorian era, 1837-1901, is characterised as the domestic age par excellence, epitomised by Queen Victoria who came to represent a kind of femininity which was centred on the family, motherhood and respectability. Accompanied by her beloved husband Albert and surrounded by her many children in the sumptuous but homely surroundings of Balmoral Castle, Victoria became an icon of late 19th century middle-class femininity and domesticity.” (bbc.co.uk)

It is a period where the novel gender prevails over the poetry. Even so, we have a lot of poems like the one we are mentioning, or the poems of Tennyson, or Robert Browning…etc.

In poetry, the use of the monologue or the dialogue was normal. The monologue consists in the internal dialogue with oneself. Versus dialogue that consists in the conversation with somebody else. In that case, it is a monologue, because only one person speaks. If it were a dialogue a second speaker would be included in the poem.

Why did she write the “Sonnets from the Portuguese”? And what was the reason for writing them?

“Her hesitation, in her regard for his liberty and strength, to burden him with an ailing wife, she has recorded in the Sonnets afterwards published under a slight disguise as Sonnets from the Portuguese”. (nndb/people)

What does the poet want to communicate to us?

Through the poem she is showing how she is in these moments, how she is feeling, how she understands the mentality, and the ideological point of her time.

She is telling us in what situation she is. There is one person speaking in the poem. She talks about two lovers; she and her love. They love each other in tranquillity and calmness, alone in harmony, for a long time, without anyone who disturbs them.

Suddenly, something happens that breaks all this harmony. It is something that impedes them to continue so well. I think she is referring to someone that does not want this lover and someone that does not accept or permit this relationship. It is possible that this person is her father. We know that she was under a lot of pressure by her father, and she, of course, did not feel comfortable. This is the patriarchal authority in the family; so called in the Victorian period.

“Elizabeth and Robert kept their love a secret because Browning's father was vehemently opposed to the relationship. The couple eloped on September 12, 1846 and for the next week, Browning continued to live at home so the secret would not be revealed. When Browning's father died ten years later, she had never been forgiven.” (incwell/Biographies)

After that, we see that she speaks and addresses to “silence” (line 9), because she finds herself in a strange situation where she can not do anything. And for this reason and because she loves him and wants to be with him, she and her lover elope.

But she only wants to stay more time with life; “Let us stay rather on earth” (line 9-10), because we have to remember she was ill since she was a child.

“In 1821, Elizabeth injured her spine as a result of a fall. When her brother died in 1838, she seemingly became a permanent invalid. She spent the majority of her time in her room writing poetry.”

(cswnet/browning)

Moreover, she would have liked them to have a place in where they could love each other without anyone to disturb them, but there was not much time and there was the “death-hour around it” (line 14).

In short, she wants a place where nobody annoys them, where they are in peace, in calmness, without the father’s pressure; only she and him.

As we can see, the poet produces sentences as direct speech, that we call dramatic; as with the question “At either curved point, - - what bitter wrong Can the earth do to us, that we should not long Be here contented?” (line 4-6), or the next word; “Think” (line 6), or “Let us stay rather on earth” (line 9-10). That calls to the listener to make us attentive to the poem. We need to say that poets use poetry in order to achieve a knowledge of the world, of the relation with other people.

It is also important to give a brief note about how the authoress has written some words like “nigh ” or “nigher” (line 2) that is spelling from the 19^th Century.

To sum up, we must say that this poem from “Sonnets from the Portuguese (1850), was inspired by her own love story. During her lifetime Mrs. Browning was considered a better poet than her husband. Today her life and personality excite more interest than her work. Although as a poet she has been criticized for diffuseness, pedantry, and sentimentality, she reveals in such poems as “The Cry of the Children” and some of the Sonnets from the Portuguese a highly individual gift for lyric poetry”*; like the one we have analysed, that expresses some of her feelings that are how she feels under her father’s pressure, and how she could not do anything, and she only need and cry out calmness and can love her lover.

(bartleby/Browning)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

(http://www.cswnet.com/~erin/browning.htm. Visited on February 25, 2006)

(http://www.yudev.com/mfo/britlit/browning_elizabeth.htm Last updated: February 12, 2000 by Philipp Tsipman. Visited on February 25, 2006)

(http://www.cswnet.com/~erin/ebbbio.htm . Visited on February 25, 2006)

(http://www.mith2.umd.edu/WomensStudies/ReadingRoom/Poetry/BarrettBrowning/SonnetsFromThePortuguese/when-our-two-souls-stand. Visited on February 25, 2006)

http://mural.uv.es/jorgon/sociedad.htm. Visited on February 25, 2006)

(Krauskopf, Katie, “Victorian Working Women”, in Victorian Web. (English 73, 1995). http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/dickens/ge/workwom.html. Last modified 1996. Visited on February 25, 2006)

(Dr Lynn Abrams “Ideals of womanhood in Victorian Britain”, in Victorian Web, January 2001. http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/lj/victorian_britainlj/idealwomen_01.shtml?site=history_society_welfare. Visited on February 25, 2006)

(Browning, Elizabeth, B. "Spectrum Biographies Home Page”. SPECTRUM Home & School Magazine.[http://www.incwell.com/Spectrum.html]©K.B.Shaw. http://www.incwell.com/Biographies/BrowningEB.html. Visited on February 25, 2006)

(www.cswnet.com/~erin/browning.htm - 4k Visited on February 25, 2006)