If I leave all for thee

If I leave all for thee.Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

Sonnet XXV

If I leave all for thee, wilt thou exchange

And be all to me ? Shall I never miss

Home-talk and blessing and the common kiss

That comes to each in turn, nor count it strange,

When I look up, to drop on a new range

Of walls and floors, another home than this ?

Nay, wilt thou fill that place by me which is

Filled by dead eyes too tender to know change ?

That 's hardest. If to conquer love, has tried,

To conquer grief, tries more, as all things prove;

For grief indeed is love and grief beside.

Alas, I have grieved sol am hard to love.

Yet love me--wilt thou ? Open thine heart wide,

And fold within the wet wings of thy dove.

Poem: If I leave all for thee, published in Sonnets from Portuguese (1850).

Extracted from: http://www.mith2.umd.edu/WomensStudies/ReadingRoom/Poetry/BarrettBrowning/SonnetsFromThePortuguese/if-i-leave-all-for-thee

The poem that we are going to analyse is If I leave all for thee, by Elizabeth B. Browning, published in her anthology Sonnets from the Portuguese in 1850. The poem is a common sonnet: it has one stanza of fourteen verses and the rhyme scheme is ABBA/ABBA/CDC/DCD.

Actually, E. Browning didn’t name the poem, it is the number XXXV in her Sonnets from the Portuguese, but the first sentence could be the actual title of the poem. In Sonnets from the Portuguese, E. Browning expresses her love, doubts and all her feelings about Robert Browning (Portuguese doesn’t mean from Portugal, but the name of a pet who gave R. Browning to her. As we have said before, the anthology was published in 1850, but was written around 1845, when they were not married yet. Robert Browning was courting her. This poem is a very perfect example of the content in the anthology. She expresses her doubts by asking her own, personal, doubts to him. The speaker is telling the listener that she is leaving all for him, but she wants something in return. She knows that it is going to be hard being together, because her father opposes their marriage, and if they marry, they will be alone, and she tells him in this poem, she tells him that she is leaving all for him, but she does not care, (Shall I never miss home-talk and blessing and common kiss, verses 2 and 3) because she loves him. Their beginning will not be the best one, but they will overcome together, with love. We should remember the opposition of E. Browning’s father to their relationship, which meant that if they marry she could be dishinerited (finally her father dishinerited her), and she was an unhealthy person who took opium as a medicine (because of an illness)for a long time. It’s a declaration of love and also a question. She really loves him, she doesn’t care all about that she is leaving behind, all her life, that will not exist if they get married, and she knows that their life together will not be a bed of roses, not at all, they will have to turn over a new leaf (To drop a new range of walls and floors, another home than this?, verses 5 and 6) and even so, she loves him, and she wants to know if he would bear all that for her, like she would. She is telling him that she will bear the hardest times because their love deserves it, and she wants to know if he thinks that their love deserves such sacrifices

If we have to connect this poem with the historical context of England, we cannot, but we could affirm that this poem represents the society of its time. Elizabeth B. Browning's situation was typical in Victorian age. If a woman wants to marry a man, she has to ask her father. If her father approves the future marriage, there won’t be any problem: the couple will get married, and her father will give them a great dowry. But if her father opposes the marriage, they cannot get married. If they get married, she would be disinherited and they would be without a penny (that wouldn’t have been Browning’s situation, because Elizabeth has a inheritance from her uncle) The women were guarded always; if they were single, by their father, and if they were married, by their husband. In fact, we could think that it is ironical the situation of the women in the Victorian Age, because the preson who governed the kingdom was a a woman but, Queen Victoria, instead of improving women`s situation, their social and economical dependence on the male authority (when they are single, the women depend on their father, and when they get married, on their husband), she didn`t change the role of the woman: she got married and she had lots of children. She was not the Queen, she became mother, wife, and then, Queen. The fact is that Queen Victoria did anything in favour of the women; she restricted them to the familiar scope.But this poem doesn’t deal with this topic. This poem represents the woman of the moment, before the sufragette movement: the beloved wife, who leaves all for his husband, for his love. They will make a new home together, for them and for their future children, they will have good and bad times, but they will bear, because love deserves it, and she will become the archetypical woman: mother and wife. Actually, this poem can be intrepreted just as a declaration of uncoditional love from her side, but it is not. She is stating that her love for him is unconditional, but she is expecting the same in return.

First paper

Bibliography.

ü http://www.victorianweb.org ; 14/01/2006

ü http://www.cswnet.com/~erin/ebbbio.htm ; 14/01/2006

ü http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/ebrownin.htm ; 14/01/2006

ü http://www.mith2.umd.edu/WomensStudies/ReadingRoom/Poetry/BarrettBrowning/SonnetsFromThePortuguese/if-i-leave-all-for-thee; 14/01/2006

http://www.cswnet.com/~erin/ebbbio.htm

http://www.cswnet.com/~erin/ebbbio.htm http://www.victorianweb.org

>http://www.victorianweb.org http://www.cswnet.com/~erin/ebbbio.htm