Dec 26, 2009

Sonnet XXIX | Topics for Further Study

• Research the critical receptions of Elizabeth Barrett Browning and her husband, Robert. To what extent do biographers and critics use the Brownings’ marriage to better understand the poetry produced by this famous couple? To what degree do modern readers think one poet influenced the work of the other?

• “Sonnet XXIX” is one of the forty-four sonnets that comprise the Sonnets from the Portuguese. Compose a sonnet sequence of four or five poems in which you trace a speaker’s emotional or mental activity as Elizabeth does in her sonnet sequence.

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