Sonnets from the Portuguese Group

Question:

liz1995
liz1995
Student
High School - 9th Grade

What is an example of a love sonnet?

It needs to have 10 syllables in each line.

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Posted by liz1995 on Friday May 29, 2009 at 10:56 AM and tagged with love, sonnets, sonnets from the portuguese.

Answers:


  1. prosodic

    eNotes Editor

    Elizabeth Barrett Browning's most famous poem from Sonnets from the Portuguese is Sonnet 43:

    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.

    I love thee to the level of everyday's

    Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight.

    I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;

    I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.

    I love thee with the passion put to use

    In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.

    I love thee with a love I seemed to lose

    With my lost saints, ---I love thee with the breath,

    Smiles, tears, of all my life! and, ---if God choose,

    I shall but love thee better after death.

    While most lines contain exactly 10 syllables, there are 9 syllables in line 4 and eleven in line 5.

    There are 43 other sonnets in the collection as well, and all deal with themes of love. 

    There are actually three main types of sonnets: the Italian (Petrarchan)sonnet, the Spenserian sonnet, and the English (Shakepearean) sonnet. Each has adifferent rhyme scheme, although the most common meter used in sonnets is iambic pentameter.

    Of the three sonnet types, Barrett Browning's Sonnet 43 fits the Italian rhyme scheme.  The first eight lines (the octave) have the following rhyme scheme:

    abbaabba

    The last six lines (sestet) follows a different rhyme scheme:

    cdcdcd

    A close reading of the sonnet shows a few off-rhymes, since the words ways/everyday's/praise don't exactly rhyme with grace, and neither does breath/death with faith.

    Sources:
    http://www.enotes.com/sonnet-xxix/
    http://www.sonnets.org/basicforms.htm
    http://www3.amherst.edu/~rjyanco94/literature/elizabethba...

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    Posted by prosodic on Saturday June 20, 2009 at 8:20 PM